Can I give some advice? Its a little off the track though. Try a pair of Revel gems 8,500 Studios 11,000 or a pair of Salons 15,000 The reason is this I matched a pair of the Revel Salons agianst the 39,000 wilsons and man I like to Salons better they where more natural sounding to me. And they cost a hell of a lot less. I heard them both on an all Mark Levinson system. Good luck I hope I didnt screw you up? |
I agree with Lev335: the Salons and Gems provide a consistent, excellent system; for much less money (and a different sound), I'll recommend a B&W N802, ASW-4000 and HTM-1 systems: total will be about $20k for 4 mains, the Sub and Center. |
If accuracy, and imaging, is your priority, then it rates right up there with the best. The ll will require a good amp, to drive them to their fullest. The only area lacking in them, is the bass. There is no low bass to speakof, none. If the low bass is not reinforced, they soundthin, and bright. And their not easy to match with a sub. |
Great speakers alone do not a great system make.Nothing personal;the items you have mentioned will not make Wilsons sing. |
Check out the Red Rose speakers - review in May 2001 Stereophile - as an owner of the Watt II, III and V in the past I found the III to be the best by themselves but the Red Rose is even better. There are some great speakers mentioned above also. Happy listening. |
If you decide to buy this speaker, buy it used. There are a plethoria of them out there, at a fraction of the original price. Would I recomennd them? No.(Ever wondered why there are so many used Watts available?) Wilson has been riding his reputation for over a decade, and has not kept up with other ultra competant speaker companies, in terms of his choices of drivers and crossovers i.e.,I feel that his speakers are no longer competitive (even at used prices). Although a couple of studios do use this speaker, MOST do not! I would never use this as a reason to buy a particular brand anyway. My experience with many "respected" studios is that they are totaly clueless, when it comes to high end audio, and their associated "accurate" speakers. Good luck. |
A while ago I bought a set of WATT 3/Puppy 2s. I don't find them to be ear piercingly bright in my room, although they are not a warm speaker. In fact I find them to be the best minimonitors I've had, and I've owned a few.
However, a sub is necessary. Which brings me to the Puppies. Thye are designed to add warmth to the WATTs as well as lower bass. Consequently there is a very shallow bass roll off. In my room this led to significant upper bass bloat, which was only controllable by bypassing the internal crossover and adding an external active Xover and digital EQ.
While this sounds very good, you still don't get really deep bass, so I've actually sold the Puppies while I look for a better solution. The Entec subs as mentioned would be ideal. Kinergetics also made suitable subs.
However, a cheaper solution might be a pair of the NHT Sub Twos. They are actually exactly the same size as a pair of Puppies. I'm temporarily using a pair of NHT SW2Pi with good results so I imagine the Sub Twos would be even better.
Or you might mount the WATTs on stands and use a pair of decent subs positioned where you like. SVS comes to mind.
I assume the reason for your question is the WATT 2s on Audiogon for $2500 or so. I think this is overpriced for WATT 2s. That's more like what a pair of WATT 3s should sell for.
I know of some WATT 2s available from a dealer for $1600 which is more like it. I'm actually pondering getting them myself for rears.
In summary, a WATT 3 for about that would be a great monitor, not the 2. If you want a cheaper but similar sounding speaker, the Acoustic Energy AE-1 comes to mind.
Cheers |
the Wilson combination retail $10K vs. Dunlavy V about same price, no contest the Dunlavy does everything better not even close. |
try MERLIN VSM-SE .IF YOU WANT BASS GET THE BAMM WITH IT.IF NOT GET IT WITHOUT. GREAT SOUNDING SPEAKERS.. |
Happened to see your question regarding Wilson Watt Pups. I own Revel Studios and I think they along with many other speakers for far less money beat the Wilsons hands down in musicality and value. Be aware of the fact that any speaker costing more than $5K requires first rate electronics which you do not have. If you want a great speaker with plenty of bottom end, try to find a pair of B&W 802 Matrix Threes with Sound Anchor stands. I owned these and I still think they were one of the great speaker values of the last ten years. You can probabaly pick up a pair here for bargain dollars. |
My WATT 3s cost me $1250. My Entec subs cost me $1500. I don't think there is another speaker combination new or used at $2750 than can beat them.
Certainly the Genesis V, Infinity Prelude MTS and Newform R645s I have owned recently do not. |
I agree with most of these posts (even lev335): The Wilson Watt speakers are not worth the money, even at used prices. Mainly because there are the other great speakers out there also at used prices, like Revel Gems or Studios, much more natural sounding. I found the Watt/puppies too hard. good luck |
