2. amps-preamps
  3. 124137-1718

Threshold S/500 Series II optical bias and Wolcott Presence on Sound Labs

Hi, can anyone please provide listening impressions on the Threshold S/500 and Wolcott Presence amps driving a pair of Sound Lab A-1’s or A-3’s. I was a long time admirer of Henry Wolcott’s engineering that went into the reputable Presence P220M and P280/S. The Presence apparently mated incredibly well with Sound Labs.

I currently use a Threshold S/500 to drive a pair of A-3’s. Though the Threshold performs excellent, just wondering if energy spent searching for Wolcotts is a futile attempt both in context of their rarity on the market nowadays and also the potentially marginal returns on performance in comparison. It would have been great to have afforded a pair of Wolcotts when they were more prevalent but I can’t find them anywhere. Thanks for your input.
somut

Showing 3 responses by georgehifi

georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 

Well if Soderberg serviced it last it should be fine to go. I would keep it.

The sound labs have an evil load up high also with a nasty negative phase angle, which could be seen to the amp as low as 1 or 1/2 an ohm, you want the Threshold for this, the tube amp could sound very distant in the highs with this type of load.

http://www.stereophile.com/content/sound-lab-1-electrostatic-loudspeaker-measurements#gdbpD5puVztHTQgO.97

Cheers George

georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 

PS: Should you want to keep it and get a service job done on it to bring it back to life, I have all the schematics for it, if you or your service tech should need them.

I would say if original it would want all electro caps on the input/driver boards done, and maybe the PS caps as well if they are leaking. 

Cheers George

 

georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 

I owned an S500 optical for a while. Nice amp, it's a keeper, that is 250w and for memory used 20 bi-polar outputs per ch, and it has a big power supply, so it should have no trouble driving anything.

For optimum sweetness the heat sinks should be around 40-50c on a 30c day for optimum classA bias current. After a couple of hours warm up, that equates to NP’s palm of hand test of about 5 seconds before you have to remove them, so long as you don’t have hands like a brickie. Both side the same naturally.

http://www.vintageamprepair.net/s500.html

Cheers George

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