Напольная акустика — Wilson Audio The WATT/Puppy

The WATT/Puppy is a two-module tower from the Utah maker Wilson Audio, presented in 2024 as a remastered version of one of the brand's oldest designs. It returned thirteen years after the retirement of Series 8, with the goal of building the model David Wilson would have made with the resources the company has now.

Key specs that matter

Per side Wilson uses two 8 inch (20.32 cm) woofers, one 7 inch (17.78 cm) midrange and one 1 inch (2.54 cm) tweeter. Wilson quotes a room average response of 26 Hz to 30 kHz (plus or minus 3 dB) and 89 dB sensitivity at 1 W, 1 m and 1 kHz. Nominal impedance is 4 ohm, dropping to a minimum of 2.87 ohm at 86 Hz, and the minimum amplifier power is 25 W per channel. Measured without spikes, it is 105 cm high, 30.48 cm wide and 47.44 cm deep, and it weighs 72.57 kg uncrated. A pair ships at about 235.87 kg.

Engineering and use context

The system keeps the two-part layout of the original, an upper WATT module carrying the midrange and tweeter above a Puppy bass cabinet. The woofer enclosure is ported at the rear, the midrange box has a rear vent and the tweeter enclosure is sealed. The first WATT/Puppy went through eight evolutions from 1986 to 2011, with early Puppy cabinets built from laminated high-density fiberboard and the WATT from polymethyl methacrylate. The current version uses X-Material for the internal bracing and outer enclosure, S-Material to couple the midrange to the front WATT baffle and V-Material on top of the Puppy as the vibration sink under the WATT. It is fitted with the CSC tweeter and an AlNiCo QuadraMag midrange. The crossover uses AudioCapX-WA capacitors wound in-house by the company's Reliable Capacitors (RelCap) department, including a copper version with copper end-spray and gold leads that first appeared with the Sasha V series. The rod handle on the back of the WATT dates back to 1985, when David Wilson, then a recording engineer, used it to carry his studio monitors to sessions. It has been restyled for a secure grip at any angle and still carries the weight of the WATT during installation. Throughout 2024, a 50th anniversary medallion matched to the hardware color was fitted.

Pairing

The low power floor and fairly high sensitivity widen the choice of amplifiers, though the dip below 3 ohm still asks for a design that stays stable at such loads.

Alternatives

In the same Wilson Audio floorstanding lineup, the Sasha V is another two-module design.