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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 2 responses by hjdca

hjdca's avatar
hjdca
46 posts
 

I have Wilson Watt Puppy 8 and I think they sound fantastic.  There are many others out there that think the same thing.  They were very highly regarded speakers in their day and award winning and many people find the sound engaging and exciting.   Here are some thoughts.

1.  Since you are blowing speakers, the most obvious cause of this is your amp is clipping.  If this is the case, then, this amp is also the wrong amp for the W/P 8.  Be careful, you do not want to blow a tweeter in those W/P 8.   What amp are you running ? 

2.  The W/P 8 require a good quality amp that can handle less than 4 ohms to really sing. 

3.  Try to put them at least 9 feet apart or more and toe them in.  11 to 12 feet are even better..  I found that this increased the imaging and transparancy. 

4.  Personally, I am currently running a pair of McIntosh Mc275 tube amps in monoblock mode with the W/P 8 and they sound great.  Super sweet, detailed, and musical.  Regarding Solid State amps, I also tried them with an old, refurbished Adcom GFA-585 LE and they also really came alive. 

hjdca's avatar
hjdca
46 posts
 

@lendivf 

Yes, the Jeff Rowland continuum 250 seems to be a high end amp.  It is also rated favorably at 4 ohm.  On paper, it should work well with the W/P 8.   However, it is quite dated, so, you need to make sure it is running properly.  Any hum ?  Check the DC at the amp terminals and make sure that it is less than .05 volts or 50 mv.  Note:  I was running my old Adcom 585 LE in my home theatre and it started sounding distorted.  I checked the output terminals and the left channel was outputting 5 volts of DC at idle !!

Yes, I can vouch for the sound of a the pair of Mc275s with the W/P 8.  This will definitely sound good.  I like the earlier suggestion of McIntosh amps.  Both Tube and Solidstate McIntosh should sound good with those speakers...  Also, depending on how much those W/P 8 have been played on high volume, to make sure it is inspec, you might want to change the 3 resistors underneath the "Watt".  You can buy the resistors from Wilson.  It is an easy change.  I recently changed all my resistors and I believe it was a good move. 

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