THRESHOLD S500

The input connectors are gold plated with a multiple contact point inner conductor. This is supported in a machined teflon insulator. The construction quality of the circuit boards is superb! All the circuit boards are military-grade, glass-epoxy with gold over copper over nickel plated traces. This is an amp that you really have to see to believe. The power transformer is huge as are the storage caps. The quality of the wiring and soldering is very impressive. There are a number of high end products that just are not built as well, or sound as good as I found out. According to Threshold, all products were given a three day testing period at the factory. This consists of each amplifier being required to pass a dead short power test both before and after the three days of power “burn-in” consisting of self-oscillation into a two Ohm load. That was a SERIOUS burn in.

The S/500 adds a great wealth of detail to the music that I have realized was missing. There are subtle clues on a number of albums which hint at the room dimensions but which through my current system have always been a little blurred. The high frequencies were also more extended than I am usually accustomed, but they were also smooth, not edgy. This amp produces a far perspective unlike a tube amp that supplies a closer perspective. This is what I mean by the role an amp plays in the SOUNDSTAGE. This is only on SOME recordings that are well done- a small percent of what I have.

If you believe you should hear everything contained on a recording, be it vinyl or compact disc, this amp is probably for you. . If however you are more interested in reproducing a musical experience in your listening room with the majority of recordings available you may wish to listen to alternatives like tube amps. This is not to say you couldn’t tailor a system around this amp, you could quite easily. When you start getting into the true high end components great care must be taken when putting together a system. It is imperative that you be allowed to “try before you buy” in order to make sure you can get the sound you are searching for.