March 2007 Wilson Audio Specialties WATT/Puppy 8 Loudspeakers by Marc Mickelson

In a grainy black-and-white snapshot, David Wilson stands at a cluttered workbench and tinkers with a very early version of his WATT speaker. It's the late 1970s, and Wilson has designed the WATT as a monitor for his recording projects. Of course, where the WATT has ended up nearly three decades later is part of high-end-audio lore. With its companion Puppy woofer module, the WATT has become one of the best-selling and longest-lived audiophile products ever. "Better than a WATT/Puppy" has become a speaker-design mantra, likely because knockoffs of the two-cabinet platform are common. The WATT/Puppy has literally become an icon of the audio industry: This year the Consumer Electronics Association used a pictograph of the speaker to represent high-end audio during the recent CES, the electronics world's yearly cotillion.

While standing at his workbench, David Wilson had none of this in mind, and yet it has all happened, and accelerated over the past decade of the WATT/Puppy's existence. Founded in 1973, Wilson Audio's first product wasn't a speaker at all. The SM.AR.T turntable was produced for a scant two years; perhaps the best example extant resides at Wilson Audio. Next, in 1977, came the recordings, dozens of them made over a 20-year period. In 1979, David Wilson began reviewing audio equipment for The Abso!ute Sound and a few years later he started writing for Mix Magazine.

In 1981 the first Wilson Audio speaker appeared -- the formidable four-piece WAMM system, which was updated and improved continuously over the next 20 years. Fifty-three WAMM systems were produced, and all could be upgraded to the performance of the final System VII-A. Most WAMMs are still in use today, although a couple are crated and preserved as collector's items by the well-off people who own them. I know -- it seems curious to me too.

It wasn't until 1985 that the first WATT hit the market, the Puppy following three years later. In the early days of the speaker system, audiophiles mixed and matched WATTs and Puppys of various vintages, causing some confusion with the speaker's nomenclature. Exactly how was a WATT 2/Puppy different from a WATT 3/Puppy 2? With the WATT/Puppy 5 the two halves of the speaker caught up to each other, and my experience with it began. I first heard the WATT/Puppy 5 along with a coffee-table-like WHOW subwoofer at an audio shop in the early 1990s. Both were trade-ins, and together they constituted a wide-bandwidth, microscopically detailed speaker system that could make you swoon with high-quality recordings -- like those David Wilson was producing -- and want to leave the room with just about anything else.

That experience -- actually, it was a series of experiences over the course of half a year, until someone purchased the speakers and subwoofer -- left an impression on me that remained until the Hi-Fi '99 show in Chicago. I remember sitting through a demo of the new WATT/Puppy 6 and thinking, How can this be? It was clear that the WATT/Puppy had changed utterly and for the better. Afterwards, I approached Wilson Audio about reviewing the speakers, and in Y2K a pair came my way.

The WATT/Puppy 6 was a sonic turning point for the WATT/Puppy. The high resolution remained, but along with it came a more relaxed, musically consonant presentation. The prodigious bass was still there, and so was the prodigious dynamic range. What had seemingly happened was that the sheer athleticism of earlier WATT/Puppy speakers had been mated with a command of fluid movement, and the product was a complete, rounded-out sonic presentation.

With the System 7, introduced in 2002, Wilson Audio continued down the same road, refining the sound of the WATT/Puppy to a meaningful degree. There was one significant change in construction. The System 6 WATT was made of a mineral-filled acrylic-based material that had been used for the WATT for 15 years. For the WATT 7, Wilson Audio turned to its M material for the WATT's cabinet. A costly high-tech composite used in the cabinets of all other Wilson Audio speakers, generally wherever there was a midrange driver, M material's properties -- which Wilson Audio has measured extensively -- enhanced midrange clarity. It was used in varying thicknesses along with lead ingots to make a very dense, very inert and very heavy speaker cabinet that Wilson Audio claimed was 37dB quieter than that of the System 6 WATT. I can attest to the sonic outcome. As I put it in my review, the WATT/Puppy 7 "conveys so much information in a completely natural and involving manner that it readjusts expectations for reproduction."

