This refers to the 6.0 model. Can be knock your socks off clear and open, if...

the big IF is that this speaker is the prima donna to end all prima donnas. You have to get it positioned just so, and spend hours tweaking the position of the boxes, then the angle of the WATT unit.

before you plunk down your hard cash, make every effort to hear the Krarma Ceramique 1.0 , also avaiable in their hot rod version for, surprise, more money. The Ceramique 1.0 may come across as darkish at first, but it has the clearest midrange on the planet in its price class. Almost in any class. The Kharma folks know how to build a good crossover, too. the driver integration is near perfect. By comparison, the Wilson work, while very good, isn't in the same league, at least to my ears. If you tend to an intimate
experience where the focus is on the inner voices and dynamic shadings, listen to the Verity Parsifal Encore. Both the Kharma and the Verity are cheaper than the Wilson,
and both are superb in their respective ways. You still might prefer the Wilson, espectially if you like high intensity listening and are willing to get all the other pieces you'll need, but for my money the Ceramique nails the
je ne sais quoi of it all and the Wilson is a near miss.

Similar Products Used:

we'll get to that shortly

good transient response, high resolution in mids and highs.

severely overpriced, a bit edgy treble - cab cause listening fatigue

Erasure had a hit called "I love to hate you" once, and I have a kind of love-hate relationship to the Watt/Puppies. I´ve heard them in many demos over the years, and they have sounded good at some occations, and really bad at other times. Almost always, there have been Krell FPB amps, or on some occations Mark Levinson. You know the drill. When they have sounded bad, it has been the room causing the problems of course.
Last summer, though, I had the great pleasure of getting to "babysit" (puppysit?) a pair of Watt/Puppies for almost a whole month, when a friend went on a vacation. (he had had a burglary the year before, and was not keen on leaving his stereo unguarded, understandably). In a well treated room (tubetraps for bass absorbtion, wall absorbers, ceiling absorbers, rear end diffusors, heavy carpeting etc), Watt/puppies can sound pretty darn good. They have a very tight, controlled, dynamic presentation. They have good, but not VERY good, resolution. They can present a good soundstage, with width, depth, height - but again, not VERY good. They sound undistorted at high listening levels.

BUT, like I said - I love them and I hate them. They have a slight emphasis somewhere in the upper midrange/lower treble, which sounds tiresome and edgy after a while. They also do not extend very deep into the bass, which seems to lack that last half octave of ambience and airiness which can be heard with full-frequency systems. Room placement is sensitive - very sensitive - and a trade-off has to be made between mid/high resolution and full-bodied bass response. They could do with a bit of warmth in the mid-bass, but placing them too far up against the back wall causes imaging to suffer a great deal.

What is my strongest objection? Well, that´s easy: They are simply the most overpriced, haussed-up piece of "high-end" gear I´ve ever come across (apart for some esoteric cables)... The same drivers used in the Watt/puppies perform well in many cheaper applications (QLN Signature, QRS Saturnus, just to mention two), and in the Wilson Watt/Puppies case, the relationship between price/performance is pitiful. I guess the composite material used to build them is expansive, but Then there is also "advanced marketing strategies" to be considered. Simply by setting a high price-tag, they get a high-end reputation...

Now on to the comparisons: I used a S.A.T CD-fix for a source (fantastic CD-player), but also Wadia and EAD DACs. Amplifiers were Krell KSA-100 and Thule IA-250B (used as preamp with the Krell on occasions). I compared the Watt/puppies to my own combo: Dynaudio Contour 1.3 SE and REL Stadium III.
results:

Bass: Tightness, transient response, depth, low distortion - all are better on my own combo. Watt/puppies can play a few dB louder, but sound more pressed when doing so. My combo wins squarely. In fact, the Dynaudio/REL-combo has significantly better resolution in the bass, making ambience and "room" more evident.

Midrange: Watt/puppies have good resolution, but have a slight coloration in the upper mids which gives listening fatigue after a while. It presses in on the ears. A phase coherence problem?
Dynaudio/REL combo has world-class resolution, truly high-end. They sound neutral and very transparent - like listening to air itself. Wilson sound more mechanical.

Treble: Weakest spot for Wilson Watt/puppies. They have a little grain, causing a "pressing" sensation, sounding unclean. But relolution is good. They do sound tight.
Dynaudio again wins on knock-out, performing again in the world-class category. No grain, no distortion what-so-ever, incredible resolution.

