I almost feel compelled to say something about these speakers having read the many reviews here. How can a speaker be both "elite" and "terrible" at the same time. I've owned too many to count speakers over the years and felt I had to try Wilson, mostly to see what all the hype and insane cost are about. I found a pair of WP6s on EBAY, eventually paying an excellent price of 4925.

These speakers are absolutely fabulous on all counts but with a few caveats. Room positioning is critical. Honestly, a few inches off and they sound... meh, just read the reviews. You have to incrementally move them until they snap into focus, when that happens you suddenly "get it". Takes some time, but not difficult. Next would be the front end, it has to be very good as the Wilsons reveal everything!!! Lastly, the recording. Cranking up your old Rock collection will disappoint, it did me. Even Rush, which is touted recorded very well was just ok at best. You need to play high fidelity stuff which usually puts one in the category of Jazz and some classical. Some newer recordings were excellent, Nickle Creek, The Milk Carton Kids, etc. just have to go through your collection.

If you can get a USED pair of Wilsons, you just can't go wrong, just take into consideration some of the issues I mentioned and you'll be elated as to how incredible these speakers are. Thanks! Steve

I bought my set about 6 months ago and therfore I fell I know them well by now. I have paired them with two different front end setups: First setup: Audia Flight cd one MK3, Pass Labs XP 10, Audio Research WM 220 monos. Cabeling: Transparent musiclink super interconects and NBS OMEGA EXTREME speaker cables.

Second setup: Audio Reserach cd 7, Audio Reserach Ref 3 preamp, Pass Labs XA 100.5 monos. Cabeling: Transparent Ultra signal as well as speaker cables.

On setup one I found the sound to be lush, open and relativly warm. But with a slightly boomy upper bass ( 150 - 200 hz ?? ). Here the WP´s did´nt seem very fast, as I had heard them beeing earlyer! In order to get rid of the boomy bass I decided to upgrade to the Pass amps. Now the boomyness was reduced and the sound got a lot quicker. But the midrange now seemed harsher and the voices had less body. Thus I decided to change the preamp and bought the REF 3 from ARC. It did´nt add warmth or body, but the soundstage grew bothe in hight, width and espcialy in depth. This change resulted in a 3D immage I have never achived before, Better than with ML Prodigy and Summit which I have also used in the past. Having spent a lot of money upgrading the poweramps as well as the pre, I decided to go all the way and ordred the cd 7 from ARC. In the beginning this upgrade was a downgrade. Mann the cd 7 sounds like crap before it has been run in ( min. 200 hours ), but after burn in the sound stage grew even more and now extends from wall to wall and even beond on the best recordings.... extreeem !!!
The sound itself is on the bright side in my room, but I have spend a little money and time tuning the room with dampening pads on the walls, and that has made a lot of difference to the good side !!! I highly recomend that a little effort is spend on the acoustics of the room.
I think that the WP´s are a marveless set of speakers, but I will agree with one of the previous rewievers that they are not perfect. But are there any speakers out there that are perfekt ? They are a splendid tool for evaluating the result of changing cables or front end equipment as I have tried to ilustrate above. They will show you both proos and cons of any up or downgrades you might make. They are monitors and to me they sound as such. I have had speakers that were easier to listen to, but newer a system that were so honnest. So if you desire a speaker that will show you the "real world" they might be an option. But if you as I before, crave a Hollywood version of "the world" there might be better options out there. ML`s, Revels could be something to go for if you like a "painted and gloryfied" sound. ( With all doe respect ) I have owned them my self and loved them, but I think it all comes down to what you want and prefer. Right now I want realism, and I am getting that with the WP´s...... good or bad.

Holographic imaging capability, unbelievable transparancy, true to life voicing of sound, palpability of sound in a class which WAS defined by this product and its predecessor and lead the industry to follow suit.

Compared to the bass to midrange realism, high frequency is a notch down. For instance, cynbals arn't as realistic as voicing of instruments in the lower ranges. This is the product that has most "air" out of all Wilson's products, but I still find myself wanting for more around instruments. Fairly narrow dispersion (to the ears, but doesn't show on measurements) which puts severe restrictions on listening position.

