braintheory,
Yes, Sweetwater does have an excellent return policy (15 days I think?), whereby you would have to pay for return shipping if you were dissatisfied with the purchase.
The great news is that the shipping weight of the ATMA is like 22 lbs, so the return shipping price would be minimal.
Besides that.....once one has the chance to explore its great sound offerings and versatility in person, I would bet that few would opt to return it!
I do fully appreciate your desire to audition the amp in person prior to purchase! I would have liked to as well, but it was just not possible.
That said, I had fairly high confidence that I would like this amp based on the available information from Bogner, Youtube clips, and feedback from roccster on this forum!
Thank you roccster!!
I am very much in the "honeymoon phase" with this amp, but so far....I am very impressed with its sonic offerings in all 3 channels.
One of my biggest concerns without having the chance to audition it was with regards to the clean channel (no treble, middle, bass controls).
That said, I think that the clean channel on the ATMA is very versatile with a wide variety of great clean sound offerings in its very simplistic format, and is very capable of cutting through and competing (volume wise) with the high gain sound offerings of Ch2 & 3. I absolutely love the super clean to slightly broken up sounds that I am achieving from Ch1, and that it can be set loud enough to be well balanced with Ch2 & 3 in a live situation!
So far, I am also loving the fantastic range of sounds that I can achieve from Ch2 & 3 depending upon mode setting (60, 70, 80), power mode selection (18, 5, 1) and probably most importantly the Vintage / Modern toggle switch located in the back of the amp. I am not going to discuss my opinions about this amp further until I have more time playing through it, but overall, I am very pleased!
Regarding your concern of low wattage amp being "squishy" sounding in your experience.....I can't really comment on that because it is so subjective, but I will say that I can achieve a very nice focused sound from the ATMA in all 3 channels......especially when set to "Modern Mode" in the back. That said, so far I am also really enjoying sound offerings in all 3 channels with that toggle set to "Vintage"......so it really depends upon what type of sounds one is after! That said, I don't think there is another manufacturer today that offers a 3 channel, multi watt, footswitchable, lunch box size amp that can even come close to what I am hearing from the ATMA!