wilson watt puppy 7 help and suggestions


Hi,

I own wilson watt puppy 7 speakers and recently acquired the lamm 2.2 hybrid monoblock amps.

Two questions.....First, what does wilson mean when it says the impedance for the puppy 7 is a nominal 4 ohms? Is there a difference between 4 ohms and nominal 4 ohms?
I ask because the lamm amp has a switch for whether the speakers are above or below 6 ohms.

Second Question is whether anyone has switched the tuning ports of the puppy 7's when going from solid state to tube. Here, the amp is both solid state and tube albeit only 1 tube. Stay with the 100-400 ports which is factory setting or not?

Thanks

Michael
128x128karmapolice
Karmapolice, im curious what state is this dealer located in ? I am currently shopping Wilson Maxx 2 speakers in FLorida and I have very little patience for ungrateful dealers that suddenly become less than helpful once the sale is final. As a business owner myself i believe in service before and after the sale. If you prefer not to say in a post please email me. In addition if i were you i would complain to Wilson they are very strict with there dealers.
I might be a bit daft but where would I find out if using the right back spike? I know that when I originally installed the wilson the guy put in one spacer. I then had him come back and add a second spacer. The guy was sort of impatient and am pretty sure he did not adjust the back spike after adding the spacer.

It appears just at looking at the spike at the back and the speaker equipment kit that I currently have in the shorter of the two spikes. Does this mean necessarily that the longer spike would be preferable? I hate to play around with this on my own. Is it easy to adjust by yourself never having done it before? The dealer will be of no help because I got a great deal on a 3 month old pair of puppy 7's because this other customer wanted to upgrade to the maxx's and so he sold me his puppy 7's through the audiogon and got the la dealer he bought the maxx's from to throw in the delivery and installation of my speakers for a flat fee. They did it but were less than thrilled not to get the sale of a new puppy 7 from me since I had bought the sophias from them. In any case, they were not that much help with the installation of the sophias and do not consider them very audiophile savvy and are a curious choice for a wilson dealer.
i just went through the setup process all by my lonesome, w/ WP6s in a 15*11*8 room (speakers on 11' wall).

take a look at audioasylum faq, as you'll see speaker setup methods by Wilson (WASP), Audio Physics, Cardas, and Rives.

IME, rives is the best approach. the most important factor is to get the distance from the front wall to the speaker correct. then play w/ sidewall distance, and finally toe-in. takes 1 day of very careful listening, but the results were head & shoulders above what i had earlier (via WASP).

also, spikes / spacers do 2 things:
1) change height of tweeter / mid alignment w/ ear
2) decouple bass from floor (cleaner bass, but less of it)

#2 is accomplished w/ any elevation, and #1 is ameliorated w/ correct WATT spike. leave the WATT spike for the very end.

(none of the spike / spacer variables should factor into the speakers' location however)

good luck.
rhyno
nominal impedance means average impedance and can often be misleading because it can dip below the nominal rating...
I have high ceiling (although I have treated them) and wood floors (albeit a few rugs) and so the room is real lively. I am using two spacers.

I would be curious now that I have treated walls and thrown down some rugs whether maybe one spacer would suffice and hey no even sure I have correct back spike.

I would love to play around with these things but want to find someone local here who might give me a hand in that endeavor. I am open to bribing someone local and am looking for victim/volunteers in a posting I placed at audiogon and audio asylum.

I would hate to pay a professional to do that because they would charge probably $500 to come over for a few hours and who knows if they even really know the watt puppy 7 process.
Khrys: I agree but forgot to mention that I owned Lamms (M2.1 and M1.1's)before I switched to Theta Citadel and the solid state port sounded better. Your time will be better spent adjusting (adding and removing spacers on the Wilson footers will change the bass based on the room inteactions) Remember to change out to the correct Back spike on the Watt since you adjusting the height of the speaker. Of course always put the speaker in the Zone of Neutrality using the WASP positioning method first.

Changing the back spike on the Watt plays a huge role in the mid bass sound. Refer to you wilson manual for both of these adjustments.

Karmapolice: it's been awhile since I changed the shorting plug but thanks for the correction.
I agree with Cytocycle's recommendations wholeheartedly except one: you should listen to both ports with the Lamms and determine which sounds best by your ears. As a long time Wilson afficionado and current W/P7 owner I learned long ago that the ports tune the "instruments" far more to the tastes of the listener than to the specifications of associated amplification.
Thanks for the info on the damping. I thought it would probably not need to be switched but better not to assume.

Interesting follow up on your input regarding the short plug. I checked the manual and the amp is shipped with the short already inserted. The manual says to take out the short plug if you are using balanced xlr.

Michael

Michael,

Do not switch the ports over to the tube ports, those of for amps with low damnping factors (Lamm's don't have that problem). Run the Lamm's Switch at the below 6ohm switch. they are an average at 4ohms with a couple of dips below that.

If you are using single ended make sure to use the short plug on the other RCA for either inphase or out of phase depending on your preamp. Even with the XLR's I believe you must have the short plug on one of the RCA's Sets.

Enjoy!