I would consider myself a very lucky guy because my father and I both share the passion for clean audio sound and he serves as my experienced consultant. You see, I started enjoying Blue Note recording long ago as a child on various high-end family equipment so now that I m older (a U.S. Army civil engineer officer) you can't beat the sound of vacuum tubes which to me is still the only way to enjoy warm clean sound!
So, in order for me to truly enjoy the real absolute clean notes from John Coltranes tenor sax, or Jimmy Garrisons upright Kay bass or even "that great Gretsch sound" from Elvin Jones 1966 18x12x14 drum set, I needed to seek-out the very best high-end equipment my life and money can buy. That's why I selected older top-of-the-line audio gear and this is why all of my audio gear is circa late 1980's to mid 1990's give or take a few years. My system is a 2 channel Analog /CD system which sits in my tiny 12x13 spare living room. Yes, the room is small but you work with what you got and it is what it is. Nonetheless most true jazz audiophiles like me will typically enjoy vintage LPs at a moderate level that is bearable... so I guess for now my room size is not a major issue.
However, I will say this, the size/shape and the wonderful piano black lacquer finish of my Wilson Audio combo gives my green walls, hardwood floors and black leather sofa that complete style and grace only known to man. And with the addition of the super size 450lbs mkII WHOW subwoofer the sound is now perfect, trust me! Mixed with the WATTs famous high signals and the WHOW's low tones those two have found there match made in heaven. My enormous mkII subwoofer normally goes unnoticed now that I have placed the sub on its sideboard with the driver facing the wall, which does not detract from low tones it so easily produces. A item worthy of a special note; because I enjoy trying to get the lowest tones possible from my sub on occasion I change out my Wilson crossover amplifier to the good ole vintage trusty Janis interphase Electronic Crossover amp to either my 100 watt A-1 or to my super rare 50 watt 3-A crossover amp. According to various magazines reviews David Wilson designed the WHOW subwoofer to perfectly integrate with the WATT/Puppy speaker system so trust me guys David Wilson did a perfect job and Im almost 99.9% sure the newer Wilson sub and WATT /Puppy 8 are superb, but I will never be totally convinced that they are that much better then my old vintage Wilson 3/2 set-up. The only improvements I can think of are speaker cables and RCA audio interconnects which will come with time. Oh, ask me if I missed my Manleys amps while I was deployed (OEF VI 05-06) for 15 months and the answer is YES!!!
Below is my description of my equipment:
Wilson Audio WATT 3/Puppy 2
Wilson Audio WHOW mkII subwoofer
Wilson Audio crossover w/ external power box
Janis Interphase A-1 Electronic Crossover amp or the 3-A version
