I will be burning in my set of Wolcott amps in the very near future, hopefully within two or three weeks. Having owned several high end tube amps, both SET and push pull, it will be interesting to see what the results are. |
Dkarmeli, absolutely correct on bad sound at the CES. Just read my comments listed under the "Vandersteen 5" heading. Anyway, I did hear the Lamm Audio amps (the $30,000.00) ones, and they did sound great. I do not know what, if any, lesser priced Lamm's are available, but the Wolcott is only $8495.00 retail. Although both are expensive, the Wolcott is much more affordable to most people. Maybe there is a Lamm that is just as good a value? I only saw and heard the very expensive one. |
Yes, I heard Wolcott's at the CES in Vegas a few weeks ago. Lucky for me, I had helped with the set up in a couple of rooms, and the Soundlab speakers (A1 and Millennium) were in rooms very near each other. What value is that? The Soundlab M1's were in the Purist Audio room, with Viva amps (same amp I am using) and the Soundlab A1's were with Hank Wolcott's amps. I went from room to room several times, and the Wolcott's are definitely one of the best amps I have ever heard (at least on Soundlab). I am getting the same Viva's used in Purist's room in about a week or so, when those are compared to my current Viva amps, I should know better where each one is in performance. I have two friends who use the Wolcott as their reference amp. One is on Crosby modified Quads and the other is a manufacturer who uses them on every speaker he owns. Both report that the Wolcott is their favorite. |
To "The3dman", how did you manage to hear the Viva amps and the Lamm Audio together? There must not be more than a half dozen of the Viva's in the whole USA. What is the chance that the Lamm is there too? Did you really hear them together or just guessing? |
Snook2 On the Wolcott's output tubes, (EL34 s), I have a set of Seimens, Telefunkens and Teslas. The Wolcott's come stock with Sovtecs, so this group of possibilities is an excellent start. As far as the input tubes, (6922's), the Sovtecs are terrible, so I plan to replace them with either Amperex, Telefunken, Mullard or Seimens. The remainder of the test will be on my patience, waiting for the caps and transformers to totally break in, so I can hear what this amp is capable of. |
Hank Wolcott may be reached at his office at 805-527-8842. (This is in California, Pacific Time Zone) He is available for the usual business hours and is very helpful in answering questions. I understand that he has a web site too, I will try to locate and post the web address here. Hank owns an instrument company as well as Wolcott line, so don't be confused if you hear two names when he answers the phone. Not surprising, he did a lot of work for the US Government as well as JBL. He holds patents for designs used in testing for Military work, as well as the particular circuit in the Wolcott amps that get the output circuit so perfectly biased and aligned. Sorry to say that building them is a hand assembled operation, so I still do not have the pair of mono's that I have ordered. Hank promises that the assembly will be complete soon, and I will post here when I feel I have enough experience with them to make a valid comment. |
I located the home page for Wolcott Audio: http://www.elan-gmk.com/wolcott/welcome.htm. Hanks e-mail address is also at this site, for those who prefer responding by e-mail rather than phone. |
The promise has been made for shipment this coming week. It is hard to believe I will finally get my new Wolcott Amps. I look at my first posting here on this subject, on Jan 27th, and realize I have been waiting a long time for completion of these baby's. This latest version of the Wolcott's, with the new wide band transformers and a upgraded configuration on the damping was what I was waiting for, and having (just now) read the newly published review by Dick Olsher, I can hardly wait! If you wish to read the review, go to: http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0700/wolcottaudio.htm This is the strongest review for an amplifier auditioned with a Soundlab speaker that I have ever read. I suspect the comments may have been just as strong if they had been auditioned with different speakers. I say this because my pursuit of this product came primarily from two very good friends recommendations, who feel as Mr. Olsher does about their Wolcotts. Neither of these guys owns Soundlab's, but describe similar performance gains in their own systems. I hope my experience will be a similar one, and I will post results here in some weeks from now. |
A delay in assembly has caused my Wolcotts to be promised late. I just spoke to Hank at Wolcott, and he says one amp is finished and tested completely, and the second amp is fully assembled and in "burn in." The hope is to ship via Federal Express on Wednesday the 26th, for arrival on Friday. The possibility of me being able to determine the ultimate sound of these in the coming weekend is very unlikely. If they are so special that you can tell right out of the box, that will be rare indeed! The greater chance is that it will require a few weeks of break in to give an unbiased report. |
Hello Dan2112, and others. The Wolcotts are extremely good, I have owned two pair of VERY expensive mono block amps just before this pair arrived. By comparison, these are a bargain! Unfortunately, for the final word on ultimate performance, I need more time. The actual break in on this pair is only about 20 hours along. A trip to Belize (Central America) really set back my schedule. However, I hope that in the next week or two, I will be able to tell much more about them, as I accumulate more hours. I also plan to install some premium grade tubes (I already have them ready) and report on the effect of those in the circuit as well. For additional reference, I still own the pair of class "A" SET's that have been my standard for the last (nearly) two years. Some encouraging news too, Wolcott is now completely up to date on his production schedule, and is reported to have quite a lot of amps ready to ship. I think there are only a few that are pre-sold, so members interested in this amplifier will not experience the delay I had. Unfortunately, I placed my order just when everyone (including audio reviewers) were all making the same request. That, in addition to the CES, was a bit overwhelming. |
Hi Snook2, I just responded to your request by e-mail. I look forward to hearing from you! |
I heard the Wolcott Omnisphere speaker at CES, and did not like it. Understand though, I have never heard any brand of Omni spherical speaker that impressed me. Perhaps it's just my personal way of listening. Although CES is a terrible place for the only listening to have occurred, but I have heard good sound from other products at this show. Last, there is a high and low toggle switch, as well as a rotary knob on the rear of the Wolcott amps. The user may adjust the damping to whatever suits the speaker, room and listeners taste. A nice feature. |
