New to speakers and Wilson Audio in particular - please help!

[doublelife]

I am seriously considering buying a pair of Wilson Watt Puppy 5.1, my first foray into high end speakers. Apologies in advance for a lot of questions to come...

Initially, I want to try to power them from my existing headphone amp. I realise this isn't the best approach, but I'm just trying to use my existing system as much as possible until such time as I upgrade. Anyway this is a quite powerful Wells Audio headphone amp rated at 50W into 8 ohms (powerful by headphone standards at least). I don't know the power into 4 ohms or 2 ohms but I'm guessing (hoping) it will still be adequate? Is this possible to do with reasonable results? Also, my headphone amp-outs are either RCA or XLR. Can I buy speaker cables with say RCA on one end for example, and the right connectors for the Wilsons on the other? Is RCA or XLR-out better? What connectors to the speakers do I need? Is there a particular brand of speaker cable that pairs well with Wilson Watt Puppy 5.1?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give to all these questions.

 

[Sonus]

Take the amp with you and try it first before you buy, most likely you will burn it in the first 5 minutes.
IMO, you should wait until you have money for a decent amp, at the meantime the price of the 5.1 will go down.

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

Welcome to the forum. The WP 5.1 may require a little bit more power and stability than what your amp provides. It dips around 2 ohms in the bass. Best thing would be to listen to challenging material with your amp, at SPL you judge to be adequate. That would give you an idea. I do not have any experience with your particular amp. a cursory look at its specs reveals it can produce 100 Watts at 4 ohms. That's a lot for an headphones amp! Audition first. I do have my doubts about the long term behavior (reliability) of your amps with this diffcult load though.

 

[amirm]

You can make your own cables pretty easily or you can buy them: http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&ke...vptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_8yuxzqoiw8_b

Be careful to get the ones that don't have an attenuator. These are usually made for car stereo going from speaker level to RCA and hence the attenuation. Just pick the ones that are just straight wire.

I think 50 watts is enough to get a good experience. Average music levels we listen to are quite low.

 

[doublelife]

Thanks for all the advice! I'm going to give it a listen to see how it sounds with my amp before committing.

One last question, what type of speaker connection will I need (banana/spade?), and would I be better getting RCA-out or XLR-out from my amp to speaker cables?

 

[amirm]

XLR would be a better choice because it has a more secure connection than RCA. Then again you have to buy a cable or make one with the right pin out as it has three pins, and your speakers have two wires. If you are just going to test it, make it simple and get the RCA and see if it works well at all.

 

[doublelife]

Thanks amirm, and the speaker connectors are bananas or spades please?

 

[amirm]

I don't own one but looking at the picture/manual, it definitely takes a spade.

 

[prerich]

Take the amp with you and try it first before you buy, most likely you will burn it in the first 5 minutes.
IMO, you should wait until you have money for a decent amp, at the meantime the price of the 5.1 will go down.

Agreed!!!! The Watt/Puppy wouldn't be a comfortable load to drive with a headphone amp.