Description

I like the WP 8's ability to reproduce whatever the Joules can send their way. Speed, they can handle the Joule's lighting fast attack transients. The wonderful harmonic textures, decays and inner details the Joules reproduce are handled deftly by the WPs. The bass is strong, tight, detailed and textured.
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Components Toggle details

    • Basis Audio 2500
    Active suspension with oil and spring.
    • Basis Audio Vector 3 Tonearm
    The 3 is less congested providing more inner detail with more extended hi's and bass. It has a VTA micrometer that will help with finer adjustments.
    • Basis Audio Signature motor
    Had original motor upgraded to Signature. The new Signature is quieter with less cogging.
    • Basis Audio Revolution Belt
    "It occurred to A.J. that the belt itself may be playing a role. He measured a range of the belts on hand, selecting the most accurate (consistent thickness), and found that the tighter the tolerances, the lower the speed variation and better the sound. So how to increase tolerance was the question. A.J. embarked on a crusade that eventually led him to design his own process and apparatus which grinds the belt and to an astonishing accuracy of one-ten-thousandths of an inch!"
    • Basis Audio counterweights
    Lighter main weight with two smaller fine tuning weights positioning larger weight as close to pivot point as possible should result in a quicker reaction time.
    • Walker Audio Ultimate Precision motor controller
    With Valid Points and Control Discs and upgraded teflon circuit board. The improvement in the total presentation is impressive, smooth and clear were the first impressions. The bass seemed more pronounced and better defined; the highs were smoother resulting in a .."more natural sound".
    • Air Tight PC-1
    Just a fantastic cartridge!!!! Loaded at 240ohms, VTF @ 2.1grams. "Like most vinylphiles, I've listened to a lot of fine moving-coil cartridges over the years. The Air Tight PC-1, TAS' 2006 Phono Cartridge of the Year award-winner, is, IMO, the best yet in nearly every aspect of phonographic reproduction - the most complete." - Jonathan Valin, 2007 Golden Ear Award Winner, The Absolute Sound Issue 173, August 2007 "In plain English, the PC-1's magnets produce a much stronger magentic field, greatly lowering noise and coloration and greatly increasing resolution in every regard. Details are clearer, timbres are truer, air is more plentiful, dynamics are more lifelike, and stage width, depth, and height are expanded... a leap forward in moving-coil design." - Jonathan Valin, 2007 Golden Ear Award Winner, The Absolute Sound Issue 173, August 2007
    • Koetsu Urushi Black
    Warm with detail.
    • Koetsu Rosewood
    I need to remount this cart and find if my recollections are correct!!
    • GamuT CD-3
    The best player I heard at my pay grade in my system, coupled with the Joule LAP-150 Mkll it produces an enjoyable sound.
    • Joule Electra LAP 150 MK ll
    The top unit is the separate power supply, the bottom is the pre/phono. Me likey!!!! Changed the tubes to: 3 x Amperex 7025 '66 in 5751 sockets 2 x Amperex JAN 7308 '62 in 6DJ8 sockets
    • Joule Electra VZN-160 Grand Marquis MKV Musicwood
    OTL immediacy/speed, wonderful inner detail, dynamic, delicate, attack matched by incredible decay AAAAA+++++ piece of gear!!!! A privilege to own a joy to listen through!!! The amp themselves can be tuned by adjustments to the voltage with the variacs, biasing the 6C33CB's between (25) to (33) and with a dial provided for adjustments of negative feedback creating the sound you prefer. Presently running Amperex Holland 7025's and Amperex Holland 6DJ8's.
    • Wilson Audio WATT Puppy 8
    I've been changing positions and tuning by ear only. I measure at the top outside rear corner of the Puppy for both back and side wall numbers. This allows a fixed point for side and back wall numbers while toe in is adjusted, this corner being the easiest spot on these speakers to permit this for me. My normal listening db level is 72db to 83db so I'm optimizing the placement for this volume range as I think the boundary distances are dependent on the db level. The outside rear corners are now at 39 3/4" to back wall and 23 3/4" to lt side wall and 23" to rt side wall. The celling rises from 9 1/2' at lt wall to 10 1/2' at rt wall. The tweeters are 101" apart and my ears are 120" from the tweeters with a sliver of the inside of the WATT visible. This is the best sound I've had in my room!!!
