Dartzeel 108 amp driving Wilson Watt/Puppy 8

I drove a pair of WATT Puppy 7s with my darTZeel amp for about five month last year while I was waiting in queue for the arrival of my Evolution Acoustics MMTwos. The darTZeel amp had PLENTY of power to drive the W/P 7s to very high SPLs in my situation. My listening room at that time was medium-sized with large doorway openings into a fairly open floor plan, so it takes a lot of SPL output to fill the space. There was absolutely no problem with woofer control.

Don't let the 100wpc specification on the darTZeel amplifier fool you. If I recall correctly, Atkinson measured the amp at 230wpc into 4 ohms.

The Watt Puppies 8 were reviewed in HIFICritic. Colloms found the Reference 110 " worked remarkably well" . The speakers are more efficient than might be thought, 160 watts giving 109 db in a typical room. It would seem that 110 watts would be sufficient. In a later test of the 110 Colloms found that " the System 8's particular quality of natural spaciousness and precise depth plane perspective was perfectly illuminated by the 110." And "the near holographic vocal focus, natural presence and clear articulation of the Wilson amp seems to find a matching partner in this amp." His opinion carries some weight as he has used various versions of the speaker as a reference since it has been introduced. So I think there would be no concern it you chose to use it.

Looking at my post I see that I said Wilson amp when I meant Wilson speaker and forgot the passage that most directly answers your question. "One might have predicted that the tough low frequency loading might have stressed an all valve amplifier , but we found the bass quite upbeat within sensible loudness limits. It is nicely percussive, if in a mildly valve-like softened manner, with notably clean tune playing for acoustic bass instruments-classy bass by any standard." His tests on the speaker showed low levels of distortion at ordinary listening levels and beyond, 102 db at 40 Hz produced only 1.5% of second harmonic and just .2% of third.

Hi guys, really appreciate all your replies.
Hi Cincy_bob, I like Dartzeel for its tube-like presence in the midrange, with focus and precision of a great SS amp. From your experience, was Dartzeel able to drive W/Ps' mid and low bass with full conviction?

Arwp, the answer to your question is yes. The darTZeel amp had no problem in driving the mid and low bass frequencies. The bass was tight, fast, and punchy.