Manley vs Wolcott for Innersound Eros

Hi:

One of our A-gon "regulars", Albert Porter (aka "albertporter) uses Wolcott amps with his Sound Labs electrostatic speakers. I don't know if Albert has made a direct comparison between his Wolcotts and the Manley 250, but I'm sure he could give you feedback about the Wolcotts.

Hello Mbonn,

From my (admittedly limited) exposure to Manley amps, I would think the Neo Classic 250 would be a very fine amplifier. I'm a Wolcott dealer, but I like some of the design choices Manley made with this amp (such as going with EL34 tubes instead of 6550's). The Wolcotts are particularly good with electrostats, but if the Manleys sounded great to you then I'd say there are no wrong choices here. It looks like the Manleys have good wide-bandwidth output transformers, which you need for driving electrostats.

Evidently you have a local Manley dealer that you're on very good terms with (having already bought speakers from him), and no local Wolcott dealer. Factor that in. If no one can give you a definitive comparision of the Manley and Wolcott amps that convinces you the Wolcotts are superior, then I'd suggest you support your local dealer and go with the Manley amps.

Besides... how can you resist the masculine glamor being a "Manley man"??

Best of luck to you!

Duke

Thanks for your inputs. I will contact Albert Porter to see if he has compared Manley vs Wolcott with.

Duke, Why is the EL34 considered a better choice than the 6550 ? Just curious.