Wilson tiny tots

op we h ave experience with wilsonsand av setups

please reach out to us and we can assist you

dave and troy

audio intellect nj

I'm happy with the KEF LS50 Wireless II for both Roon and TV.  It accepts Ethernet and eARC.  Gone from our living room is the rack of equipment.  I augment the speakers with a pair of KEF KC62 subs, but that's not really necessary.  The KEF DSP app I run on an iPad does a great job of integrating speakers and subs. 

Agree not the right speaker for what you’re looking to do, with limited experience and budget. Would suggest selling the Wilsons and just do a full Sonos system. In the end you’ll be happy. Other option, still sell the Wilson's and look for a Marantz HTR with half of your budget and spend the rest on something a lot easier to drive that is a floorstander that has much more bass. If you buy the speakers used you’ll get a lot more bang for your buck. You can probably find a lot of used speakers for $1,000 plus whatever you get out of the Wilson's that will serve you better for what you’re looking to do. Good luck.

Actually, looking at the Hegel specs, that amp may well be able to drive the WATTs (it seems to be rated into two ohms, albeit at 60 watts into that load).  A little more than the OP wanted to spend though, even used.  Audiotroy used to be, or may still be, a Hegel dealer, he might be able to chime in.

I'd still question the WATTs as the best choice for a home theater, though, given the lack of bass.  The WATTs also need stands, are finicky in setup and work best out in a room away from walls, don't know if that's going to be a problem for the OP.

He’s got the tiny tits not the tune totters

Only reason you buy a Wilson Audio speaker is you want to have an audiophile experience not TV or movie experience but luckily there is a way to experience both in a fantastic way.

Maybe one could buy a set so as to be seen to have an audiophile experience?

Obviously no one gave me the message about them being the boner items to own, I just read it over and over, so ? guess it must be true..🤷

And the story goes that Wilson favoured the time domain behavior of the speakers, but the impulse response on the Tune Tots and the Step function response, seem woeful. Maybe the older Tiny Tots were better?

What is it that makes them so good beyond the name?

Enjoy them, they are one of the best speakers money can buy.

Are they really ^that good^?
This particular model?

anyhow the OP needs a way to thrive the TV through/to them.

Do not push the volume on TOTs, they are expensive to repair.

And this…

They need good ancillary equipment & plenty of power to come alive & will likely not do well w/ anything less.

seem at odds.

Only reason you buy a Wilson Audio speaker is you want to have  an audiophile experience not TV or movie experience but luckily there is a way to experience both in a fantastic way. You need to buy good integrated amplifier in your budget, a used one if your budget is tight. I can recommend Hegel 190 which is fantastic integrated with great internal DAC, you also buy a Bluesound Node as a digital server and you are in business. Bluesound Node has an EARC HDMI connection and you connect EARC to that you can hear TV output as well. Tot is very good for listening but you will be missing some base which can be achieved by adding a sub. Do not push the volume on TOTs, they are expensive to repair. Enjoy them, they are one of the best speakers money can buy.

The NAD 3020D and related amps may be ideal.  Takes optical input, very small.

For TV audio isn't the first order of business a DAC that accepts eARC, not optical?

If you want to take the optical out of your tv into a dac I would suggest spending 150 bucks on an ifi ipurifier. Optical from tv is pretty crappy and this will help clean it up for pretty cheap. Makes a definite audible difference in my setup. Your tiny tits will thank you. 

Buy a Marantz na7004 and connect the tv to it by optical input/output and then the RCA plugs from the marantz to your amp. They sell for around $300 on ebay used. People are selling them because streaming is no longer supported by people at marantz but the internal DAC sounds great and you can play music through the USB in front also if you want too. The problem with USB is that it takes 4 minutes to load which isn't the problem with the optical output.

Your TV most likely has optical out. You need a dac with optical in and a decent integrated amp or a receiver and in both cases look for the ones featuring variable outputs (rca) to connect a subwoofer you will need to fill in that missing lower bass.

Rogue Chronus Magnum II or III should be alright. 

For your needs, & YouTube listening , I would think speakers from Polk, PSB, Paradigm or ELAC would be a better choice & could be driven nicely by any reasonably good DVR

 

^ +1 ^

Or some powered speakers like genelecs (etc. etc. etc.) that might hook up to the TV directly, and have the amp built in?

While I understand a good deal for something can be tempting, it’s only a good deal if it’s what you really want. IMO, the WATTS are not at all the right speaker for what you’re trying to accomplish. They have minimal weight in the bass as well as NO low bass at all.They are very detailed in the midrange & high end & maybe even a bit too etched up top. They need good ancillary equipment & plenty of power to come alive & will likely not do well w/ anything less.
 

That said, they did sound great on solo acoustic music & even from another room, sounded really good! This is compared to my Vandersteens & Proac EBS’s I had back then driven by a Jadis preamp & Conrad Johnson Premier Four power amp. A friend of mine loaned the speakers to me while he was away on an extended trip for two months..

For your needs, & YouTube listening , I would think speakers from Polk, PSB, Paradigm or ELAC would be a better choice & could be driven nicely by any reasonably good DVR. 

First of all Wilson Tune Tots require more power than you think…you will need a

good amp and a good DAC. Most amps with a DAC built in is trash with the exception of a Mola Mola integrated amp that has a Tambaqui DAC and that is about 24k. You need a budget of 10-20 grand in electronics to use with those speakers. Cheapest I would go is a Naim Uniti Star it has an hdmi input and is like 4800.

Hmm. I think you need to talk to you dealer about the Totss and how to drive them. 