    • Purist Proteus Provectus I/C pre > amp
    All copper
    • Purist Proteus Provectus S/C amp>speaker
    Copper
    • Purist Aqueous 20th Anniversary P/C CDP
    This is has been moved from the CDP to the LAP-150 Mk ll.
    • Purist Musaeus P/C pre-amp power supply
    Using to the Joule LAP-150 Mk2 power supply. Will try different cords eventually. This pic is when it was connected to CDP.
    • Purist 20th Anniversary P/C wall to VZN's
    To the tube section of the amps
    • Purist Musaeus P/C 15A to Walker control
    Cable upgrade for TT motor controller.
    • Solid Tech Rack of Silence 4
    Quieter and much nicer to look at than my old racks.
    • Black Diamond Racing The Shelf (2)
    Two 21" X 19" X 3/4" shelves one under TT and one under the pre amp give quieter backgrounds with much greater detail "Made entirely of BDR’s proprietary Carbon Fiber Composite materials and finished with clear acrylic on both sides for an elegant and understated appearance, the BDR Shelf is massive and extremely non-resonant, absorbing enormous amounts of vibration: a BDR Shelf is only ¾” thick, yet it is 25x less resonant than an 8” thick granite slab and has 4 times the vibration absorbing power of 2” thick MDF!"
    • Black Diamond Racing The Shelf (2)
    Two 19" X 15" X 3/4" shelves one under the Joule LAP-150Mkll's power supply and one under GamuT CDP. "Made entirely of BDR’s proprietary Carbon Fiber Composite materials and finished with clear acrylic on both sides for an elegant and understated appearance, the BDR Shelf is massive and extremely non-resonant, absorbing enormous amounts of vibration: a BDR Shelf is only ¾” thick, yet it is 25x less resonant than an 8” thick granite slab and has 4 times the vibration absorbing power of 2” thick MDF!"
    • Solid Tech Rack Of Silence ROS 1
    Amp stands with cross braces suspended by springs and amps feet sitting on Sims Novcom pucks.
    • Solid Tech Rack Of Silence ROS 1
    This is a picture of the ROS 1 Ref without the spring suspension. Currently set up with 1.6
    • Acoustic Sciences Corporation Tube traps
    (2) 16" Supertrap tube traps, (2) 11" Tube Traps, (2) 9" Tube Traps,(2) half round 11", (2) half round 9"
    • Real Traps Mondo Traps
    (4) traps at first and second reflection points
    • GIK Acoustics 242 & 244
    (2) 244 on top of the record cases, (3) 242's on front wall, (1) on wall behind chair
    • Mint LP Mirror protractor
    Fantastic tool for checking stylus alignment
    • Cable Isolators ESD
    Made of Electro Static Dissipative Polyurethane. The jury is still out on the effect these have on the sound but they have helped separate and organize the cables.
    • Sims Vibration Dynamics Navcom silencers
    Used between Rack Of Silence and BDR shelves under preamp and CDP. They are also under the acrylic shelves under Direct satellite box and Walker speed controller shelf.
    • Purchasing Department I-Mac & inter net
    Without this tweak the rest would have been near impossible, at best very difficult and a lot slower.
    • Hickok 539 b
    Roger Kennedy digital mods and calibration. A must have for matching sections, power tubes and to protect equipment.
    • VPI 16.5
    This was a great buy it really make record cleaning a snap!!!!
    • Digital Tachometer no name
    Reads strip of tape on the side of the platter.
    • PHONIC PAA2
    The PAA2 can perform full acoustical analysis using its real-time spectrum analyzer. Thirty-one, one-third octave bands are displayed on the screen real-time with selectable response times (35ms, 125ms, 250ms and 1 second) and weighting options (Flat, A and C). The operator needs to select the SPL (Speaker Pressure Level) range (30-90 dBSPL, 50-110 dBSPL, 70-130 dBSPL) for the test being run. The user can select any of the center frequencies and display the level that was measured with the numbers displayed above the real-time graph. The peak level can also be displayed for reference. There are a total of sixteen memory locations for storing data. The measured spectrum data can be stored to any one of ten memory locations. Averaged data from any or all of the ten memory locations can be stored to the remaining six memory locations.

