Upgrade path from Wilson WattPuppy 7s? - seeking advice


I have a McIntosh system with a 275 tube amp, plus some PS Audio equipment. I play many different kinds of music - from Joe Bonamassa to Johannes Brahms.

I like the analytical quality of the WP 7's. They do seem to lack some midrange and do reproduce rock as well as some other speakers. So I previewed the following at Paragon Sound in Ann Arbor, and the price is a consideration. Here are my thoughts but am seeking advice:

(1) B&W 802 D3 - Better with rock, a bit mellow and not as analytical as the WP 7's. Better midrange than my current speakers.
(2) Wilson Alexia 1 - A bit pricey even with a hefty discount. Of interest, I found some of the higher resolution music files to be reproduced with too much complexity. The ability to discriminate transients, a feature of the WP speakers, seem to be diminished in the more elaborate sound provided by these speakers.

Any other suggestions? I do not want to spend a great deal of money, but have the ability if necessary.

Thanks in advance for any advice - Gerry
128x128Ag insider logo xs@2xgerryah930
Sorry,best...try different amps before moving on with your Wilsons...and Tidal if given the opportunity. 
Ignore Audiotroy. He loves to invade Wilson (and other)  threads to tout Paradigms with the same long winded opinion of one whose pocketbook depends on the success of Paradigm Personas. But you sort of invited him in by asking for any other suggestions.
I have heard Paradigm Personas on 3 different occasions (including Audiotroy's setup at the NY Audio show last year). They are good for the money although a bit on the hard and bright side (he says transparent--wrong) for me. I'll take WP 7s, Sashas, Alexias and Yvettes and countless other more musically coherent speaker brands over the Paradigms.  
Audiotroy always talks about the alleged $ that Paradigm put into the Persona's development. Under that rationale, we should all be listening to Bose, Sony and B&W and not brands like Wilson, Magico, Rockport, Nola and countless other reputable brands with strong science and great individual ears behind the brand.
 When you purchase loudspeakers, you purchase the ear and talent of the creator. By all means, listen to all of the speakers you can, but don't listen to opinions of biased, hyperbolic dealers.  
I have Watt Puppy 7's which I moved to the theatre room. This pair of speakers replaced 6 Martin Logans and sound much better. I bought Sasha's for my main listening room, absolutely love them. Listened to many speakers over 15 months from Magico's to Vandersteen to many others and decided on the Sasha's. 
Ah there you are gpgr4blu, as usual another threatened Wilson fanboy.

Your negativity is disengnious, you are the one that should be ignored.

The Persona speakers or any speaker with superior resoloution can sound bright, Rahido sufferers from the same demanding setup requirements and too many shops that sell the Persona line do not have the setup gear that enables them to perform the way that they can when driven by the better brands of equipment.

A couple came to our shop after driving four plus hours after hearing the Personas under perform at another shop, they came away from our demo as proud new Persona 9H owners, along with a T+A amplifier.

I heard them at another shop and was also not impressed this shop was using a $3,000.00 Musical Fidelity integrated along with sub $1,000 cables and a cheapie dac because they didn’t have the matching ancellory equipment. I listened through the demo and determined the speakers had potential and took the plunge even though the demo was sub par I came away intrigued.

As per taking WP 7, Sashas, or other Wilson’s I have heard way too many Wilson demos at shows and walked away with thinking nice musical  speakers, but hardly a fully natural or neutral loudspeaker. I owned the WP 3, and WP 5 and I personally sold more WP then almost anyone ever associated with the brand. Lets face facts Wilson uses good commercially sourced drivers for the majority of what is in their speakers except for their new tweeter, their drivers that are hardly the leaders in the pack for the price they charge so why the high prices? Great cabinets yes, but much of the cost of a loudspeaker is in the performance part of it and Wilson uses very inexpensive drivers compared to the total cost of the loudspeakers.