Micro-dynamics: Dynaudio wins.
Macro-dynamics: Dynaudio wins, but Wilson has slam in the mid-bass, that´s for sure.

The Watt/puppies are not bad speakers. They are good. They are entry-level high-end. But they have an ultra-high-end reputation, which they do not deserve. They are good speakers, but they are SEVERELY overpriced. At $4.000 they would be among the average or slightly above average performers of their price segment. My own Dynaudio/REL combo cleanly outperforms the Watt/puppies, at a third of the price! Hence my rating: 1 for value - a complete joke, but 4 for overall performance - very good product, although 3.5 would have been more accurate, a good product, just above average...

"OooOOO lalalalalalalalala I love to hate youuuuuu"

Similar Products Used:

well, similar is a difficult word there... I´ve compared mostly with Dynaudio Contour 1.3 Special Edition with REL Stadium III subwoofer, and also Dynaudio Contour 3.3. I´ve also used B&W 802 (the new Nautilus model) and Jamo Oriel, but not in the same room, so comparison is not very reliable.

Vivid image of the musical event, reveals every nuance of the performance, very efficient with a build quality that is the best I've ever seen. Wilson customer service really supports the product.

This is not a weakness but rather the ability to reveal even a subtle IC cable change. Carefully choose the rest of your equipment (buy quality as you will hear what you buy).

I have always loved the seamless musical sound of the Quad ESL63's and the ML Prodigy's I recently owned. The Prodigy's are amazing, but not as musical or revealing as the watt/puppy 6.0's. I owned the Prodigy's and auditioned the Watt/Puppy 6.0's right next to them. Both speakers offer great resolution, but the Wilson's were simply more musical. As soon as I switched back to the Wilson's, my toes would start tapping again. Having heard Watt/Puppies years ago, I found the sound to mechanical for my pallet. However, the 6.0 Watt/Puppies are in a whole new catagory. It's not hard today to find a really good speaker that is either musical or revealing. But to find a speaker that does both is rare. Such is the Watt/Puppy 6.0. Anyone who states otherwise has simply not paired it with the right equipment and cables. The Wilson's are so revealing that if you have an audio equipment mismatch, you realize it right away. This is true for all cable choices. When I finally put together the right cable combination the Wilsons sang. When you get it right, the only word to describe the magic is "WOW"! For me it was a 135 watt per channel triode tube amp driven by a Hovland Hp100. Utilizing pure silver IC's also contributed to imaging & resolution. One of my favorite CD's is Eric Clapton's "Unplugged" (a terrific recording & performance). With the Wilson's I can hear and feel the vibrations of Clapton's acoustic guitar. His voice sounds so real it's as if Claption was playing in my great room. I no longer listen to speakers but rather lose myself in the music.
I bought these speakers from the original owner and prevailed on Wilson's technical support to guide me through my purchase. They were terrific. I had numerous questions which they answered via e-mail (7 times)& telephone exchanges. Considering they made nothing on this sale, to say the least I was impressed with the help they gave me. Jerron Marchant at Wilson really added a personal touch and answered many of my inquiries.
If you have a chance to hear these speakers properly set up, you'll find a way to buy them. They are that good!

Similar Products Used:

Martin Logan Prodigy's, Quad ESL 63, JM Lab Mezzo Utopia, Audio Physics Virgo's & many others.

Accurate. Great Soundstage.

In my opinion they are fatiguing. I question their musicality.

I spent about six hours this afternoon in a Wilson HT/two ch setup. The HT components were all Krell. The two ch consisted of Wilson Benesch analog, Hovland pre, and VAC amp. I listened to many recordings that I am intimately familiar with. I found the W/P 6's to be accurate and powerful but somehow I was not transported emotionally like I am with my Audio Physic Avanti's or the Meadowlark Nightingales. The Nightingales are very similarly priced and I truely believe they noticably outperform the W/P 6's. Once again My ears, My opinion's if I've offended anyone who has just spent a small fortune on these I'm sorry.

Similar Products Used:

JM lab, Meadowlark Nightingales (My favorite of all time), Kharma Ceramique

Efficient

Just not a linear transducer

Lots of hogwash audiophile review wine tastings in this thread, but the fact is that a speaker of this price should be first and foremost linear in response. That is, it should be flat both on axis, and in its power response. There are many scientific documents which support that contention. Much of that work was done at the National Research Council under Floyd Toole and Sean Olive, and in controlled listening tests with a variety of listeners of different experience.