Comments 268

Impressive and seems you built this in a slow and elaborate way. Would be interesting to explore the Basis Audio turntable. I never saw them here in Europe.

calle_jr

Owner
Repositioned speakers so the rear outside corners are 46" from front wall and 25" from side walls. They were originally at 36" and 19". 1:30 in the morning posts result in confusing descriptions!!!!!

samhar

Owner
System edited: Repositioned speakers so the right rear corners are 46" out from front wall and 25"from side wall with the tweeters firing at points 9" wider than each ear. The reduction of the reflections off the equipment on the center rack has resulted in a wonderful improvement to the mid's and hi's, with the biggest result being very small adjustments to VTA result in big improvements to the sound for individual records.

samhar

Owner
System edited: Reinserted Proteus Provectus S/C's and will leave them in!!!

samhar

Owner
Jfrech
Thanks for the congrats!!!!
I read many of your posts and they were a factor in my purchase of the 8's instead of the 7's!!!! Thank you!!! I listened to your speakers the M3's with Boulder gear and had to pry myself from the chair by reminding myself I was there to buy W/P's or I could have listened all day!!! You have truly marvelous speakers and the Boulder gear sounded surprisingly great through them.
My Wilson dealer Sunny from Covina CA is coming out to do the set up after they run in a little which gives me time to play with the set up until then!!! I had them spiked on skids and placed where the Sophias were so they would be close enough to listen to!!! I can't wait to hear them after the Wilson dealer dials them in!!! The whole experience with my dealer, he went several extra miles for me as I bought them on monday and he had them in place by tuesday mid afternoon, has been really great and has made the purchase an enjoyable experience as it should be!!!

samhar

Hi, awhile back I went from the WP 6's to 8's and pretty much feel as you do. The WP 8's are a great speaker for money - especially used.

Congratulations !

jfrech

Owner
System edited: Installed Watt Puppy 8's!!!! After going to Sunny's Audio and listening to the Sasha and the Max lll I realized what I wanted. I didn't want to spend the money for the Sasha so I bought 8"s that someone had traded in on the Sasha. I'm so pleased with what the 8's do they are a huge huge huge step up from the Sophia 1 and to hear them in my system with my music was a revelation!!! I didn't know I had so many wonderful records's everything sounded so amazing, I just wanted to hear one more album hour after hour after hour until I just became exhausted. And this is only the first day!!!!! I wasn't liking the PC-1 much with the Sophia 1 but with the 8's it's working well and both shine!!!

samhar

Owner
System edited: Changed tubes in the phono section to 3 x Amperex 7025 '66 in the 5751 sockets and 2 x Amperex 7308 '62 in the 6DJ8 sockets. A definite improvement in the quality of sound, almost to much of a good thing. I will try Siemans E188CC/7308's to hear if there is a little better definition than the Amperex/Amperex combination.

samhar

Owner
Steve
I tried a set of Tele ribbed plates in the VZN's 12AX7 sockets when the preamp was a CJ Act 2 but I don't remember how they affected the sound just that I preferred the Amperex.
I did try Sylvania 6350 D getters, RCA 6350 med. and sm. halo getter and have some RCA D plate getter that I've yet to try. I ordered from Jud once and received med. halo getters which if I'm remembering correctly are the quietest, longest lasting and sound similar to the D getters.
Let's see Joule OTL's, Purist Proteus S/C's (I will put the Provectus back in), Koetsu Urushi and Airtight PC-1, all very familiar to you and in my system currently!!!! Actually the Urushi is broken and out of the rotation! I find it interesting that you are very familiar with many parts of my system and have a good feel for what parts of my system do/don't do!!!!!