In that price range you can get a Rotel RMB-1582 MKII. It has 200 watts of A/B and has a warmer sound signature that should pair well with those. *edit* I didn't notice you're trying to go from a TV into these. You could pair the 1582 with a Bluesound Node, the newest one has HDMI Arc in and you can run the analog out to the 1582.

I know many have their eyes roll back in their sockets when they hear the name. Wilson. However I am not convinced that the Tiny Tots are as good as many seem to believe. I dunno, but there is a sort of legend wrapped up in Wilson name, and maybe the tots have not inherited the genetic makeup of the others.

But I am thinking you need to see if there is a red and white RCA on the back of the TV, and if not, then maybe consider moving those speakers on and getting a sound bar to connect to the TV.
That should be super easy to make work.

But one could look for the amps with the HDMI input.

Those are sort of seeming like the two choices.

Yes.   Tiny tots

Can I go TV direct to amp to speakers?  If yes, what amp should I use.  

@audiotroy ?

Just so I understand, you did say "tiny" tots, right, not "tune" tots?  Tune Tots are a current speaker; Tiny Tots (WATTs) date back to the 1980s. 

My recollection of the Tiny Tots was that they were a location monitor made by Dave Wilson to monitor his recordings.  They were described as (1) ruthlessly revealing with a somewhat rising treble, (2) difficult to drive (they went below 1 ohm at 2 Khz) and (3) severely lacking in bass (I think they cut off at about 50 Hz or so).  One reviewer (John Atkinson) implied that they offered a vision of heaven but also a glimpse of hell, as I recall.  Another said they desperately needed a woofer (much less a subwoofer), which is why when Wilson started marketing them seriously, they designed the Puppy woofers to go with them.  Before that I recall a lot of people paired them with Entec subwoofers, which doubled as a stand for them (that's how I heard them years ago).  

I think it will be difficult to get the best out of them from a receiver, but if you can get one that can drive very low impedance loads, I suppose it could work for a HT system.  I think Audiotroy is right, though, they will work best with a quality integrated.  In any case, if you just want the Wilsons for dialogue from movies it would be OK and probably better than a soundbar, but I doubt that you'll get much bass from the soundtracks without at least a decent subwoofer crossed over in the mid-bass region. 

Just my two cents, but if you check the Stereophile archives I think you'll get a good idea of the strengths and weaknesses of the speaker.

Sadly I’m so green I don’t know if you guys are joking or not.   My TV is a QLED 86 inch with all the major connections.   I was playing music through a sound bar.   The Wilsons were a deal I couldn’t pass up.    Can I go TV direct to amp to speakers?  If yes, what amp should I use. 

As I recall our OLED does not have anything but HDMI and some USBs for attaching storage disk.

if there are RCAs then you just need an amp, if it is HDMI then you need something else. Like @mrteeves suggests.
So that is step #1 … as @hiendmmoe mentioned.

Sadly I’m so green I don’t know if you guys are joking or not.

I am not joking.
But it does seem odd to consider a $70 amp.

We are running a Lyngdorf as the AVR/AVP, which likely falls outside of your budget requirement.
The $70 amp was tried for surround channels and it is pretty good.

I am not sure what an AVR or AVP costs, but after looking sound bars we went AVP—> amp —> speakers.

I would suggest looking for what connections are on the back of your OLED as step #1.
If no RCAs are present then integrated amps etc. are not going to do the job.
If there are RCAs then “you’re laughing”.

Aren’t the Tots like $9k?? your gonna need some decent gear to level up with and justify their existence

Some of the $9K cost is in the brand name.

I think that the speakers are 8 ohm nominal, dropping to 6-1/2 worst case, and 84/dB sensitivity. So they are going to need some power, and they are not know to play very low in frequency.

An AVR/AVP with a sub output is might give some “down the road” upgrade options.

It is likely going to take some work to figure out how to integrate them in/
 

@hiendmmoe 100%

@craigdemling

Aren’t the Tots like $9k?? your gonna need some decent gear to level up with and justify their existence.

Wilson’s usually require good amplification which is driving some of the comments. If your TV has an optical output then get an integrated that has a built in Dac so you can use that. You’ll just need to configure the TV output to down mix multi channel sources to two channel.

If you have to use HDMI then you are looking at an AVR. 

Do you think about Peachtree nova150 direct from the Tv by optical then to the speakers by wire.    What brand of wire is the best ? 

Sadly I’m so green I don’t know if you guys are joking or not.   My TV is a QLED 86 inch with all the major connections.   I was playing music through a sound bar.   The Wilsons were a deal I couldn’t pass up.    Can I go TV direct to amp to speakers?  If yes, what amp should I use.  
 

thank you 

You could start with a $70 AIYAMA A-07 and at least listen to them.
It is not a bad amp… but it is just an amp…
So one could do the TV or the CD or… just not TV and CD.
And they peddle those amps on Amazon.

Then you can listen and take your time finding something if you need it.

Many TVs will do internet and get to YouTube, and that amp will not be holding you back in SQ.
If you had some high def sound streaming source, then maybe the SQ would be better with something else. It probably would, but the speakers likely have more distortion than the amp.

So I would be more inclined to suggest the AIYAMA and a streamer running Roon or similar… but you would need some switch or pre amp to move between streamer and TV.
Really just try the amp if the TV can find a way to get itself connected to YouTube… and call it a day. (IMO)

really good integrated  that will match the speakers 3to5k

What amp level/size/price should I consider? 

Seems like you over spent on speakers and didn’t consider what other components you’ll need to complement the Wilsons. Even though they are Wilson’s smallest and least expensive speaker, they need to be used with something of quality to keep them from sounding at best ok.