A.T.S. amplifiers: HI-FI from Italy

[aeo_77]

At the end, I finally decided to buy the “definitive” amplification rig. Here my requirements:Alla fine mi sono deciso ad acquistare il sistema di amplificazione “definitivo”. Requisiti:

• Most & Best singing Fretless sound of all (alike GARY WILLIS – Aguilar DB750)
• Grindy and offensive saturated Rock sound (alike BILLY SHEEHAN - Ampeg)
• A rig suited to face venues in little PUBs, medium sized stages and big stages, and finally open space stages too, used as bass monitor.
• A rig featuring “ALARP” weight & size (As Low As Reasonably Practicable)

After many hours spent in local music shops trying different brands of amplifiers, and many combinations (head & cabinet), it happened to me to visit ATS (Advanced Telecommunication Systems) site www.atsitaly.com, and took a contact. It didn’t take a long time to decide, and opted for a Head & a Cabinet.

I really found more than I was searching for: I had a chance to have built a custom head, with high brightness blue LEDs much alike the WW Golf control panel I love so much, and the Headphone line-out that allows me to study at night hearing my sound. And I met an extraordinary person, Mr. Enrico Santagati, the inventor of BP500 head and BS2X10CH-T23 cabinet which I bought, and as well the person who physically built and customized mine (he builds them all personally indeed).

But let’s go in order… I tried AMPEG SVT-4 PRO Head, the one with tube preamplifier and solid state power amp, but didn’t get impressed by its versatility. Don’t get me wrong, it had great roaring rock sound but with an indelible character. Too “characterized”, and perhaps I would say lacking of Hi-Fi sound capability, which for me was an important factor. I tried the Italian Mark Bass, a model featuring tube preamp and solid-state power amp. I liked it more. But in my opinion it was not enough outstanding to justify the changing from my beloved glory SWR SM 400 S head. I tried in the end the GLOKENKLANG head & cabinet, the SOUL model with 2x12” cabinet. Beautiful, HI-FI sounding, really, detailed, precise. But it didn’t give my fretless bass that “spirit”, that thickness I was dreaming of all the times I heard Gary Willis or Alain Caron. I needed a sound much more similar to human voice, more present, more “close” and intimate. Well… a good amplifier, but I was not screaming: MIRACLE!!!!!!!!!!!...  (TO ME & MY EARS, AT LEAST…) Long story short: 2 brands match, i.e. Italian ATS, and VANDERKLEY from Holland.

I am Italian, and perhaps it is because I am a little bit Patriot, or probably for Enrico Santagati managed to explain me really EVERYTHING about his line of products like BP500 head and BS2X10CH-T23 cabinet, which are complex and difficult to explain in words, and really because I often choose with “heart”, I decided at once that I would have bought ATS.

The Head & Cabinet combo seems to be built for my bass, which is a 6 strings 36 frets fretless bass (much alike Manring Hyperbass). It is incredibly responsive along the whole extension of the bass, and gives sparkling harmonics. The sound comes out always silky elegant, and velvet soft. The sound is woody, full, never compressed, at any volume. I can get JACO PASTORIUS sound, and doublebass walking sound too. I can get a SLAP Alain Caron sound too (even though SLAP on a fretless bass is not Heaven…). I can’t explain enough how the “Meoww”, tipical of fretless bass, gets out of the fretboard naturally and always and how rich and articulated is the sound: the high frequencies of the strings “frying” on the fretboard, the depth of the low fundamentals, the consistency of sustain, the dynamic of the vibratos. Every nuance is clearly understandable to the ears and yet interwoven as a whole. A sound like that is al I was looking for, and not a common result. I am enthusiast…

The sound can be saturated untill the crunch sound tipical of BILLY SHEEHAN, and so the versatility of the head is really surprising. In 2 words: my bass never sounded better. I got out recently from a music store in Milan, after trying here and there some more amplification (afer receiving my ATS), and I was very disappointed. My ATS is words better.

What can I say… to get a higher result, I shoud buy a FODERA… AS SOON AS I WIN SOME BINGO!!!!! The cabinet, a 2x10” entirely MADE IN ITALY, is rated 800W in 4 ohms. It has the same power (brutal) of a 4x10, but less weight and less bulky. No components made in CHINA. Solders are all point to point, hand made, You know what I mean. And the valves, in the pre amplifier stage, are ALL NOS Hi-Fi grade.

The down side is that after having ATS, my impulse in buying new stuff completely vanished, and visits to musical stores became de pressing!!!

Imagine: it’s like listening to classical music from VOICE OF THEATRE cabinets and EMT LP Player: You just HAVE to throw MP3 and Home Theatre sh*t out of the window!!!!

Any of You had a chance to try ATS? Any experience? Please share!!!

[ahpook]

that's a very cool-looking head.

i love the 'lab equipment' look

[warwickhunt]

You've written yourself a very nice review!

I doubt you'll get many folks on this forum sharing their views on this equipment as most of us will never have heard of it let alone seen or played through it. What sort of cost (£sterling) are we talking about to acquire a rig like yours; it 'looks' very appealing.

[JTUK]

I agree we could do with more pics.

I have played through a few Italian rigs whilst in Italy and I liked them. I can't recall who made them ( too long ago and I had never heard of them ) but once or twice I was more than pleasantly surprised to find them doing the normal Ampeg/Boogie job very well.

