Long ago, when I worked in the mid to high end audio world from 1988 to 1995, a co-worker and friend had a pair of WE-1's. His name is Rick Walker, and he worked for Watkins back in the day. He was also worked on their design. So outside of Mr. Watkins himself, you might say that Rick was a pretty good authority on them. Rick is an actual engineer and on occasion has designed and built amps and preamps for clients. When we worked together, I was the head of custom installation and he was the head of the repair department for a certain retail store in Charlotte, NC. Rick's system consisted of the Watkins WE-1 speakers, Mark Levinson ML-2 mono amplifiers, Nakamichi CA-5 preamp, Oracle Delphi MK IV turntable, a Rowland modified Sony 707ES CD player, and a mass of MIT cables. I had listened to Rick's system on several occasions and was always blown away by the sound quality. He really knew what worked with those speakers. I have listened to many systems throughout my time in the business, many of them being cost-is-no-object, and still Rick's system ranks at or near the top. Of course Rick had in his closet of spare equipment something I wish I'd bought from him back then- an Infinity Hybrid Class A amplifier. He let me take it home for a couple of months to use. I loved the sound of that amp on my KEF's. I'd pay real money to have it now... oh, well.
