Hehe, yeah I know. It felt weird every time I typed it.
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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- 47 posts total
@captainswankypants interesting name |
First just a high level perspective. As a rule of thumb, to get the most out of your equipment you need to balance the sound quality of each of your components. To do this, you have to do a lot of research and carefully choose compatible and appropriate equipment. Assuming you are doing digital only then you need a streamer, DAC, preamp, and amp. Typically the ideal balance would be 35% speakers, say 15% streamer, 15% DAC, 15% preamp, 20% amp. Then later you can worry about cables and interconnects. So, Watt Puppy 7 were $22K, so, the appropriate budget would about $10K / component. This is a rough number to give you an idea of how to put together an optimal system around your speakers.
Not to say you can’t have a great sounding system for a lot less… but this is what it would take. I have heard outstanding systems centered around Rowland components, and I am sure others. Personally, I do not think you would get the most of them out of McIntosh.
So, the question is. Do you eventually want to have a spectacular system? One that these speakers are capable of? If the answer is yes, then you want to buy individual components and upgrade them over time as you learn about this pursuit. It is not a matter of just plunking down the cash, if you want a great sounding system, careful choice is required. You can get great sound out of those speakers with $2 K components… maybe less. But they have to be very carefully chosen because high end speakers like Wilson can be very revealing of budget gear. Home audio is completely different than car. With automotive all nuance is covered by road noise.. leaving a cartoon characterization of the music. Home audio exposes layer after layer of detail and nuance. We can carry on the conversation from here if you like. That is just a quick comment. You can see my system under my UserID. I have been pursuing great sound for over fifty years. The one thing I can say is, you got your hands on some great speakers. |
- 47 posts total