Stereophile review of the new Wilson Watt/Puppy

@ovature 

Whatever you do, don't sugarcoat it.....

I feel really sorry for all of you who actually believe all the marketing BS and the so-called reviews in these magazines by people that are being paid off in one way or the other in order to write them. Before you buy something like this, you really should have a home audition of the product, even though I know most dealers won’t want to do it. I had plenty of opportunity to listen to the full range of Wilson speakers, including the ones we’re talking about here before I decided what to buy. I’m glad I didn’t buy into any of the hype that comes from reading these magazines. None of them can be trusted. Also, $40,000 even with a discount is a ridiculous amount of money for that tiny speaker with the off the shelf drivers and crossover. Wilson is a cabinet company and that’s about it.

@ovature To those accusing Wilson of being a "cabinet" company any buying drivers...This is an old very tired argument. You’d really need to accuse SEVERAL other speaker manufacturers of this same thing-the list is LOOOOOONG. Get a new narrative...And why bother finding threads that pertain to Wilson speakers and bad mouth them, if you don’t like them move, enjoy your bright Focals and be happy. This is a common theme you seem to repeat over and over on this forum.

Anyone saying Wilsons can’t do rock and roll. I completely disagree. Likely what you are hearing isn’t the Wilsons not being capable but rather alot of that music was poorly recorded and ALL Wilson speakers are basically like reverse microphones so they reveal what is down stream. Knowing this helps you choose your gear wisely and understand what the speaker is actually doing. 

Not an owner, but I wouldn't take it as anything bad. Maybe because the high frequency is rolled off after 10kHz. With more critical music with wide dynamic range, it's not something you'd notice. With compressed rock and constant noise, you might notice the rolloff. The elevation leading to 10kHz probably creates the clarity and the rolloff after 10kHz probably softens rough edges. Some might say that's a good thing.

@jc51373 Focal maestro utopias are not bright sounding speakers if you stay away from Silver cables and use warm or neutral electronics. The top of the line McIntosh pieces I have are a perfect match along with a Naim streamer. Perhaps you didn’t read my previous post. I said that Wilson makes a high-quality product and has the best finish quality in the business. I also complemented their customer service and their accessibility. Focal is not even close to that although the pair I ended up with have very nice finish quality. The fact is, Focal makes every single part that goes into their speakers. Wilson does not. The only thing they build are the resistors, and the cabinets. They modify the crossovers and they do not make any drivers. What does that mean? It means they buy off the shelf drivers. What part of that do you have trouble understanding? I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but they have less control over what’s going on and they only started doing that after Focal refused to sell them any more drivers. Also, the beryllium tweeters go up to 40 K and nothing that Wilson puts in their speakers is as sophisticated as this Tweeter is. It’s absolutely amazing for treble extension and no, it’s not bright if you pair up with proper equipment and cables. Copper cables are the way to go with this speaker.

Also, you said that a Wilson speaker is like a reverse microphone. Nothing could be further from the truth! Wilson are some of the most colored speakers out there. They have a mid bass hump that sounds really good in terms of dynamics during demonstrations. This quickly becomes fatiguing and I know because I owned a pair of these 20 years ago. The mid range lack a certain amount of transparency and their high-end is good but it’s not as extended as Focal. Like I said before, they are extremely well built and finished. The pair of Wilson’s that I owned were flawless, except that that carpet on the front of them, the acoustic blanket started peeling off. I don’t know why they continue to put that carpet on the front of their speakers. It’s ugly and it deteriorates faster than anything else.

Unless you are a classically trained musician like I am for 40 years and have tracked and mixed numerous live recordings, you are not in a position to critique my choices. I know what real live music sounds like and Wilson Watt Puppy (stupid name) is not it. Now, if you just want to blast some rock music around the house and you don’t care about accuracy, these will be fine because they put out plenty of bass. They don’t sound bad on jazz, but unfortunately, the bass is severely bloated on them due to that mid bass hump