Yes, it is feature packed. It also includes a headphone jack on the front panel. It has first rate build quility, just as any of the very best USA tube amps. The power output is very substantial and with amzingly low coloration. One reason for this is that the transformers are the very same ones used in their Stereo 90! Mark O'Brian was here just a few weeks ago and we had a discussion about these at that time. Any time you use 90w trannys in a 55w amp, you are going to have some serious drive capability. I use a Bryston 3BSST at home and brought home the Atlas power amp, which is the amplifier basis for the Cronus integrated for comparison in a system that I am most familiar with and to get it away from the distractions and poor environment at the showroom. The Cronus adds the front panel controls of the Metis preamp and a single 12AX7 tube as a preamp driver to the Atlas to make it a Cronus. The phono preamp is solid state and mounted directly on the input board for the shortest possible signal path and excellent shielding against the chassis and away from the high voltage circuits.
In my listening tests with the Atlas amplifier at home, the lack of coloration and control that the Atlas provided was very impressive. It sounded slightly warmer than the Bryston and had a deeper soundstage as you would expect from a tube amp. It was quite close in terms of transparency and I never felt any need for more power (I am using a pair of JM Lab Electra 937Be). The phono stage is MM only and has the standard fixed settings that suit most all MM cartridges. The sound through that section is very detailed yet very smooth and neutral in balance, making it easy to listen to and a perfect mate for a tube amplifier. I am really amazed that they can hand build this beaty in PA for its price point and I will be willing to bet that in 6 months time (or whenever Mark comes to his senses, whichever comes first!) the price on these will go up. We don't have any literature on them and he has done almost nothing to promote them yet can hardly keep-up with production even after hiring more assembly technicians. In a word - outstanding.
-Bill
