My Atom arrived today. It was well packaged and shipped quickly. As @mshenay suggested, I asked for some additional weights and the unit seems weighty enough and stable on my table.
It is 100% plastic, but it’s not creaky and being black it’s not immediately obvious or cheap looking. The volume knob operates more smoothly than the one on my Magni 3. I wish that the gain and input buttons were labeled to indicate which position is which.
Power seems plentiful and clean. Whereas I had to use high gain on my Magni 3 for my heavily EQ’d LCD2C, on the Atom I’m on low gain at 11 o’clock. Even cooler, I can actually use the line out from my V20 (which is only 1V) and with high gain I get enough volume out of the Atom, whereas the Magni 3 struggled more. Interestingly, considering that the Magni 3 is rated for higher power output, I suspect that I’m content listening more quietly on the Atom for some reason (maybe less distortion?).
Happy so far.
EDIT - My suspicion was correct. I generally set volume by ear just based on clarity. I turn it up until I hear the amount of detail and bass impact that I’m looking for, then turn it back down a notch. It turns out that using this procedure, I set the Atom to a volume about 10dB SPL(A) lower than I was listening to the Magni. That’s a good sign!