Next, Wilson Audio did something that seemed distinct and separate at the time but ended up affecting every one of the company's speakers in short order: they introduced a new flagship speaker. I first saw the X-2 Alexandria at the 2003 CES. Later that year, the Alexandria appeared to great consumer response. Now, four years later, Wilson Audio has sold hundreds of pairs of the $135,000 speakers, taking more than a month to construct each one.

With the Alexandria, Wilson Audio first identified "jitter" -- a noise artifact generated by the multiple crossovers used in the company's speakers. Jitter exhibits itself as grunge and grain that are especially noticeable in high frequencies, and methods for reducing it were one of the most important developments coming from the creation of the Alexandria. The first speaker to feel the Alexandria's touch was the MAXX 2, which came to market in late 2004. Then, in 2005, the Sophia 2 appeared, and in 2006 the WATT/Puppy 8.

The WATT/Puppy 8 may represent the most radical remaking of the speaker yet, though you would never know it from outward appearances. One of the biggest changes was brought on by having to comply to European Union requirements to get the lead out -- remove the lead ingots from the WATT's cabinet. To do this, Wilson Audio re-engineered the WATT, using harder-than-steel X material for most of the cabinet and M4 material, the latest version of M material, for the front baffle. Here, the Alexandria, which was designed without lead from the ground up, showed its influence in the WATT's new complex bracing scheme. The System 8 WATT is ten pounds lighter than its predecessor, though at 50 pounds it is still heavier than you would think given its size. It's also just as inert -- like rapping on a bowling ball.

One of the important changes for the MAXX 2 was a new tweeter, and the same driver is now used for the WATT/Puppy 8. As its platform, this tweeter has a new version of the proprietary Focal inverted-titanium-dome driver that Wilson Audio has used for decades. It is torn down, refined and reconstructed. An obvious and important addition is a damping plate of X material that minimizes the effect of the tweeter's back wave, something that was once again identified during development of the Alexandria. The WATT/Puppy 8's tweeter is a different driver after reconstruction, akin to a customized car built from one you'd drive off the lot. Tweeters that use exotic materials -- diamond, beryllium -- are chic these days, but the unrestrained resolution and smoothness of the WATT/Puppy 8's tweeter makes a strong case for better execution leading to better sound.

Wilson Audio prizes its crossovers, wiring all of the components by hand, trimming to a tolerance more strict than the capacitors themselves, and potting everything in specially chosen cases before installation into the speakers. As with the MAXX 2, the WATT/Puppy 8's crossovers incorporate the Alexandria's anti-jitter technology and its accompanying reduction in noise, allowing for a deeper sonic view into the speaker's ever-lower noise floor -- and the music.

The WATT/Puppy 8 is slightly larger than the speakers it replaced -- 41"H x 13"W x 18.75"D -- and also slightly lighter -- 170 pounds. There are still four standard colors -- dark titanium, desert silver, Mercedes silver, and diamond black -- along with optional and custom colors limited only by your imagination. One important cosmetic change to the speaker involves the foam diffraction pads on the front, which are now recessed flush with the surface of the cabinet. The grilles attach via metal pins that fit into holes instead being held on with Velcro. I thought the old foam grilles were the most transparent ever, but I concede that the new grilles and attachment method are leagues more elegant. The grilles are available in different colors, and you even have your choice of finish for the speaker's aluminum hardware -- silver or black.

The price has gone up $4000 to $27,990 USD per pair. The WATT/Puppy used to be a pricing bellwether under $20,000, but it's now pushing $30,000. While the increase is a product of inflation, rising manufacturing costs and the speaker's greater complexity, the market itself is bursting with higher-priced competition that doesn't show the engineering and cosmetic refinement of the WATT/Puppy 8. I saw and heard a lot of expensive speakers at CES this year, and none has half the backstory of the WATT/Puppy.

As they have done in the past, John Giolas and Trent Workman came to my house to set up the WATT/Puppy 8s. Both have trained many Wilson Audio dealers in the art of "voweling in" speakers in customer's rooms, and they now rely on their own paperwork and masking tape on the floor to rough in where the speakers will go in my room. Most of their time was spent on fine-tuning -- moving the speakers literally fractions of an inch, the effect of which can be profound. At one point, John illustrated the difference of a half-inch movement. The sonic result was rather like two beams of light hitting the same point -- precision and intensity were increased. Because of their group delay adjustments -- which change the tilt of the WATT depending on the ear height and distance of the listener -- the WATT/Puppy 8s are tricky to configure and position for optimum sound. But after setup has been done by someone skilled, you will understand its importance.

