Heyboer Peerless S-272-S

[Grover Gardner]

After a four-month wait, I finally got my Peerless S-271-S copies from Heyboer. Many thanks to PakProtector at Audiokarma for having these copied, as he did the S-265-Qs. They are HUGE, the same size as Mike LeFevre's FS-010 outputs for the 845.

Unlike the S-265-Q copies, they actually split the primaries so you can parallel them if you want. But also unlike the 265's, these have 16-8-4 secondaries instead of the original dual center-tapped ones. Well, that's okay by me.

I dropped them into my higher-powered Williamsons, which, with KT88s and the S-265-Q's, produce about 28 wpc at 1% distortion. With 18dB feedback, I get 36 watts before clipping. I haven't put them on the QA403 yet to see what the distortion looks like, and I think I could probably back off the step filter I was using for the 265s, but they look good. Now to see how they sound!

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[Grover Gardner]

Well, they sound wonderful. I get 35 watts at about 2% THD, but it feels like I picked up more than 7 or 8 watts. Very authoritative, great bass slam. Mingus jumps out of the speakers. Smooth midrange and top. Distortion is a bit higher than with the 10K S-265-Qs but the majestic presentation is a fair tradeoff, IMO. I'm very pleased with this upgrade, and for a bargain price of $500 the pair! I wonder how long they'll continue to price them that way if they get more orders.

For comparison, here's the same amp with S-265-Qs, then the S-271-S's. You can see why the original Williamson with a 10K load is so pleasing--such low distortion. But the 271s still sound great.