About the new Wilson Audio Watt/Puppy 8

The description of design price changes are accurate...as I understand them. Recently I purchased the Sophia 2s...not the 7s, since I was aware...or suspicious that there was going to be an model change in the near future. If that wasn't the case I would have gotten the 7s....but will get the 8s instead. Against many other speaker models I felt that Wilson seems to handle all the real world tradeoffs that a speaker faces with the best balance of all the ones I listened to....They, for me in my room, provide the best reproduction of 1/2-15ips recordings I made with a stereo Neumann mike. While no speaker is perfect and no speaker can replace a live performance...Wilson's designs seem to provide smooth power response with correct time information...and thus do an excellent job....the list of other speakers with that capability is very short...IMHO. Given their performance and quality of construction and ruggedness I think Wilson prices are fair...remembering this is an elite product (part of my background includes managing the design and manufacture of loudspeakers)...it costs a great deal to take the last few steps towards Nth performance...which is what I sought....

From what I can tell from Zu's web site and from my experience in the speaker world I suspect their approach isn't one that appeals to me....but the bottom line is that I use products that sound correct to me....but Zu's specification information wasn't particular communicative in a useful fashion....glad you like them....

Two thoughts....as for electronics for Wilson (presently have Sophia 2...but moving to WP8 when available)...I don't care for the Audio Research sound....or for that matter most tubes....they make records sound great....but very far removed, at least for me, from live sound...be it a Jazz combo, classical or rock...on the other hand I also agree that many, if not most solid state amps aren't particularly musical....but there are some nice ones out there....I enjoy Spectral....and presently use Ayre...waiting for the new mono blocks to arrive...I have been very impressed with what Ayre does....and feel its a great match with Wilson...

John

When I decided to get the Wilson's...after spending about 10 years looking for something clearly superior...I had to listen through the AR Ref 3....fortunately it didn't deter me from determining what the speakers could do....neither did show rooms that added warmth....and to a degree a level in trust of a sales person who had some understanding what I was seeking....and since I was in the speaker business a strong sense of how rooms and setup could greatly injure the potential of any given speaker...so I filtered all that out....given that...Wilsons seem to have the ability to let the music come through...which then gives me a chance to measure the result against live music....which then led to me Spectral and Ayre equipment....all tube stuff (except perhaps in pre amp area)intrude too much into what I hear versus the potential of live music....but some tube stuff....some of the time...sound "magical"...but alas not real....the other issue is the subtle...but always there...degnigration of the tubes themselves...and the level of heat that they generate....that slowly and absolutely erode sound quality...rarely in an obviouls manner...but none the less relentlessly. But not my concern at this point....just hopeful that the WP8s meet expectations