Both John and Trent have remarked how good my room is acoustically, and I have to admit that they are right. Its size -- 29'L x 20'W x 10'H -- has something to do with it, but so do a couple of architectural features: a series of exposed beams in the ceiling that act as diffusers, and windows behind the equipment that make the room somewhat lossy, which aids in dissipating bass frequencies especially. The room is also on a concrete slab that is covered with carpet -- both good for sound. I didn't design this room from the ground up, but it certainly suits the purpose of high-end audio. John and Trent now make quick work of setting up speakers here.

This may be the only quick work that anyone from Wilson Audio does nowadays. The weight of the WATT/Puppy's history is upon them. Speaker parts take hours to mill, days to construct into cabinets, weeks to paint and cure. Existing speakers take years to reassess and improve. Completely new models have indefinite development cycles. The rigor and attention to detail come directly from the top -- David Wilson standing at his workbench would have it no other way.

To find out what it takes to be "Better than a WATT/Puppy" in 2007, check this space on April 1.

...Marc Mickelson
marc@soundstage.com

April 2007 Wilson Audio Specialties WATT/Puppy 8 Loudspeakers by Marc Mickelson

The System 8 is the third version of the WATT/Puppy I've written about, and all three share a few distinctive traits that go a long way toward defining the overall sound of this well-known speaker. Historically, WATT/Puppys have been very detailed, very dynamic speakers with tremendous low-frequency depth, weight and impact. All of these things describe the WATT/Puppy 8. Its ability to resolve musical information and untangle dense or complicated recordings is consummate and complete. What you hear -- the feathery strumming of a guitar or the massive reverberations of a bass-drum whack -- and how you hear it -- via the speed into and out of each note and the overall presence of the performers -- are deftly balanced. There is no deconstructive analysis, no highlighting, no presentation of detail for its own sake. Instead there is integration -- a presentation in which the sonic elements fuse into a comprehensive, impressive whole.

Two rather different-sounding recordings illustrate this. The piano on Jean-Yves Thibaudet's Conversations with Bill Evans [London 455 512-2] and the Daniel Barenboim recording of Argentinean music, Mi Buenos Aires Querido [Teldec 0630-13474-2], sound very different, even though both are less than ten years old. In the case of the former, Thibaudet's playing sounds much more dry, and hall ambience is emphasized. In the latter, Barenboim's piano sounds big and redolent with overtone. The WATT/Puppy 8 makes the differences plain, but it doesn't accentuate either the recorded space or the size of the instrument. This is an exceedingly honest speaker, yet one that doesn't become merciless. Truth and beauty are often at odds in audio equipment; too much of one leads to too little of the other. I've maintained since I began writing audio reviews that the very best equipment balances both. While earlier WATT/Puppys may have been heavy on the truth, more contemporary versions have sounded beautiful as well. The WATT/Puppy 8 reveals what's on each recording with great precision, but it does so in a thoroughly pleasing way.

Because of its high sensitivity and exceedingly low intrinsic distortion, the WATT/Puppy 8 doesn't lose musical detail to its own noise floor when playing at low levels. On the other end, it can deliver an orchestral crescendo or searing guitar chord at an amplifier's full power without rattling the sonic presentation apart. Of course, this means it has a very wide dynamic range; only the bigger Wilson Audio speakers can play more expertly from very soft to deafeningly loud among the dynamic speakers I've heard. This is something I've found unique to Wilson Audio speakers. Horn-loaded and single-driver designs can play at high levels with only a watt or two, but their tonal aberrations are so great that they cannot suspend disbelief, at least to my ears. Dynamic speakers can get the tone right, but some of them sound compressed, even with several hundred watts of power behind them. The WATT/Puppy 8, though, sounds pure and delicate with only a few watts, or like a sonic sledgehammer with the full output of a solid-state bruiser behind it. It has the widest applicability of any speaker I know, combining the sonic advantages of disparate technologies.

