Tír Na HiFi

Soon after I bought my Airtight ATC 2 pre-amp (over a year ago)



Ivan Cloney cruelly mentioned that there was an upgrade available for it, which could be retrofitted. The upgrade was an improved volume control. I didn't think much about it, but I looked it up and found out that this was an ALPS RK 501 Potentiometer



Recently I discovered that ALPS had discontinued this pot some time ago, but I assumed that Airtight had a stash of them. I asked Ivan to make inquiries and discovered that Airtight had just one left! I ordered it.

The shiny object arrived in Blackrock a few weeks ago and I brought my ATC 2 in for the minor surgery required. Now the ATC 2 is an extremely good pre-amp, which was clearly better than my old Jadis JP30MC which in turn was clearly head-and-shoulders above all the pre-amps I had been able to compare it with, some of them very highly thought of. With the the new pot, all of its virtues were polished to a higher sheen: the transparency is just staggering! Pulling out very familiar records (like Simone Kermes in LAVA)



I'm hearing around and behind the musicians, hearing all the continuo instruments in detail, hearing their timbres beautifully, their melodies truly: in fact everything I thought the ATC 2 did perfectly it now does better!

Icing on the cake update: I got an unexpected bonus from dCS in the post this week, a data CD to use to update the software on the Scarlatti DAC



This includes improved DSD play and two new filters for 44.1 play. Can I just say "unbelievable palpability"?

Hi Fi is the Black Arts.

Well done Ciaran.....I honestly did not think that there was room for improvement. Enjoy.

Congratulations Ciaran,

But is that you back on the slippery slope to penury???????????

I'm salivating even at the thought of it!!

Ciaran wrote:....everything I thought the ATC 2 did perfectly it now does better!

Very nice Ciaran....enjoy every moment of it!

Nice one Ciaran,


transparency is the goal with any pot - improving them removes more "hash" or greyness each time. I've tricked about a good bit with different ones (although never as high end as that one) and have found surprising results along the way. The other airtight amps I've had a look inside always use the RK27 series of mono pots (blue velvet). I've tried a few of these and was never that impressed by them, but the amps in question sound incredible, so I put it down to synergy.

Nice job!!


Fran