From that experience alone.. I WOULD look twice at stuff from Italy now.
I can also recall thinking who the hell are Dynacord ( when in Germany ) when I ended up with their gear..and that turned out well as well so the market doesn't begin and end at U.S and some older UK makers, IME,....... far from it.

[steve-soar]

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='997811' date='Oct 23 2010, 09:23 AM']You've written yourself a very nice review!

I doubt you'll get many folks on this forum sharing their views on this equipment as most of us will never have heard of it let alone seen or played through it. What sort of cost (£sterling) are we talking about to acquire a rig like yours; it 'looks' very appealing. [/quote]
[url="http://www.atsitaly.com/ats/main.asp?c=32"]http://www.atsitaly.com/ats/main.asp?c=32[/url]

[warwickhunt]

[quote name='steve-soar' post='997992' date='Oct 23 2010, 01:18 PM'][url="http://www.atsitaly.com/ats/main.asp?c=32"]http://www.atsitaly.com/ats/main.asp?c=32[/url][/quote]

Budget gear then!

I realise that the response will be that the amps are esoteric, high end bits of kit that will have point to point wiring done by hand etc but by crickey that's a lot of money to anyone and the cabs in particular; they are essentially bog standard cabs... phew!

[aeo_77]

Hallo folks,

I will try to answer to all the comments. First, I put another picture of me playing during a concert in Milano. There is me, my bass and my rig. The special pick-up on my bass is from Haeussel, germany. He made it custom, it is a triple bucker wherein the spacing between poles are different from row to row: the first array of poles have a wider spacing than the central, which in turns I wider than the last (closer to neck). This in order to follow the effective strings spacing.
Back to the amp:
THE CABINET: the bow is made out of multiply of OKUME’ WOOD, vinilic-based glued. Okumè is more resonant then regular multiply, and lighter. Many cabinets have boxes made of MDF or composite. ATS have made some experiment using different solutions, and Okumè was the best. ATS works in the field of HI-FI too, and the expertise developed in HI-FI reverts on Bass tailored products.
The woofers are custom made: a single 2x10 delivers 800W r.m.s., and it is sounding as loud as most of the 4x10 available. But the higher quality of woofers makes the difference in terms of sound quality. The tweeter has crisp, brilliant highs and do not sparkle like broken glass as many others. The price of the cabinet are in line with brands like Epifani, SWR, Shroeder, EBS, and the like. Perhaps the 800W 2x10 costs a little more, due to the special woofers. By custom woofer I mean not normal PAS, Celestion, and similar with a different brand stamped on. I mean a project directly developed by ATS, with all the experience in HI-FI matured, and brought to completion thanks to the partnership of a renewed Italian brand of speakers worldwide known in particular for CAR HI-FI modding. The result is really good, and above all works. The grill in the front is stainless steel mirror finished.
The AMP: price is aligned with Aguilar DB750, more or less. But with ATS You get many different customization. I got blu leds, and Headphone output. You can ask for stereo / bridge option, you can chose between a button acting like a MUTE OR LIKE a -15db limiter, according to the needs. And many others.
You can overdrive the input getting a sound like BILLY SHEEHAN, and it has a special circuit, called NCA, which simulates valve saturation effect in the power stage.
Contact directly Enrico from ATS, www.atsitaly.com, and ask for more details. He is a very pleasing person, and give You all the information You may ask.

[umph]

why did he go for a more resonant cab? from what i know thats a worse thing!

[aeo_77]

any cab resonate. the question is: is it resonating in a good way or in a bad way? (provided obviously of the lining inside in order to CONTROL resonation, not to avoid it).

[umph]

my understanding was a resonant cab was a bad one, you essentially want it to not to resonate at all as it will effect the frequency response and effect the drivers in bad ways

[aeo_77]

THe fact is that a cabinet have to act as a resonating chamber. IN its own way, obviously. As an example, imagine a vertical piano vs a grand taille piano. there a re difference. See cabinets progect like VOICE OF THEATRE by Altec, or Clipschorn. Or again the cabinets like Paragorn by JBL.

The deaf resonating chamber is a good thing people sells in order to make people accept sh*t material instead than good wood and, above all, good projects. These are the basis of acoustic. A good theatre is not deafening sonund, it is just avoiding high peacks in resonating frequencies and try to achieve an even spread of sound waves along the lines of chairs.

LOng story short: any cabinet resonates, in its way. It can do it good or bad. that is the point. Really, in acoustic SIZE DOES MATTER: a woofer of 15" do not sound like 10 woofer of 3", even though ideally in Phisics You can make the onvolution of n waves produced by n 5" woofer an create a wave similar to that a single woofer of 15" produces (example: piranha cabinets). BULSHIT. To create a natural sound, a pleasent sound, human and intimate is an art. And avery detail matters in its own. When somebody tells You that a cabinet do not have to resonate it means: "A CABINET DO NOT HAVE TO SPARK RESONATING FREQUENCIES IN UNCONTROLLED WAY". A good cabinet resonates in a way that You will say: how beautiful!

so: X-Y-Z dimensions matters, materials matter, insulation matter. Size, insulation and material CONTROL resonance, do not deaf it.