Sam

samhar

Hi Sam, Thanks for the information. I have a pair of Rite of Passages, and oddly, had not considered tube swapping. Odd, since every other tube component I have owned went through a variety of Teles, amperex, Mullard, etc. Have you tried Telefunkens in the 6DJ8 or 12AX7 sockets? Also, any changes to the 6350's?

Thanks again,

Steve

siddh

Owner
Hi Steve
I felt there was a thinness to the sound, lacking in harmonic richness/completeness to each note, just some very little thing about the sound that just wasn't right to me. I tried different 5751's and some 12AX7's and the tube I liked the sound the best with is an Amperex 12AX7, with these each note has a defined fullness and richer harmonics.

I also like Amperex 6DJ8 and 6922 in the 6DJ8 sockets but also use Mullard 6DJ8 there depending on what's available. I bais all driver tubes at 115, all changes even replacing with like tubes require re-biasing of the driver tubes as I'm sure you know.

Sam

samhar

Hello Samhar, Beautiful system. May I ask what changes you noticed by swapping out the tubes in the Joules?

Thanks, Steve

siddh

Owner
System edited: Put Purist Proteus Rev B S/C's in replacing the GR, I will also put the Provectus back in to hear the differences. With the Purist in the cart loading at 500ohms was to forward, the next lowest resistors I have are 100ohms(240ohms are on order) so I installed them. Raised the VTA very slightly to level and BAM the sound is wonderful!! I wasn't sure the PC-1 was going to workout but with the Purist cable back in it has in spades!!!! Toe tapping factor 10!!! Orchestra factor 9 !!! No matter what I play it's wonderful, I have errands to run but can't stop listening!!! Four hours so far this morning!!! Yesterday I was ready to buy a Bose Wave!!! Today I have some "old cable" for sale!!!!

samhar

Owner
System edited: Returned the Purist Provectus I/C between the pre and amp, so far I like the improved air, detail, speed, dynamics and more linear presentation, they compliments the PC-1. I also ordered 240ohms and 360ohms loading resistors for the OPS-1, until they arrive it's 500ohms I tried 100ohms it was to compressed/slow. When I think the I/C's are settled I'll try the Proteus Provectus S/C's again!! The PC-1 has let me hear the attack and dynamics the Joule amps and the Sophias are capable of, I hadn't realized the speed and power of either and together wow!! The Sophias 1's are better than I was aware of, their attack, dynamics, speed and definition in the bottom end are reveled by the PC-1. Also it seems the PC-1's powerful mid-range "fills in" the recessed mid-range presentation of the Sophia 1, works for me!!!

samhar

Owner
Correction; The title of one of Joe Williams songs should be, "Rocks In My Bed" not Head!!!!! After spending some time working on the cart adjustment I felt like I had rocks in my head!!!!

samhar

Owner
System edited: Installed an Air Tight PC-1 last night using an AccuTrac Universal Protractor, Baerwald B120.89 for ball park and fined tuned with a Mint LP. Today worked on the VTA, VTF and anti skate set up today. The tonearm head is ever so slightly raked down in the tail and the tracking weight is 1.960. For setting the anti skate I used Joe Williams "Me And The Blues" side one but mostly "Every Night" and Rocks In My Head". Joe sings in the center with a muted trumpet on the right and a sax on the left, of coarse there are drums on the right and a bass on the left also but I mostly concentrated on the first three instruments. The loading resistors 10kohms, 1000ohms, 500ohms and 100ohms I ordered haven't arrived yet so this has all been done at 47kohms!!!

samhar

Owner
System edited: Removed rack that were behind the amps, turned the amps and move them back which opened up the space and made the room feel larger, did it help the SS I'm not sure yet. Added pictures that are more current on home page.