Upon reading the product reviews, Wilson Audio's equipment seems to bring out much emotions of the reviewers either positive or negative. Much of the negatives seem to hinge on "I can have a system just as good for much less ...". It's probably pointless to argue, but when this product is compared to likes of Martin Logans which is completely different architecture and thus renders A-B comparison useless, I'd have to say that such review lacks any objectivity, and maybe bit of sour grape as well. there's a reason why people buy products in this price range and it's not just out of ignorance or masochism to want to spend money. I've been doing Hi-Fi for over 35 years and there's a reason for me to spend this sort of money on any product. First of all, this product has kind of transparancy that I don't find often in audio products. And the palpability of the sound is stunning. I'm not sure if people are setting this system correctly, and listening to it with the proper equipment when they complain about its bass. For instance wood bass on Chesky's DVDA through this system sound's absolutely realistic. If the instrument is recorded well, this system will stun you with the way it's presented in full realism. Human voice, brass instruments also sound's absolutely realistic. I own several different systems, but this is the only one that I can detect differences in flaws in mix down of a recordings, such as which track had background noise etc. In fact one of the mixes that was done at a multi-million dollar recording facility had flaws which a recording engineer did not catch probably because the monitoring system in his studio didn't pick it up (same master was sent to 6 different recording studios for master mix so this comparison was possible). In my home also no other system caught the flaw on a first listen but recordings done better did sound better although exactly why couldn't be pin pointed until it was played through the WATTs. You can't argue which CD sounds good and which palyback system sound's good until the dirt is sufficiently removed so a good listening of the originally recorded material IS possible. You can argue if you like the sound of this system or not, but you can't argue that its ability to show the details of recorded material is phenominal. And when a good recoded material is there, this system blows away any so called "budget" system out of the water. That's my take on why spend the money on this system. On Stereophile's Test CD 3 there's a track with white noise recorded in phase and out of phase. When the out of phase track is played back on this system, there's absolutely, I mean absolutely nothing coming out of the center between the speakers, attesting to its consistencies between one unit to another. Technology has it's way of moving foward and I wouldn't say that these speakers are the best in every aspect, for instance, use of better materials for tweeter dome such as berylium, or diamond. In this aspect, Wilson's are no exception, and probably could benefit from advanced meterials. But I'm sure we haven't heard the last word on the future of these speakers, and they will probably be upgraded when those technologies becomes available to the manufacturer. Is it a perfect speaker ? No, but it does stretch the limit of hi-fidelity audio close to its outer boundary, and if you look at how many WATT/PUPPY look alikes are out there in terms of shape and architecture, you'll see the significance of what this product has done to the entire industry. For this product, form follows function, from tilted front baffle and pyramid shape of the enclosure (narrow baffle for diffraction free design), and I don't see why David Wilson need's to be educated on product design for designing the product right (on the first place). The product is very space efficient, and will fit comfortably in anyone's listening room (also it's barely light enough for me to move them on my own which many high-end gear is NOT and is a plus if you ever tried moving these things around). With a good front end and amplification, these speakers should be an epiphany for any audio enthusiasts.

Similar Products Used:

B&W 802

Superb immaging and staging when set up right.

Require a qualified professional with measurement tools to achieve the best response.

If you can afford the speakers you can afford to pay a acoustician to come and set them up for you to sound right. With propoer palcement and setup these puppies sound great. You need a very powerfull and clean systme to pull this off. Do it right and have fun listening to these beasts.

Similar Products Used:

Revel, TOA, Talon, Totem

Bass

Harsh,brittle mids and highs

I had these speakers for 3 months and although sounded good initially, fatigue set in after many hours. The mid range and highs are too "tinny" sounding. They may even sound harsh and hurt your ears after a prolonged period. Speakers are very sensitive to placement and is very difficult to get a balance between the bass and the mid range. Overall they are musically unsatisfying..there are better alternatives.

Similar Products Used:

B&W's Kharma's Revel Studios Piega's Sonus Faber JM Labs

Dynamics,open mids,airy

Needs serious gear.The 7 already out

I have this speaker more than a year already.It doesn't take a long time to know the character of this speaker.This speaker has a natural sounding,it tells u every change in your front end.It may not be the most natural or the best sound at this price range.But,once u get it hooked right,u will not think about the price anymore.U just enjoy the music that coming out from this speaker.It's dynamic sound only perform if u drive them with a fast amp.Even this speaker can be drive with tubes amp,but...needs a big tube amp. If someone says its high sounds edgy,man...don't blame this watt 6,blame your front end.The mids,it may not the best but it's quite open.This speaker can be disapear.Once again,this speaker may too expensive to some,but to put the price as this high should have the points.The points that i don't want to mention are only u (w/p 6 owner)could find by feed them with the right gear.Happy listening My systems: Nottingham dais koetsu jade cat ultimate mkII gryphon antileon signature kimber select cabling

Similar Products Used:

sonus faber electra amator II

Imaging, dynamic range, speed, size, and finish

They take a long time to set up properly and have a relatively small sweet spot. A movement of 1/2" can make an audible difference.

