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. 

128x128roxy54

The Sasha's would be better for rock music (more bass where you need/feel it) and the speakers measure about the same otherwise, which one would expect as they use pretty much the same other components.

A WWP with a sub would probably be the best/most economical way to get the best of all worlds.

@ckr1969 

Couldn't one also use the same rationale to say that at over 1.6 million dollars, a Bugatti Veyron should be able to go off-roading? 

@toddalin surely you can do better comparison, Bugatti is a sports car, pretty silly response.

like I said earlier, at $40k they should be able to play all music, some better than others but at the end of the day all speakers should be able to play any music to a point, especially at $40k

According to many, they do play all music well.  You'll never know unless you go listen to them with an open mind mind.

When I heard them they were without a sub and I didn’t feel them “needing” one, as neither do the 801s that they will replace. That said I do use one- a VMPS Larger for very low bass energy that is only there on select tracks - and will do likewise with the WWPs. 
 

But if I didn’t already have a sub I don’t think I’d bother.