As a Wilson Owner I would talk to your wilson dealer or better yet call Dave Wilson before he comes out (doesn't he setup the X-2's personally if I remember correctly). That's a ton of power for such an effienct speaker.
What color did you order them in? |
You cannot bi-amp the X-2s. As Cytocycle, stated the X-2s are very efficient. They could be driven easily with 50-100 watts. Even if you could use both, it would be overkill. As a current X-2 owner and former 33h owner, the X-2s will knock your socks off!! Congratulations. |
Mmalin is right about the X-2s being efficient. But, in my opinion, more power for the speaker may or may not be overkill. It depends on your room size and listening preferences (types of music and volume levels).
With my pair, I've found that more power and current improves the dynamics of the speaker. I use a pair of Spectral DMA-360 Universal monoblocks which deliver over 500 watts and 90 amps of current per channel into the 4 ohm load of the X-2s.
I'm guessing that the Levinson 33 amp will work better than the 33H with the Alexandrias, since the 33 has more power and current. But that's just speculation. I've never heard either amp on the X-2s. |
I use X2's with 33's. I consider them to be the best overall amplifier for the speakers. DW uses 33's at home and can use anything he wants so draw your own conclusions.
BTW mine are the ultra high current version 240v 30amp and I have installed them with dedicated individual circuits and ground spike so they are not on the house earth loop. I also have recently used them with Transparent's Power Isolator XL's which given that the 33's regenerate their own power internally shouldn't make any difference, well they do and it's not subtle. I recommend you try them.
Also with the X2's make sure you use the 28.6 ohm woofer damping resistor and not the 32 ohm that the X2 ships with. Both are in the tool kit so its easy to swap them over. |
Hemisferik,
What difference did swapping out the resistors make? |
The factory now ships all X2's with the 28.6 resistor as standard. The 32ohm are only used in special cases such as Spectral or Boulder amps which have very high damping factors.
In my experience the 28.6 significantaly improve the woofer control and perceived bass response they really tighten up the lower octaves. Try them and see which you prefer.
Please let me know me know how you go. |
Oh and by the way make sure you change the mid and tweeter resistors at least every quarter. They do decay over time. I change mine every month but then I listen to mine pretty much all the time.
The resistors do get affected by high current heat loads which can change the resistor value under load. Always change them before fine tuning. |
Do these resistors also need to be changed in Watt Puppy 7s? I never have seen anything about this but I am putting a lot of power into mine? |
No not necessary to change them on the Watt Puppy only the X1, X2 and Maxx are affected by this. I must state that this not a problem simply a way of restoring the sound of the loudspeaker to optimum. If a dangerously high current passes through the resistors they will blow before any damage to the drivers occurs. Sometimes high currents not enough to blow them will damage them and then will cause sonic degradation over time.
I must also state that I am the principal of the Wilson Audio distributor for Australia and New Zealand and a dedicated Audiophile. As such I will try to help anyone on these forums with Wilson Audio products with any questions etc. |
Thank you very much for your answer and thank you for offering the advise in the future.
Can the Watt Puppy 7s blow drivers, tweeters etc. or will the resistor blow beforehand? I do crank them. I feel I am only missing the last little bit of bass, but my Watch Dog subwoofer is almost here. I am reluctant to listen to the Maxx 2s or Alexandria for them leaving me wanting too much. This years upgrade path should stop me for a good 2 years. I don't want the extra temptation at this time. Saying that I will listen to them if I am around the corner from them, just no special trips to the dealer (it involves flying & making time which I don't have much these days).
I also might add, hearing the 7s one time started this spending binge. I just wanted that sound in my house. |
As a WP7 owner the resisters will blow or show reduced volume and it is designed to protect the drivers.
I just got my Watch Dog and it fills in perfectly and I prefer this setup to just straight Maxx II. The difference is that the Maxx II's throw a bigger wall of sound, instead of the intimate exacting presentation that the WP7's throw.
If I got Maxx's I would still end up buying a subwoofer because of the ideal sub integation and the cut/boost filters on the Watch Dog.
Congrats!
Chris
Chrsi |
Chris,
Thanks for the advise. I was lusting the Maxx IIs. The sub is arriving tomorrow w. my VTL 7.5 preamp. I will post in a few days my impressions of the subwoofer in & out & the VTL 7.5 vs. the Placette (you didn't help me to not do the upgrade with your advise in your column, I am about to try the fully balanced approach, but my cable lenghts aren't that long). Next is to either change my last cable to reference w. mm or start playing with some home made jobs. I am trying homemade cables soon as I can always use them & it is inexpensive. This reference MM balanced is getting expensive. |
I did the reference MM balanced and my friend did the Ultra MM balanced and yes reference is better but barely, I would have saved the money and bought Ultra MM as it was better than my older reference with XL balanced... and that is all I needed.. Then I could have bought the sub sooner. The placette is awesome but the VTL will add some air into your system (my dealer has the S400 amp and it is pretty amaazing on WP7's)
Congrats!
Chris |
Chris I am waiting to post some comparisons shortly. They should be installed tomorrow morning. Unfortunately I have to work. I just want to make sure it all works & arrived in one piece. I am curious if the VTL is worth the extra over the Placette. I will find out soon. As for the cable, I was thinking of upgrading my interconnects to balanced transparent ref w. MM. Based on your recommendation I will hold off. I know I heard more of a difference on the interconnects than on the speaker cables. For me the change from Ref w. XL to Ref. w. MM on my single ended cables was huge. On speaker cables was good. My buddy felt the speaker cables had a bigger difference than the interconnects. I was the other way around. On another note, when I first upgraded transparent from Ultra to Reference the entire system didn't snap into place until the last cable was upgraded. AFter I upgraded my final cable "like bang, wow snap" everything just improved. This is why it is so difficult to compare just one cable in a system. At this point I trust Transparent to be a very good cable in the context of our systems. I am sure there are other better cables but the risk might be too high to experiment. Enjoy listening.
Darren |
Darren,
You are right about it snapping into focus, I felt the same way when I went from non-xl to xl and from ulra with xl to reference with xl complete.. my speaker cable is still reference xl and I have been hesitating on buying reference MM, and thinking of buying ultra MM... so I probably am not getting the full benifit. the speaker cable was the most import part in my systems prior, but only after having the interconnects in place.
It was a hard choice for me selling my placette but I found out that my Gamut CD1R was way better out of the balanced outputs so I switched to a balanced preamp.
Chris |
