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 1 response by lanx0003

... blowing drivers at a certain amount of volume is normal.

The magic word is "at a certain amount of volume."  Your SF Cremona could handle power up to 300w w/o clipping and is a nominal 4-ohm speaker with a factory-rated sensitivity of 90dB/2.83v/m (at 8-ohm). The drivers may not damage at the clipping power at burst but it may, especially tweeter, at a RMS power approaching its limit where the high freq. energy to which the tweeter is vulnerable.  Your JR continuum 250 is rated 250w at 8 ohm and doubled at 4 ohm load.  Let us assume your tweeters were damaged when pushed at 150w at 8-ohm when the amp is operated at the clipping power 300w at 4-ohm.

Now, into 4-ohm, the equivalent sensitivity becomes 90dB/2w/m (since P = V^2 / R = 2.83^2 / 4 = 2w).  Converting to 1W, the sensitivity rating becomes = 87dB/1w/m (= 90 + 10 log(1/2) = 87). 

Now, at 300w, the SPL = 87 + 10 log(300/1) = 111.8dB at 1m away. Assume your MLP is 3m away from the speakers.  At your listening position, the SPL = 111.8 - 10 log((3/1)^2) = 102.3dB (square distance rule).  

What sound level of 102.3dB we are talking about in real life.  A typical SPL inside the aircraft cabin during takeoff is approximately 105dB.  My question to you, OP, is that were you listening to music at a sound level comparable to sitting inside an aircraft cabin during takeoff when the tweeter blew out?  Your perceived sound level may not be very accurate, so I suggest using a smartphone app like Decibel X to measure it.