Audiophilepure

I chose to play the last track on this CD of Bax’s 4th Symphony, the filler, “Tintagel”, one of Bax’s most well-known tone poems.  To my happy surprise, it was an excellent listen.  The top end was tamed.  Everything was there that needed to be, glittering cymbals, potent brass, a decent amount of air, and space.  The depth was not as good as it can be in more recent recordings, but the side-to-side imaging was excellent.  While it would be fair to say the sound tilted toward the top, the effect did not interfere with the musicality of the presentation.  And the bass was definitely there when it needed to be.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/airtight-atm-1e

Ultimately, what convinced me that the AirTight ATM-1e is more than the sum of its parts was monumental bass from an all-but-forgotten demo-worthy CD, Clannad’s 1989 compilation Pastpresent [BMG PD74074]. Naturally, the gorgeous vocals showed off the ATM-1e’s super-sweet, sibilance-free top-end. But I was not prepared for the room-filling mass of the opening of ‘White Fool’, almost Kodō-like in its grandeur. Then I remembered: AirTight is Japanese. Who better to deal with the drums of giants?

Hi-Fi News Verdict

AirTight’s ATM-1e ticks every box defining a stereo tube power amplifier of true usability and practicality, with a price reflected in superb perceived value. If there truly is a category for ‘entry-level high-end’, this fits the bill. It’s an artisanal amp offering exceptional musicality, more than sufficient power and – if this matters to you as it does to me – shameless pride of ownership. Pride may be a sin, but if so, then sin on, sinners.

The EXACT constant voltage series crossover is a tour de force in engineering. Far from a conventional dividing network, the EXACT filter circuit elevates performance to the outer limits of sonic possibilities, delivering much higher emotional content, not by added tonal warmth or artifacts, but by allowing the signal to be fully rendered, keeping it pure and completely faithful to the artistry of the original event.  This dramatic improvement is accomplished by isolating all the mechanical distortion nodes of each of the drivers and suppressing their influence on the overall sound, generating ruler flat frequency response, with incredibly low distortion. The electrical performance of the system is made more linear, yielding much tighter impedance deviations, or smaller phase shifts. This combines to create a loudspeaker that is more accurate, both sonically and electrically, resulting in much greater realism in both tonal reproduction and sound stage presentation.

The other two connections are two USB-C connectors that are color-coded. The black is the data and power, and the red is used for supplying extra power when the desktop mode is enabled.

Again, my only dislike here is that the FiiO QX13 performs best when you use two USB-C taps and offers a desktop mode with more power on tap.

It would have been nicer to have both USB-C plugs on the same end, and opposite to the headphone taps. I can already see extremists carrying an extra power brick to activate the desktop mode on the go.

By the way, to ensure USB compatibility, you can slip the QX13 into UAC 1.0 mode, selectable within the onboard screen menu or via the Control app alike.

You can also obtain an SPDIF out signal from the 3.5mm jack, but you’ll have to outsource the adapter because FiiO doesn’t include one. You also have to select the option within the onboard screen menu, or again, within the control app.