And Musicfix I would also take WP 7 over Martin Logans for a theater, the Wilson will work much better as a theater speaker. It is possible if you heard our demo with the T+A gear and the Personas you may have chosen the Personas over the Sashas Our Persona setup throws a gigantic and completely holographic soundstage which the Wilsons also do, we beat them in terms of coherency, detail, speed, and deep bass as well as flatness in room response the issue with the Personas is getting them to sound smooth on the top end as they have incredible resolution and thus are more sensitive to setup and matching gear. I have almost never heard an offernsive Wilson demo. 

I would take a Rockport any day of the week much better drivers that they make themselves, and an equilly inert cabinet. I find Magico’s to be too dry for my taste but again they make all their own superior technology drivers and also have a fantastic intert metal cabinet.

Just like the T+A gear we champion which is another brand quickly estalishing its reputation in the US just like the rest of the world as being amoung the best gear out there.

Grpgru the validity of what we say is mirrored in the press. our setup at the 2016 New York Audio sounded amazing, what we accheived in that small hotel room was an awesome sound.

If you look at Tone Audio this month you will see Jeff Dourgay who is a big Wilson fan pronounce the Personas as one of the best speakers available at any price.

http://www.tonepublications.com/

to quote from the review:

Paradigm has created one of the world’s finest loudspeakers the right way, by applying what they’ve learned from decades of research, design and manufacturing know how to produce a speaker with no compromises. There’s nothing they don’t do, nothing they won’t play and from what I can deduce, nothing they won’t partner with regarding electronics.

I’ve heard way too many six figure loudspeakers with caveats attached. There are no caveats that apply to the Paradigm Persona 9H speakers, other than the fact that you probably can’t lift them without help. That’s it. This is a world class, zero compro - mise loudspeaker for $35,000/ pair.

This level of excellence and execution wasn’t even available ten years ago, and if Paradigm didn’t build everything in house, along with the scale of econo - mies they enjoy, they couldn’t achieve this either

The Paradigm Persona 9H will be our Speaker of the Year for 2017. It’s one of the finest speakers I’ve had the pleasure to listen to at any price

as well as receiving a similar accolade in the Absolute Sound.

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/2017-golden-ear-awards-anthony-h-cordesman/

Along with Legacy, Paradigm is one of the two manufacturers I’ve found that can really do room compensation well. Its Persona 9H is truly flat, goes very deep, and is still quick and detailed in the bass. Its low end is matched by a superb new beryllium midrange and tweeter with a great deal of life and resolution but no hardness. With excellent driver integration and something much closer to a point-source presentation than most complex speaker systems, the 9H provides some of the best imaging and soundstage performance around.

As per your other snide comment if Bose decided to build the world’s best speakers they could easily out build and out design Wilson or Paradigm or anyone, so can Sony or Apple or Google or anyone with the cash reserves to do so.

As per invading Wilson theads dude if you think that a $58k Wilson Alex is a better speaker you should get your ears checked. The Persona 9H is a better, more technologically superior, and greater performing set of speakers, and a much more practical product for $23,000.00 less money.

Lets just wait and see how the market reacts so far two esteemed reviewers are saying the same thing that we are saying, how many more before you will learn we know what sounds good and we know value.

Here is another wake up call for you, we just did a demo with $35k worth of T+A gear vs $90,000.00 Boulder amps, and the T+A a stereo amp plus outboard power supply had tighter bass then the Boulder amps, the Boulder did sound a bit more transparent and had a bigger sound stage, but considering the almost 3 times more expensive price point the T+A gear was a fantastic perfomer. and perhaps if we had the mono block setup the T+A would have outperformed the Boulder setup.

Fact is the Audio Doctor team we know our stuff, and consistantly pick some of the best sounding products at the time and will continue to do so as technology and fair pricing guides us to what we pick along with fantastic sound.

Oh and our track record on products we champion Conrad Johnson Art and Gat, Scaena loudspeakers. T+A, Paradigm Persona, Usher loudspeakers, Legacy loudspeakers, Nuforce, Running Springs, every one of these brands has received accolades at the time as being stellar performers.

Dave owner
Audio Doctor NJ







I heard the WP7's run with the Lamm ML2 triode at only 18 watts and thought the sound was outstanding.  I would consider trying different amplifiers.