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

It is a very nice system, but if it were me I would pair the Wilsons with a really good S.S. (high $) amp to see what you get and what you give away. There is no way that a speaker that dips like the Wilsons can work ideally with tube amps. To me a glaring problem in a good speaker line.

Thanks for the kind words. It is much appreciated. From what I have seen, most Wilsons have that almost 2 ohm dip at around 25 hz and 80 hz or 90 hz.... It is not something particular to the W/P 8..... but, Ok, good idea to test with a SS amp.... I do not have any high dollar SS amps, but, I do have an Adcom GFA-585 LE in my home theater that I am currently having refurbished due to cap leakage. I also have a Sony STR-GX9ES receiver in another room - which I think does not qualify... The Adcom GFA-585 is hardly high $$, but, it does put out lots of current - 250 watts at 8 ohm, 400 watts at 4 ohm.. When it is done being fixed, and I am satisfied that it is again working to spec., I will try the 585 on the W/P 8s. Attached below are the specs of the Adcom 585... Do you think it is a good enough amp to make the test between two MC275s tube amps and a decent SS amp on the W/P 8s ?

Some additional quotes I found regarding this Adcom GFA-585LE amp. I am not sure if it is competitive to today’s amp technology.....:

"this is the Crown Jewel of Adcom amplifiers.It is regarded as the best Adcom has ever made. There were only 3000 of these made. This is an extremely powerful amplifier. It puts out a real 250wpc into 8 ohms and 450wpc into 4 ohms. To give you an idea of the power of this amp,you would have to put two 565 Adcom monoblocks in the same chassis to equal it.The 585 will drive any speaker. Not even the 5802 Adcom can go there with this amp.It uses Bipolar technology along with being a dual mono design. The transformer (70,000 uf storage)in this amplifier is at least half the weight of the entire amplifier. For the money this monster's hard to beat. It is perfect for electrostats, or hard to drive speakers, or if you just want a lot of headroom".

I’m not so sure I’d jump on tube amps as problematic for Wilsons because of a 2-ohm dip. Especially with mono 275’s - those 4 ohm taps actually become 2 ohm taps in mono mode (check the manual). Try those 4 / 2 ohm taps versus the 8 ohm (4 ohm mono) taps, and choose whichever sounds best. I suspect one or both of them will sound great, and you won’t hurt anything. In fact Solid State amps are the ones that you have to worry about, if they’re not truly "2-ohms stable"! Look for a solid state amp that spec’s its power ratings down to 2 ohms - otherwise, cross your fingers and good luck! And if you are bridging a SS to mono, you are REALLY playing with fire putting that on a 2-ohm dip (don’t do that unless you have something like a Krell spec’d down to 1 ohm). The way that tube amps "switch to mono" is by paralleling the OPT’s, which should actually work nicely for scenarios like this. By comparison, SS bridging is bad news here.

Some of you guys will move mountains to solve problems that don’t exist
Anyways - why not ask Wilson what they think / suggest?

Thanks for the recommendations.   I actually like the 4 ohm tap on the MC275s in monoblock running the W/P 8s.  The reason is additional low bass.   In addition, low quality CD recordings with no bass that normally sound thin, actually sound much thicker on the 4 ohm tap.  The manual says I should be running the 8 ohm tap because I am running them as monoblocks, and now the 8 ohm tap is 4 ohm, and the 4 ohm tap is now 2 ohm, but, it does not stop me from liking the 4 ohm tap better....  On recordings with decent bass, the 4 ohm tap vibrates the furniture more..  It is like I have an additional sub in the equation.  

Well I have owned Adcom amps and they never were high end. Good value to be sure. There is no advantage to low impedance speakers on either S.S. or tubed amps. Sure you get more power on low impedance loads but you also get much more distortion and most likely the nasty type. I have never talked with a mfgr. of S.S. devices that didnt say their gear sounded better on higher impedance loads. It is a flaw and a flaw which isnt necessary. I wouldnt expect Wilson to admit this since this seems to be a common thing with most if not all of their speakers. Problem is the best I have ever heard the Wilsons sound is with tube gear and lower watt tube gear to be exact. Of course when they turned it up things went to hell in a hurry.