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Starting from Basically Scratch. Help me power some Wilson Watt Puppys

Alright hopefully the title explains the basics. I just made a deal on some Wilson 4Ω Watt Puppys (Series 7), along with a self powered Wilson Watch Dog.

Starting from scratch for PreAmp/DAC/Amp. This is actually to use primarily Firestick, Chromecast, and PS4 (I have a bunch of consoles, but those all get HDMI combined into one HDMI port and sound is not priority these obviously). Music is pretty varied. Hip Hop, Orchestral, Jazz, etc. Will likely try to stream some Hi-Res Audio where I can, but can tackle that bridge later, but keeping that in mmind for components today...

I’m OK with all in one Integrated. I’ve been looking at the Linn Majik, which looks like it would do everything, with 43-100W of Power (power depending on generation I find). I feel like the Puppys would want more power though.

Also looking at splitting everything up with Schiit components.

I really like the look of the Devialet Expert 200-220.though I would need a pre-amp to get all the sources to that one. Can find that for $2k-$3k used

I’ve always loved the idea of McIntosh, but the budget won’t allow it here.

I have a fair knowledge background in car audio, but the more I look at home audio, I see huge differences that I haven’t learned yet. For Example High end big speakers, talking about "minimum power of 12w" etc.

Thoughts? It’s always fun to spend someone else’s money right?

Thanks everyone that reads this chapter one of my book.

Kurtis

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designsfx
793 posts
 

Capn’ Swanky-

I don’t know anything about the Vidar- I actually haven’t heard of it. Believe those who say you’ll want/need power- it’s good advice.

With your budget range and hookup needs you may be better off starting with an integrated. I’ve used the larger Yamaha integrated receivers in the past and they did the job for a while. Another integrated that I was impressed with was Plinius, although you would definitely have to pick one up used. Here’s an example-

Plinius Integrated

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simao's avatar
simao
1,819 posts
 

+1 on the Hegel. It'll be a good starting point for sound comparison. 

antigrunge2
1,410 posts
 

You need a very stable amp for your new speakers. I‘d look at getting the best used Accuphase integrated you can afford

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
4,946 posts
 

You need high quality electronics with Wilson Audio speakers as they will show you what every upstream component is doing right and wrong. With the older Wilson speakers you want to be on the warmer side of neutral when selecting associated equipment. Also an amplifier needs to be stable into 2ohm load as these speakers will most likely dip into that territory.
So the Hegel is probably your absolute minimum starting point.

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