The Watt Puppy seems to be a love 'em or hate 'em kind of speaker based on the prior reviews. They are extremely well made, have a wide dynamic range, small footprint and play all music types well. The soudstage is wide and deep and the lower end is tight and quick. Bass is reproduced the old fashioned way, by using state of the art materials and engineering instead of using a poorly matched built in subwoofer. All components in the system need to be up to the task of reproducing music properly. A weakness in any upstream component or recording will be heard through these speakers. Proper set up requires much time and patience. I found the use of all of the spike spacers worked best in my room along with the tallest tuning spike for the Watt. Wadia 861 Audio Research Reference 2 Mark Levinson 332 Transparent Reference XLR (2) Transparent Reference Speaker cables Zoethecus Z6 with Z slabs Zoethecus Z block Goldmund cones Synergistic cords

Similar Products Used:

Vandersteen 5 JM Lab Utopia B&W Nautilus 800 series

imaging, holographic soundstage, pass rhythm

A beautiful frame with no body. incredible hardness seems to blanch every signal source with a whitish sheen, thin sounding. I can think of about half a dozen speakers at less than half the price of the Watt that does the holographic soundstage bit just as well. Silverline Sonata, Revel F30, etc just to name a few and with those other speakers you also get a far more satisfying palpable and accurate sense of timber and scale. The Watts have a glare and a mechanical sound in the upper mids think all bow and no body weedy, Also the Watts have this really disturbing bass roll off almost like a 24db highpass filter was placed somewhere around 35hz. These are the only speakers I ever heard a base drum sound like a mallet against cardboard. The Watts are just really expensive low model Theils with even less bottom end.

Utterly the worst speakers I have ever lived with at this price point

Similar Products Used:

Sonus Faber Armarati Krell KMA 250 CAT SL-1 SME Model 10 SME Tone Arm and Koetsu Rosewood Cardas and Kimber cable Harmonic tech power cables

Dynamic, neutral, terrific soundstaging.

Cost, bottom octive (16-30hz) not there

Boy is there alot of controversy surrounding these speakers. Not much objectivity in the reviews posted here. I suspect that opinions are based on older versions of the Watt/Puppy not on the 6s. I also suspect that many who have a poor opinion of the product have not really lived with the speaker (and might be annoyed by the cost, too). I have been looking for a new reference speaker for two years and have lived recently with the Kharma 1.0s... a fine speaker, but not the equal of the Watt/Puppys. These speakers are a phenomenon. They do more to recreate the feeling of live music than any other speaker that even remotely fits in a typical domestic listening room environment. They can sound bloated in the midbass if you place them too close to room boundries. They can sound bright if your electronics are sub-par, but they sound incredible with even modestly good electronics that are neutral. They are totally revealing of upstream components, cables, front ends, preamps, amps. They are VERY sensitive to set up too. They are very expensive, but if you examine the build quality compared to other speakers, you'll get an idea why... maybe not completely justifyable, but close. Don't judge these speaker unless you've listened to them for a while and are sure that they are set up properly. I just bet you'll be impressed.

ARC VT150 Special Edition amps
Transparent Music Wave Ultra
ARC LS25MkII
Nordost Red Dawn Interconnects
Sota Millennia/Graham/Grado Statement

Similar Products Used:

Silverline Sonata, Kharma Ceramique 1.0, Celestion SL700s

Very fast and dynamic

Bass is still bloated, And still way too forward.

If you're in the market for speakers in this price range, You expect something truly special. These new Watt Puppies are a definite improvement over the previous version. Highs are no longer ear piercing, and the still present mid-bass hump has been reduced. Staging is still in your face though. They're good but not great. Quite a few speakers at half the price are absolutely better, and speakers like the Amati Homage at MUCH better. All in All these Watt Puppy 6's are a pretty damend poor value.

Similar Products Used:

Sonus Faber Amati's