The Watt, like all Wilsons, does not make it in that arena. These speakers are simply not flat, and add their own preconceptions of what the music should sound like. The upper bass is bloated, as the drivers used are well known for being fat (up about 3 dB) in that range. The Focal tweeters have a resonance at 18k, which is likely not audible, but the beat-down harmonics go all the way in the mids, which are. This may add a sheen people call "musical", but it is not accurate. Musicality as a term is the last vestige of the technically illiterate.

I was able to run a bunch of measurements on this speaker and did not like the vertical resonse profile above axis, nor its 30 degree and 60 degree off-axis performance, which were ragged. Heck, a Paradigm Studio/100 gets that right! I guess the Piladelphia halls must have a similar ragged response that complements these non-linearities.

We were able to compare this speaker directly at matched levels with a pair of Waveform Mach 17's, and it was embarrassing how colored the Watt was by comparison. It was boom and tinkle time. The M17's renedered strings and dynamics better as well.

Sorry, this is a good speaker, but over-design of the box, tons of hype, and fancy spikes do not a great speaker make.

As perfect a speaker as exists!

None!

It would appear that more than a few would be do-gooders have decided to illuminate the public at large as to the folly of owning Watt Puppy 6's!! I am honestly quite shocked why people would denegrate a truly classic speaker like the 6's! I can afford any speaker in existence...I choose the Pupp's! Why? Because I know what Boston Symphony Hall sounds like, as well as the Academy in Philly etc...! These speakers are musical...all the excitement is conveyed in all it's dynamic and refined glory!!! The only caveat is that you need another $65K Minimum to do them justice. For 30 years I have not heard a single speaker do so much so well...they move me like no others ever have!! My system is as follows:
ARC VT-100MKIII
ARC Ref 2 MKII
Mark Levinson 37 Transport
Mark Levinson 380S DAC
Transparent Reference Cabling throughout
Harmonic Tech Magic Digital Balanced

Similar Products Used:

Dunlavy SC-5's, B&W 801 Nautilus, Avalon Eidolon, Magnapan 3.6, Martin Logan Statement...

very neutral

was fatiguing to listen to after a mere five minutes

As monitors for what's on the recording, great. As music makers in the home, NOT A CHANCE!
1)They are WAY too expensive. For $20k or even $10k you could put together an entire system that was more musically satisfying and less fatiguing than anything built around these speakers.
2)Maybe it was 21kHz resonance from the metal tweeter (supposedly out of the audible range, but we are starting to find out that this is not true....why else would anyone bother to sample at 96kHz for digital?), but I found the speaker to be extremely bright sounding. The system was: Proceed DVD transport, Levinson 31.5 D/A, Audio Research Ref.1 pre, Levinson 336 amp, Siltech cables. The best of the best retail gear. Cassandra Wilson CD. Or maybe I just hate CDs and solid state gear. Would the turntable and Cary amps sound better? I am sure.
3) To be fair, the source is where the hash was on this system. If you bought this system, you could only listen to masterfully recorded material. Everything else would be ear-bleeding. You would become incredibly anal about listening to music (but then you already were to have the $ to spend on these speakers)
4) A much more fun system: any great turntable, any great tubed phono stage, a great passive volume control, a pair of SE monoblocks, and horns. All for less than the $20 retail of the Watt 6!!!!!

Absolutely lifelike ...

... in a medium-sized room, when positioned very precisely, fed by excellent equipment etc. This speaker is very picky. Oh, yeah, and it's also very expensive.

These speakers are absolutely incredible, once properly positioned and fed by the right equipment. And, when these requirements are met, it seems as though the room disappears and you are sitting in a very expensive seat at Carnegie Hall.

Some people might argue that there are bigger speakers with more bass in this extreme price range, but I say: "Who cares?" These speakers bring every bit of the excitement of a live concert into your listening room, and you stop caring about terms such as 'bass', 'depth', 'brightness' etc. You just listen to the music, and enjoy every minute of it.

No other speaker that I have ever heard, except for maybe the Jadis Eurythmie if you're into horns, generates as much 'live atmosphere' as this marvelous product.
If you have the cash, and are unable to build your own speakers (I'm serious, building your own is the only way I know of to do something even better), BUY THESE!

