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Which amp with Wilson watt puppy 8

Hi there !

i live on an island with no audiophile shops around. 
I arrived in 2011 with a Jeff Rowland continuum 250 and Sonus Faber Cremona m speakers who were a great match. Unfortunately I blew the speakers a few times, then upgraded to columns, blew them also twice. I guess the amp is too powerful for them, but this time Sonus Faber was unable to provide me replacement tweeters and speakers, which is an enormous disappointment. I will never buy anything from them again. I ran through the web and found corresponding parts that I changed myself, but they seem to sound much higher in the trebles and lack bass, especially at high volume levels, (above 55%) . I tried swapping the cables, but it didn’t change anything. 
I now bought a pair of Wilson audio watt puppy 8 that arrived this week from a NYC store. I hope them to last lifetime. 
They have cost me around 11.5k$ door to door, look great and tough, but need to be driven above 60 % of volume otherwise nothing comes out of them, especially bass !
I also get the same sharp treble sound, which is very disappointing.
My problem is to find the issue : 

1/ room acoustic

2/ change my class D amplifier for tubes or transistors

3/ find better cables

4/ me turning old ?

what should I do next ? what amplifier would you recommend with this configuration (watt puppy 8, MIT Avtr 1, ps audio direct stream mk1, aurender n10, musical fidelity M6 CD) ?

thank you 


 

lendivf

Showing 3 responses by ghdprentice

ghdprentice
7,899 posts
 

OP,

Thank you for all of your additional information, But with that, I am still of the opinion that there is something wrong with your electronics. The volume of any of my systems in the last fifty years at 60 - 80% would have been deafening. I mean plates on the wall rattling.... glasses vibrating off the table... I am exaggerating a bit. But walking by the speakers would be a hearing hazard.

Use your iPhone and a SPL meter app, and take some measure ments from a meter in front of the speakers and from the seated position in front of the speakers. This would give us some metrics. 

ghdprentice
7,899 posts
 

@ozzy 

+1 The Watt Puppy 8 does have a notably harsh... unnatural top end. It’s doesnt’ ruin the experience... otherwise it is very good sounding. I have a friend with a pair. Even with very natural sounding tube electronics this is obvious to an experienced listener. With the Puppys set up correctly in a good acoustic space the brittle top end was obvious to me inside of a minute. But if the room acoustics aren’t good, or set up not great, it could be masked by other problems. I

ghdprentice
7,899 posts
 

I think we should drill down on ehe blown speaker issue. How loud do you listen? I am familiar with Sonus Faber and Wilson speakers, I have heard them at ear splitting sound levels powered with smaller amps. I think the problem lies somewhere other than the speakers... unless you are deaf and are playing them continuously over 100db. 

I would send your amps back to start with. 

I don't think I have ever played any of my equipment above 40% and typically that was when I was very young. 

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