Son of Ampzilla/Thoebe. Are they worth turning on?


I recently got my hands on a Son of Ampzilla amp and Thoebe pre-amp. Are they worth cleaning up and turning on or has their sonic day passed? What are some of the common problems with these? I heard the rumor that some parts are no longer available. Any advice? I am an assembler not a technican so please not too much tech talk. I figure you 'gons will give me the straight story. As I understand, in their day, they were considered truly hi-fi. Thanks.
jw94055
Jw94055,
Ah, you touch a chord here. I owned an early Ampzilla and eventually got the Thaedra to match. This would be about 1979 or so as I recall. I was auditioning a new Sony Mos Fet amp at a dealer and asked if he would play the Ampzilla for me. Wow, the sound stage just dropped in and filled the space betwwen the speakers with music. I used the combo with Klipschorn clones and later Maggie Mg1's.
The word from TAS at the time was that you wanted two sons in mono to better the Ampzilla in all ways (Musicallity especially as I remember). The Son was very desirable at that time.
Are they surpassed today? God, I would only hope so. Are they worth hooking up? Since you already own them, absolutley!!!!!!!!
I only wish I had a volume control like the Thaedra's. What a joy to turn that billet knob and it's detented resistors. If just for the feel.
Oh, and belicve it, in their day they were truly hi-fi!
JW,
These pieces have very high quality parts and were certainly in the sonic ballpark in their time. Search out Gasworks for the man who keeps the GAS flame burning. He has all the parts, repairs and will completely rebuild any of the models or even upgrade. The amps were certainly better than the preamps which tended toward very harsh.

The Son sounds better than the Ampzilla, however the Grandson was really the smoothest of the line. Good luck.