Wright Sound WPP specs please

hifiharv
greets again.

After the fact, I decided to review the owner's manual of the Classe' CAP151. What I described previously is in agreement with the Classe' suggestion. On the front panel there is a "separate" button. Push this and the preamp section is now separate from the amp side. Back panel: RCA jacks. Preamp out or Amp in. Meaning that the preamp side can now feed input to a different amplifier, and that the amplifier section can receive input from a separate preamp or, as Classe' suggests, an equalizer of some sorts. Perhaps that is a clue.

The Classe' CAP 151 does have some serious wattage output. Meant to drive inefficient speakers. And the Wright does indeed have a lot of gain.

FWIW, I've been using the Wright WPP100c and Classe' CAP151 happily together for several years. Just feed the signal from the Wright into the "line in" inputs on the Classe' back panel. Beautiful music.

Anyway I tried it. Nothing lost. Nothing gained.

-Steve

When I owned a WPP100c, I was using a passive preamp (Bent TVC) and the sound was wonderful. It was incredibly open with an outstanding three dimensional soundstage. I can't offer any comparisons with an active linestage b/c I didn't have one at the time, but the usual caveats apply. Your system has to be passive friendly for it to work right. The only way to know if it works in your system is to try it both ways.

TD 160, not sure what is going on there, but every combination of amps and preamps I have tried has yielded better sound in my system straight into the power amps. As usual, I guess I should have stated YMMV. Perhaps the Wright is too high output for your amp section, or there is some sort of impedence mismatch between the tube and solid state components. I am using 15 watt tube amps so maybe I need the high output. My gain pots are usually set between 9 and 12 o-clock for live in the room listening. This is with a mm cart. Perhaps my "crusade" should end since I cannot control other system's variables. Anyway, you did try it and if your impressions went the other way you would have been very pleased to find a free tweak right under your nose but undiscovered. Now I am curious, I would be interested in hearing from anyone else who has newly tried this and whether or not it works for them. In what kind of components is it a step down in performance?

"I am on a personal cusade to tell the world that you must try using this pre directly into the amplifier's input instead of through a linestage. The 12AU7 output tubes have plenty of oomph to drive an amp directly."

hifiharv. Greets.
As I read your post a couple of things occurred to me:
1) I have a WPP 100C
2) My integrated amp (Classe') allows 'amp in' or 'preamp out'.

So I decided to give your idea a tryout by just plugging the output IC's from the Wright directly into the "amp in" rca jacks on the back panel of the Classe'. Then proceded to play a record.

What I noticed straight away was:
1) that I had to turn the gain pots way down on the Wright in order to eliminate some serious residual system noise. Btw, this noise is not present when playing the Wright through the normal inputs of the Classe'. Just when by-passing the preamp side of the Classe'.

2) after turning the pots down to around 1 or 2 o-clock I did experience some vivid music. I had been playing some Ormandy/Wagner prior to reading your post. So at side 3 I tried your suggestion. It was an improvement, I suspect.

3) but the system seemed abnormally noisy. As in noise through speakers. I also noticed some clinking noises as I had my hands next to the 6 tubes on the Wright preamp. Not touching, just near. Clinking noises like bumping dishes together in the sink. Abnormal.

4) So I hooked the Wright back through the normal preamp input of the Classe'..... and my already good sound returned.... sans the weird noises.

system details:
Step up Trannys: 1:10 Sowter made by Geo Wright.
Wright WPP100C
Classe' CAP 181 integrated stereo amplifier
NHT 2.9 speakers
Thorens TD124/Zeta tonearm/Uwe bodied DL-103R

I second the concept of avoiding a linestage. "Use the (phono pre-amp's) gain pots for volume control" is absolutely right.

But usually we have more than one source, and we don't want to shift interconnect cables. We would like a selector and a centralized volume control.

So, even better, remove the Wright's inexpensive gain pots completely, then run it into a high-end passive pre-amp, such as the Bent Audio or Music First Audio transformer based pre-amps. Then run CD players, tuners and everything else with no line-stage also.

Yes, the 200 replaced the 100. The 100 used 6ER5 tubes and the 200 used the classic 12AX7. I'm only guessing here, but I'll bet George got tired of people complaining about the noisy 6ER5 tubes. In the very beginning, he could have just designed a 12AX7 preamp like everyone else. But, he didn't because the 6ER5 was a superior way to go for a more transparent and alive sound. This tube was never designed for audio use, so it can be difficult to find a quiet set. But, when you do... this is what makes the sound of the 100C so special. I'd never trade my 100 for a 200.
Now, I hate to repeat myself because I bring this up every time a post shows up about these preamps. I am on a personal cusade to tell the world that you must try using this pre directly into the amplifier's input instead of through a linestage. The 12AU7 output tubes have plenty of oomph to drive an amp directly. You have removed tons of redundant circuitry and cabling from the system. It's a whole 'nother animal. Use the gain pots for volume control.

So how did anyone decide between the WPP100 and WP200, if the specs were the same? Obviously they use different tubes, but why? Did one replace the other?

Google brings up a few references to the WPP120, but no concrete info. I wonder if this is a typo that turned into rumor. The Way Back Machine can help find old information that's lost when a web site goes down. I don't see any reference to WPP120 on George's site:

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.wright-sound.com

I see references to the WPP120 on line when i google but its not much. Anyone know of such a beast?

The WPP100C and WPP200C have identical specs:

60 db gain (adjustable)
Input impedance: 47K
Output impedance: 2K

The only other standalone phono preamp George made was the Phono AG. I don't have the specs for that, but I bet it was similar to the 100c and 200c.