Please help tube amp for panels and SS for woofer

Tekunda, If you chose to biamp, doing so with four Wolcotts would probably be the best decision. Unless you use an active crossover that allows the indivudial amps to directly drive the bass/ panel drives without pushing the signal through an internal crossover, a combination of ss and tube will mess up the midrange on almost any speaker, not just the ML. Since x-overs within the speakers allow for overlap, the midrange tends to suffer from bleed through. Don't get me wrong, the Prodigies can sound great with tubes. If you are just getting into this disease of tweak hi-end audio, you will discover that many ways exist to get great sound. Although I preferred the sound of Prodigies driven by big SS mono-blocks, you might fall in love with the Wolcotts. If the Wolcotts drive the Soundlabs, they should be o.k. with the Prodigys. However, at the recent CES, the Wolcotts were obviously clipping while driving the Soundlabs. The sound wasn't terrible, but definately strained when hit with moderate dynamics and transients. Start with one pair of monos, and if you later feel the need, try another pair. In the end, take the reviews, measurements, and even my advice with a grain of salt and let your ears tell you what the best kind of amplification is for the Prodigy's. Good luck. Patrick

Px25 and Jtinn, although I thought you are pulling my leg Jonathan, I could not help but ask Mr. Strassner what he thinks about compatibility questions with amps and cables (not necessarily only tube amps) He gave me a lecture in cable physics and I am not sure if I completely understood everything he said, but I will try:
He said that if amps have a zero feed back design, cables with a big capacity would not work and could make the amp to start oscillating and clipping. So according to him, in very rare occasions, cables might have issues with amps.
Patrick, I know that tube amps are not the perfect choice for electrostatic speakers, but since the reviewer of these Wolcotts owned a pair of Soundlab electrostatic speakers, which he called an impedence load from hell, was so absolutely excited about this combination, I felt I had to give it a chance, when I came across used Wolcotts for a very good price. So I can hear myself, what this amp with electrostatic speakers is all about. When you say that the Wolcott amp together with the SS amps will blend together and mess up the midrange, is it that you mean that biamping in general with any amp will do this (until recently I have used 4 identical SS monoblocks –WBE- a German monoblock- or is it the compatibility issues of tube amps and SS amps in general? In other words - not that I really intend doing it just yet – but what about using 4 Wolcott monoblocks, two for the panels and two for the woofers?
Anyway I am also concerned that the ML could be a bit slow with tube amps, but then the owner of the Soundlab speakers was so excited with the Wolcotts, he called it life before Wolcott and after Wolcott, that I have assumed speed is not an issue. Was this a wrong line of thought? Do Soundlab electrostats behave differently in this respect? Please excuse this rather naïve question, since this is all new terrain for me. Until recently I tried to upgrade my knowledge in regard of cables physics only. But I never turned away from a new challenge.

Tekunda, I would head the advice of others and try the Wolcotts by themselves. Unless you use an active x-over, the biamped Prodigies will not sound good with tubes on top and SS on the bottom. In theory, the combo should work. In reality, however, the internal Prodigy x-over will contribute to a muddy midrange since the amps will blend in this region. Without using an active x-over or two identical amps, biamping usually messes up the speaker's midrange. I have sold Prodigys before and usually suggested a solid state big amp. I love tubes, but must admit that big tube amps such as the Cary 211s worked ok, but sounded slow compared to the speakers driven by Krell amps. The more current these speakers get, the more they come to life. Although more sensitive than past designs, the Prodigies still dip down to low impedences that tube amps do not like. You never know, though, until you try. See if you can track down the x-over Martin Logan used to sell with the Monolith. Better yet, give Dave a call at Martin Logan and see what he thinks. Good luck, Patrick

Tekunda, Yes I was only kidding about the cables with the Wolcott's. It was all in fun.

On the other hand, I urge you to try the Wolcott's without bi-amping. They will surprise you.

Make sure you get the high bandwidth version of the 220 Presence.

Mikelavigne, I assumed that Jtinn was pulling my leg, but nevertheless I asked Mr. Strassner if cables in general can cause an issue with tube amps. He is a real scientist and gave me a 1 hour lecture in cables physics. What he said was that I might run into problems with a zero feedback amp, if the capacity of cables in general would be above a certain number. So unintenionally Jtinn made a valid point, but since the Wolcott amp is not a zero feedback design, it does not apply to me.
So yes, I am very happy to be able to keep on using the HMS cables in my new system.
I will check into the Placette RVC and for someone fighting with the same problems here is another link I have received: http://www.tweakaudio.com/Ultimate%20Attenuators.html
But I think I will stay away from an active crossover. I emailed the www.electrostaticdoc.com and he said it is rather complicated and frustrating to get it right with ML speakers.

Tekunda, Jonathan is pulling your leg on the cable issue but is sincerely recommending the Wolcotts.

if your preamp has 2 outputs and you still want to try bi-amping you actually only need to attenuate one side of the bi-amping (you would need to experiment to discover which side). you could use the Placette RVC (remote volume control) on the stronger side to attenuate it to the correct level. there is a possibility that this might not work but it is a much simpler solution and more transparent than other crossover solutions would be (and with those great HMS cables why lose any transparency).

you would need to try to keep the total interconnect and speaker cable lengths the same to avoid small timeing errors but you are a "cable guy"....right.

Jonathan, seriously please. Is there any reason why I should choose different cables than the HMS Grand Finale with the Wolcott? Has it to do with the specs of the new Wolcott?
I am open to any suggestions, since the reason that I sell HMS and believe that these are great cables, does not mean that I will not listen to suggestions of other people.
So please tell me what you know about these Wolcott amps and what cables you would suggest and why you would recommend these cables.

Although I have not heard the Wolcott's on the ML's, I have on the tough to drive Magnepan's. They were incredible. I do not think you will need any other amplifiers, just new interconnects and speaker cables. :)

IMHO the Wolcotts are so good I don't think you need the Becantos on the bottom. Can you try them like this?