4 stars for value (I won't give 5 stars for a speaker of this price range. They could all be sold at 1/2 the price, and everyone involved would still make a nice profit).
5 stars overall, since this speaker gave me the excitement of a live concert, and that's what Hi-Fi should be all about.

P.S. The system I have heard them in consisted of Sony's top SACD player (which plays normal CDs great as well), Audio Research's top amplifiers, and extremely expensive cables from Music Link. I recommend all of these components without hesitation.

Similar Products Used:

JMLab Mezzo Utopia, JMLab Grande Utopia, Wilson Audio Cub.

THIS SPEAKER IS WAAY OVERPRICED!!! IT"S JUST NOT WORTH IT! WHAT CAN YOU GET ON THE USED MARKET?? 50% 40% 30%?? IT'S STUFF LIKE THIS THAT GIVES HIGH END A BAD NAME!!! SHEESH!
I doubt it's better than the JBL LSR-32, the Celestion A3, or anything in the 2000-3000 range. You try doing a side by side comparison and I'll be seeing your ad in 'Audioweb,'
'Audiomart' etc....

Bass, Imaging, Soundstage galore, Size, I don't think you can find anything better at its price, Flexibility

Perfect for me, tube fans may not like Wilson's brand of Neutrality

I've owned my Wilson's for about 6 months now and couldn't be happier. When I first started out, I thought I would end up with the Revel Salons or Eidolons. I listen to Jazz primarily, however, I also listen to a lot of classical and reggae. It's the classical and reggae that served as the measuring stick as these are all fine speakers.

For Jazz the Mid range of the Amati Homages and Eidolon were to die for, especially when mated with tubes, these two really sang, however, when I switched to classical, they didn't transmit the acoustical energy I was looking for and were decidedly shy and the in the low bass region.

The Mezzo Utopia did everything reasonably well, but didn't particularly wow me any area, and when you are spending this kind of money, you need to be wowed. 801's need obscene amounts of top notch amplification (Krell FPB Amps seemed to match best) to sound their best, but were immediately vetoed by the wife. Wife also vetoed the Prodigys, but they wouldn't have made the final cut anyway.

Ultimately, it came down to the Salon's and the Watt/Puppy 6's. The Salon's had a good sound stage, solid bass, and a musical qualtiy that made me sad when we shut them off. However, when we put on the WATT/Puppies, I felt as if I was hearing my CD's for the first time. The soundstage was three dimensional, extremely wide and deep. I was involved in the music at low volumes which is something I did not experience with any of the other speakers. Bass was punchy with pitch and a certain roundness not found in the others (MAXX and Trio's Excepted). Wilson Gloss FInish is exceptional and can be ordered in any color you can imagine. THe speaker is also small enough to fit in almost any size listening room. Custom configuration adds to the flexibility and hassle factor of the speaker. My thought is that if you are going to spend 20 grand on a speaker, spending a couple hours to have it sound its best is part of the ownership experience. When they are dialed in, nothing within 15K sounds even close. For those who say they are too expensive, I say don't buy them. They are a hand crafted speaker whose designers take meticulous attention to detail. Many people spend 20K on travel, art, and other hobbies without batting an eye. Music/audio is my hobby, and the WATT/Puppy 6 enables me to enjoy it even at this price. Once you cross 10K, the laws of diminishing returns really kick you in the pants. Is any speaker really worth that much money, if you love music, and can appreciate hearing it reproduced at its finest, the answer is a resounding yes. If you have the means, I whole heartedly recommed this speaker. At it's price point, I don't think . If you have greater means, check out the Avant Garde Trios (38K).





Associated Equipment:
Preamp: Krell KPS25sc
DAC: dCS Elgar
Upsampler: dCS Purcell
Amplification: Linn Klimax
CD: Linn CD12 (got it used form friend), or KPS25sc
Turntable: Basis 2001
Arm: Basis RB 900 (Modified version of Rega RB900)
Cartridge: Temper Supreme
Interconnects and Cables: Tara Labs "The One"

Similar Products Used:

Sonus Faber Amati Homage, Avalon Eidolon, JM Lab Mezzo Utopia, Revel Ultima Salon, B&W N801, Martin Logan Prodigy, Wilson Maxx, Avant Garde Trio, Meridian DSP6000