The depth and power of the WATT/Puppy 8's bass belie the speaker's modest dimensions: 43 3/8" high with the spikes installed, 13" wide, and 18 3/4" deep. Of course, much of this size is due to the Puppy, which houses a pair of proprietary Scan-Speak-sourced 8" woofers in a rear-ported cabinet. The System 8 broadcasts the delicate bloom of the upright bass from the Wood Brothers' Ways Not to Lose [Blue Note 0946 3 43120 2 8] and the pulsing power of the deep throbs on "3000 Miles" from Tracy Chapman's Where You Live [Elektra 83803-2] with equal assurance. When bass is sloppy, you hear it, and the same is true when it acts in pistonic fashion, in which case it comes and goes without overhang or shadowing. This is what loudspeakers should do, but so many, especially those whose bass is noteworthy with one cut or another, fall short. I credit the Puppy cabinet here. For David Wilson, a speaker cabinet is an organic thing. Its design is not simply a matter of utter inertness -- which is impossible -- but finding the right materials for each application and thereby addressing the drivers' outputs in unadulterated and musically consonant ways. The properties of Wilson Audio's X material create a platform from which even the most powerful low frequencies start and stop in a realistic manner.

If you've read my reviews of the WATT/Puppy 6 and 7, you pretty much already know everything I've written so far about the sound of the System 8. Detail retrieval, dynamic prowess and bass power are all present and accounted for. However, there are two specific areas in which the System 8 improves on its predecessors, and these make the newest WATT/Puppy the best of the bunch by an ample margin.

First, the WATT/Puppy 8 is a more linear speaker than earlier iterations, one with fewer tendencies and idiosyncrasies. The System 8 presents the signal with even greater fidelity than its predecessors. The WATT/Puppy has always had a rather American sound, one whose massive dynamics and bass energy compensated for room effects. We in the US have larger, lossier listening rooms than most audiophiles in Europe and Asia -- just the kind of environments in which a speaker like the WATT/Puppy thrives. Any full-range speaker can overload an inappropriate room, but you can adjust the WATT/Puppy 8 for smaller, tighter rooms that may be overwhelmed by the profound low frequencies of which this speaker is capable. This is done via a barrel resistor in the bottom of the Puppy. According to Wilson Audio, it is rarely needed now.

The WATT/Puppy 8 is certainly still dynamic and has remarkable bass, but neither trait is pronounced, leading to a more even, honest presentation. At CES, Dave Gordon of Audio Research used a CD of famous jazz numbers -- "Milestones," "So What" -- played on guitar and mandolin with minimal drum and bass accompaniment. I've been playing the CD -- Jerry Garcia and David Grisman's So What [Acoustic Disc ACD-33] -- ever since. I marvel at the vitality and momentum of this music played on instruments for which it was not written. With Garcia's guitar and Grisman's mandolin in opposite channels, the WATT/Puppy 8 unfolds the soundstage with such crispness that walking amongst the musicians seems possible. Different amplification can take some of the edge off such extreme focus or hone it a little more, the WATT/Puppy 8 passing along what's upstream with exceptional fidelity. The WATT/Puppy has always been an effective reviewing tool, and the System 8 is an even better one.

But lest you think that the WATT/Puppy has reverted to its early studio-monitor days, the System 8 is not merciless in its chasing of the signal's purity. It retains its intrinsic beauty, and may perhaps sound a bit more radiant because of its evenhanded approach. Thinking back to my earlier reviews, it seems inconceivable for the WATT/Puppy to become a more truthful speaker without affecting its sheer music-making abilities, but it has. I can only speculate, but I would guess that the new tweeter and WATT cabinet are responsible for this, the former offering up more musical information and the latter reducing the speaker's own self-generated noise to a new low point. Thus, there's more signal and less distortion to corrupt it, making for cleaner sound.

The second area in which the System 8 trumps its ancestors is coherence -- the drivers' coalescence into a uniform presentation. This was a big challenge for early WATT/Puppys, and it is still an issue for many of the speakers that have tried to adopt the two-cabinet platform. But the System 6 and 7 made strides forward in terms of sonic oneness, and the System 8 takes a giant step down that same road. The WATT/Puppy 8 is now one of the most cohesive-sounding multi-driver dynamic speakers on the market. In fact, I can't think of one that's better. High to low, the System 8 is steady and unbroken in tonal quality, sounding neither forward nor recessed, warm nor cool, lean nor rich. This makes the WATT/Puppy 8 a speaker for all kinds of music, not one that sounds best with classical or jazz but falls apart with electrified rock. While the speaker's sheer resolving power and extension at both extremes contribute to this, it is the way the drivers unite that pulls it all together.

