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.
Stereophile review of the new Wilson Watt/Puppy
I received my copy of the latest Stereophile yesterday and was curious to see what Martin Collums had to say about them, even though I would take it with a grain of salt, knowing that he had owned them in the past. He's still one of the reviewers that I consider to be most technically informed and balanced in his reviews.
I'm starting this thread because I want to know if others found his conclusions as confusing as I did. He says that the speakers have deep powerful bass, great detail, wonderful dynamic range, and are able to play very loud without breakup.
However, after all of that, he concludes that they are better for jazz and orchestral and perhaps a bit reticent for pop and rock. This made no sense to me, especially for a $40.000 speaker. I am curious about the opinions of anyone else who has read the review.
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- 78 posts total
@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 |
I can't help it but every time Wilson speakers are brought up, this is what I think of.- 78 posts total