Differences between Watt Puppy 7s and Revel Salons

I own 6.0's and Salons. The Salons are now rears in my surround sound system. I think they may be a bit smoother, but in every other way,(dynamics, bass accuracy, imaging, and realism), I prefer the WP's. I have tried them with both tubes and solid state (Audio Research Vt-100mkII and Krell PB-300) For me, the WP's are more emotionally involving, and the Salons are more clinical. The WP's seem much more resolving, but then again, some would call that "etched" ;).

Cytocycle, FYI, the Salons weigh 240 lbs. per speaker.

I am running the Salons in my system, but I have not had experience with the WP 7s other than having heard them in a brief audition at a dealer. So I can't offer any insightful observations about the differences between the sound of these two speakers.

Cincy_bob, The Salon's shipping weight is 240lbs each; two WP7's are only 435lbs in shipping crates. I only mentioned the weight of the WP's because the flexibility of the top and bottom half allow a single person to muscle my watt puppies around, I didn't buy Sophia’s because moving a single 160lb speaker around with a fine finish is not a job for one. The Wilson is also ~7" shorter and 8" shallower and was friendlier in my listening room as they don't dominate the room physically. I was looking for a smaller full range speaker. If you have the room and don't care about size this is irrelevant.

http://www.revelspeakers.com/products/specs.asp?ID=1

The Salons are less sensitive requiring more power at 86dB versus 93dB of the Wilson, so if you have a low power amp is advised.

Reviews of each speaker if you place any faith in reviewers?
http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/96/index.html
http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/920/index.html
http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/tas131_revel.html

You need to listen to both if possible to pick your flavor

Room size is an issue. My room is 17ft x 22 ft. The speakers will be on the wider wall (22ft). I like the smaller size of the WP7s. Can they be placed closer to the wall than the Salons? Thanks.

The Wilson voicing technique could be used with any speaker to get them as close to the back walls as necessary. Basically put your back against the wall and talk and listen for when your voice changes, tape the floor (that is the min distance between the front driver of the speaker and the back wall) Now do this again walking from each side wall and mark again on the floor. Once again another min. You could also calc base nodes out and move them out farther as need to minimize the nodes at your listening point. Then figure 1.2 times the distance between the speakers to the listening position. I run an extreme near field arrangement with the speakers 1/3 of the way into the room with my head against the back wall, so don't be afraid to try different setups, but the basic Wilson setup is pretty amazing...then again your Wilson dealer will uncrate the speakers at your house and setup them up/voice them for you! Remember to mark his position and then make adjustments from their. Wilson are also designed to be pointed directly at the listening position (to minimize room (sidewall) interaction problems) so from the sweet spot you should barely be able to see the inside of the speakers. The distance from the speaker to the sweet spot is used to calculate the spike to adjust the angle on the WATT (Top piece), these mathematical models make setup quite easy and extremely rewarding. You can also vary the bass response based on the spacers for the feet (which also changes the head angle, and then that is reflected in the chart on top of the puppy)..

If you choose to use Tubes, Wilson has included an additional Tube port for the WATT to reduce the damping requirements from the amplifier! Everything is Designed to the 'T' and explained in their manual (which unfortunateley isn’t' available in PDF)

But then again these articles document this technique called WASP.

http://www.tnt-audio.com/casse/waspe.html
There is a Stereophile article also describing this in more detail.