In this regard, the System 8 isn't alone in the Wilson Audio line. The Sophia 2 ($13,990 per pair) is also a very coherent speaker -- and markedly better in this regard than earlier WATT/Puppys. Differences exist between the Sophia 2 and WATT/Puppy 8, but you will need to hear the speakers one after another with a wide range of music to appreciate them fully. This is a testament to the quality of the Sophia 2, which, when its cost is considered, might be Wilson Audio's highest sonic accomplishment to date. I stick by that even as I acknowledge that the WATT/Puppy 8 is the better speaker. The System 8's bass does extend lower, and it has increased weight and slam with a capable amplifier. But the bigger discrepancies happen elsewhere, likely due to the dynamics inherent in the 4dB difference in sensitivity between the two speakers. Sensitivity is not just about ultimate loudness; you can hear its effect even when an audio system is loping along at a low level. The WATT/Puppy 8 sounds more frank and freewheeling than the Sophia 2. It is also the more focused speaker, which leads to images that are more tightly defined and arranged in space in a more precise manner. In fact, "precise" is a good way to sum up: The WATT/Puppy 8 is the more precise speaker, while the Sophia 2 is ever so slightly sweeter.

The MAXX 2 ($48,000 per pair) is another issue altogether, capable of reproducing the scale and dynamic range of a performance in a way that the WATT/Puppy 8 can't equal. With the MAXX 2s, a big soundstage is bigger still, and solo performers float alone in space. These big speakers disappear like small ones, which is one of the most surprising things about them and the even larger Alexandria X-2s. This is where Wilson Audio's group delay adjustments (and in the case of the X-2, aspherical group delay, with each driver's position adjusted forward and back, up and down) makes its importance known. Once properly set up, the speakers leave only the sound they make behind them, which is an optical illusion given their sheer mass.

Still, the WATT/Puppy 8 is the speaker sonically closest to the MAXX 2 -- a Mini MAXX (or Maxi Sophia), if you will. But moving up the Wilson Audio line is not so much a matter of simply achieving more -- more bass, dynamics, you name it. You do get a speaker that expands the performance envelope, but the model below remains undiminished and distinct, a rarity in the audio world and a notion that turns the idea of value on its head.

The question I answer most often about Wilson Audio speakers is, Which one should I buy? Potential owners often have the budget for two different models, and they want to know which one would be better given their rooms and ancillary equipment. I still subscribe to what I wrote in my sidebar to Ken Choi's review of the Sophia 2: "The best Wilson Audio speaker is the one you happen to be listening to." The point here is that when you're hearing the Sophia 2, for example, you don't necessarily start thinking what that jump up in price to the WATT/Puppy 8 might bring. The Sophia 2 is so accomplished and distinct that living with it doesn't involve compromise. In fact, every time I listen to it, I think there's no good reason to consider one of the pricier Wilson Audio speakers.

But the same is now true of the WATT/Puppy 8, and perhaps even more so because of its rich past. It's a state-of-the-art small floorstanding speaker, and a speaker of historical importance too. Would I live with it after hearing the X-2 and MAXX 2? Oh, yeah.

What I find most intriguing about the WATT/Puppy 8, however, has nothing to do with the speaker itself. Instead, I wonder where Wilson Audio goes from here. More research in materials? Better drivers, perhaps manufactured completely at Wilson Audio? Many speaker makers today see moving their manufacturing to Asia as progress, but not Wilson Audio, whose craftsmen understand their jobs to a degree that simply can't be duplicated in another country. Cheap Asian labor may be good for stock dividends and CEO compensation packages, but it's bad for the artisan spirit of audio's highest end.

No matter. Even with all of the thought and engineering that have gone into the WATT/Puppy 8 and will go into future models of this time-honored speaker, it's the destination, not the road taken to get there, that's important.

...Marc Mickelson
marc@soundstage.com