Wolcott amps The best tube amps?

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.

I changed the Sovtek EL34's To the Chinese ValveArt EL34's and got a much better sound. A little more detail and focus. Purchased them from "THe Tubeman" Ken Chait.

Well Albertporter its been about a month... what's your impression so far about the Walcotts?

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.

Albertporter, Thanks for the update. I will be shopping for some new amplifiers some time this year and the Wolcott's are on my list to audition. I am very much interested in your experiences. I have B&W N802 and everybody I have talked too recommends Solid State like the Krell FPB-300 or something like the AR VT-200 in tubes. Dan