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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
ozzy's avatar
ozzy
7,614 posts
 

I heard the Watt Puppy 8's when they were released, and I thought then that the treble was kinda "hot" sounding. The bass seemed ok though.

I would think, as has been posted, you will need a more powerful amp with a softer sound, that is able to handle low impedances. Maybe Mcintosh? Tubes? Definitely use copper cabling.

Isn’t this hobby something? Never ending quest....

ozzy

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. 

incorrigable
98 posts
 

AGD Gran Vivace.

joeycastillo
20 posts
 

OP- since you already have the Wilson speakers, just ditch your current amp and get a Pass X250.8 and Pass Xp-22 or a Cary SLP if you want some tube sound, then, a pair of good speaker cables and start there. play around the positioning of the speakers in reference to your listening position. 

audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,918 posts
 

we have tested many class d amplifiers including Ice, hypex, ncore and a few others none of these amplifiers were as musically engaging as our better class a/AB amplifiers

 

so the first thing we would recommend is trying a new integrated amplifier 

particularly a hybrid design 

our owner Dave Lalin personally owned wp 3 and fives and setup dozens of pairs of wp over 20 years at sound by Singer,

so give us a call we can assist you.

 

Dave and Troy

Audio  Intellect NJ

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