Stereophile review of the new Wilson Watt/Puppy

Ah. All the love here makes me miss my  WATT/Puppies, which I first got in 1986. What a love affair! I saw them through three generations, and then we parted company, but they will always be one of my audio Loves.

First, I think they look like trash receptacles. I owned a pair of Wilson, Sophia‘s back in 2004 and I never kept a component such a short period of time before I sold it. I listened to the new watt puppies last year and I thought they were very boomy sounding at the dealer. We tried repositioning and moving every other speaker out of the way. They still had that midbass hump that Wilson‘s are famous for. I thought the mid range was OK on vocals, but nothing spectacular. It was actually a little bit clinical sounding. The high frequencies were somewhat improved and not as harsh as previous designs. The imaging was very good. In the end, I bought a pair of Focal maestro utopia Evo speakers. Of course these speakers are much more expensive.
On the other hand, Wilson does an excellent job of finishing their products and their quality control is very good. They are also accessible when you need something. Dealing with a French company is an absolute nightmare, and I don’t recommend it so even though I like my speakers, 

Wilson is basically a cabinet company. They buy off the shelf drivers and a crossover.  They ‘make’ the resisters in house, whatever that means. They even used Focal drivers at one time. I find most Wilson speakers very fatiguing to listen to over a long period of time. I don’t believe anything they say in these magazines and I know that all they’re doing is catering to their advertisers. The one thing that Wilson does almost better than anyone in the industry is marketing and advertising. I can’t prove it, but I wonder how many long-term loans and how many free products they give away. I also wonder what the so-called discounts are to reviewers who decide to keep their products. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these reviewers are getting their products for free.

Had them for over a month now and still wowed by them. So much so that when I saw the WASAE center spkr for sale I bought it too. It’s astonishingly neutral and clear. The B&W HTM 1 it replaced sounded like a box by comparison.

It wasn’t cheap, but matches perfectly and disappears for vocals. 

@ovature 

Whatever you do, don't sugarcoat it.....

I feel really sorry for all of you who actually believe all the marketing BS and the so-called reviews in these magazines by people that are being paid off in one way or the other in order to write them. Before you buy something like this, you really should have a home audition of the product, even though I know most dealers won’t want to do it. I had plenty of opportunity to listen to the full range of Wilson speakers, including the ones we’re talking about here before I decided what to buy. I’m glad I didn’t buy into any of the hype that comes from reading these magazines. None of them can be trusted. Also, $40,000 even with a discount is a ridiculous amount of money for that tiny speaker with the off the shelf drivers and crossover. Wilson is a cabinet company and that’s about it.