The $27,900 disappointment? Wilson Audio Watt Puppy 8 issues.

It's been a long time since I contributed to a forum thread here on Audiogon, but this is a topic I have direct experience with.

Many people make comments on issues they have no experience with. Opinions are great, but when contributing to a thread - wouldn't identifying what kind of direct experience you have with the equipment help readers?  

I owned a pair of Watt Puppies, then Sasha's and then back to Watt Puppies. I owned them for more than 20 years. Here's my direct experience.

Who spends the expense on Wilson speakers? Good question. While I visited my audiophile retailer (Woodbridge Stereo - a long time ago), when I first saw what I thought was the odd, funny looking speakers and commended such about them - my friend and salesmen responded in a very kind way "those speakers would humble you."

It wasn't until I coincidently heard them at a much later time, that I was dumfounded by them. They completely disappeared - all I heard was performers spaced in the room, on a stage in front of me. Everything was amazingly lifelike. It was at that point that I knew one day I would have them (even though they were way out of my budget!).

I eventually worked out a way to get them (another story - and thank you Woodbridge Stereo!). I paired them with a Pass XA30.5 amplifier - and they sounded great. The system weakness was tight bass - but I gave this up because everything else was amazing (I eventually upgraded to a pair of Pass XA-200.5's and enjoy music!).

So, to answer a few of the questions I saw (and no, I didn't read this entire thread):

- After hearing them, I couldn't enjoy music without my pair of Wilson speakers. At least not like I enjoy music now.

- You need a great amplifier (and front end) to drive them. That doesn't mean you need an expensive amplifier.

I enjoy my system because it does what I want it to do - that is, create the illusion of live music. We each should enjoy our system - it should do what we want it to do.

A safe, healthy and happy 2025 year to everyone :-)

Many speakers priced in this range and above get carried by the front end electronics (no miracle of the speaker).

There is a caliber of front end electronics (i have a few ) that can be connected to any turd of a speaker and they can still salvage the situation...paint over deficiencies/make it sound good. Above a certain threshold for competent speaker engineering, it is the electronics that caused the magic.

To determine if it is really some miracle of the speaker, you would connect the same to very modest electronics as well and check how it does.

It wasn't until I coincidently heard them at a much later time, that I was dumfounded by them. They completely disappeared - all I heard was performers spaced in the room, on a stage in front of me. Everything was amazingly lifelike. It was at that point that I knew one day I would have them (even though they were way out of my budget!).

If Danny (GR Research) just presented his opinions of the questionable design decisions Wilson made with the Watt Puppy 8, I would likely not pay attention.  But using before and after measurement graphs he proved why it's not a good idea to connect the 2 woofers in parallel due to the challenging 2.4 ohm load.  He also proved that Wilson's mounting of the tweeter was causing excessive diffraction and figured out a simple yet effective way to use the grill to create a sort of tweeter waveguide to reduce the diffraction. 

If you believe measurements have little to do with a speaker's SQ, that's a different issue.  It would be interesting to hear from the owner of the speakers once he got them back from Danny.

I'm a fan of Danny. Yes, he criticizes things he thinks are wrong. He has decades designing speakers and crossovers. He has mostly been behind the scenes working for other brands.  He champions DIY as a means to achieve high performance with minimized cost. 

The folks that say he is a "salesman" need to understand the time and energy he spends with these upgrades. Yes, he sells upgrade "kits" to folks that want to improve the performance of their speakers, but he doesn't select the speakers to upgrade. Dissatisfied owners do. He does the design work for free, and is only compensated for his time with the profit he makes on these kits. How much do you think his time was worth upgrading these Wilson's? He knows what makes a speaker sound good. He also knows how to identify design choices that make for compromised sound. He sells very modestly priced speaker kits that punch way above their price point. I built the NX-Tremes. They are sublime. Incredible at the price point, and I had fun building them. Win-win.

Don't bash Danny until you look at his entire body of work. He is a huge asset to the DIY community. 

Watt-Puppy 8s?   Really?  These speakers are 20-30 years old.  They haven't used that tweeter since then.  Does this guy actually listen to the speakers?  He spends the entire video talking about measurements. 

I owned the Watt-Puppy 7s and loved them.  Auditioned the big B&W N800s, and a number of other more expensive brands at the time. On the same system at a big NY/Phila area dealer.  Never liked the 8s as well.  Since, owned Sashas, Yvettes, and Sasha DAWs... all great.  Wilson technology, as others, has moved on.  Better drivers, cabinets and crossovers.  Darryl Wilson vs. Dave Wilson.  Times, cables, speakers, amplification and sources are way better today.  The current Watt-Puppy is a remarkable little speaker.  This old, dog eared thing should be retired.