samhar

Owner
System edited: Placed ESD Cable Isolators on the TT shelf across the front and 1/2 way down the sides of the plinth but not touching the plinth, then put a sheet of foam in front of the components faces. I was hoping to soften the reflections that bounce off the components faces and the front of the plinth. There was always a hard metallic brightness to this reflected sound that was making the vocals more forward and separate from the instruments, they were incongruous with the music. I was also hoping for a better focused sound stage with more depth and a sound that would resemble a rackless sound stage. The result was a much "softer" sound the instruments and voices had more body, in fact there was too much of a good thing now there was a lack of definition and focus!!! I started increasing the VTA and after two small increases felt I was close to what I think I'm looking for, I say close because this is a new and different sound and I'll have to listen and try more adjustments to find what I like best. I think this has been a very successful test, I have a good feel for what I will get without a rack in the middle of the sound stage and the sound has been improved in the midrange with the foam in place!!!

samhar

Owner
Jfrech

Thank you!!!! I agree Wilsons are wonderful speakers, they reward hard work!!!
In my 1 3/4 yrs with the Sophia 1's I have changed ALL my equipment around the Sophias, just when I think I'm ready to upgrade the speakers I discover they are capable of a higher level of performance and I need to address an area they have pointed to, different cart, isolation, or my current direction a fully adjustable arm. I want the ability to adjust the azimuth like your Tri Planer has, I've heard your TT arm combination with a Benz LP through WP7's it was impressive!!!

Thanks again,
Sam

samhar

I have to complement you are your room and speaker placement work. Fine tuming is where the magic is and seems like you're putting a lot of effort into this.

I've spent forever on tweeking my arm settings, loading, etc. I haven't done enough on my room, that's next on my list of todo's !

Glad your digging the Wilson's, I think they are wonderful speakers...

jfrech

Owner
System edited: Set the floor spikes into maple floor. After many large and small adjustments to the speaker's positions I liked this position the best and decided it was finally time to find out how setting the spikes into the wood floor effected the sound. I was surprised how much everything "tightened up" and became better defined especially the bass and lower mids, It was very similar to putting Mapleshade Heavyfeet under the CDP. No more getting by running the Koetsu at 47 kohms!!!! Waiting for the 1000 ohm resistors that are on order to change the loading is going to be tuff but I'm sure the body that will be added to the sound will be just right. Once again an improvement points to the weak link!!!!

samhar

Owner
System edited: Put 1 1/2" maple butcher block boards under VZN-160's with the amp's skids sitting directly on the boards. I had found a brochure on the Musicwood amps and Jud recommended the skids sit directly on the iso-platforms. This replaced the MDF and Sims Novcom pucks that were thinning the bass and mids, now very evident and there is a smoother more balanced presentation.

samhar

Owner
System edited: Moved the GIK 244's to the tops of the record cases, put the tubes back in the corners of the front wall, played Stereophile's Test CD #1 and started moving the speakers around until the bass became more even with the mids with the perception being a "fuller" midrange. Ended up with the inside back corner 34" from the front wall and the back outside corner 20 1/2" from the outside wall The tweeters are 9' 3" apart and the distance to my ears is 13' 3", not the ideal Wilson formula but what I have to live with and more than decent. The inside of the speaker is barely visible from the listening position. Added a current system picture. Before the record cases were added the set up was more straight forward, no big wooden drums to deal with, almost forgot I stuffed foam between the record cases and the front wall to dampen excessive bass resonance. The GIK treatments helped tame a difficult room and learn more about my system.

samhar

Owner
Installed Cardas Golden Reference S/C's but the sound still didn't have the "body" I'd hoped for so moved the speakers closer to the front wall, now 23" away. The sound is much fuller in the mids and bass, in fact I'm surprised how good the Sophias are sounding. I really missed on the placement before compared to this!!! I'm sure the GIK 244 Base Traps in the front corners are helping tremendously, also used one GIK 242 on the right wall to counter balance the couch. Thanks to all the "it's a placement issue not a speaker issue" people discussing the Sophias in many threads.

samhar

Owner
System edited: Installed GIK Acoustics 242 panels at first and second reflection points and GIK 244 panel in corners of front wall. This led to me hearing a hollowness in Dexter Gordon's tenor sax at what I thought was approximately 200Hz-300Hz. The speakers were positioned so I could just see the inside surface of the speakers heads, I change the position so the tweeter pointed at the center of my forehead. I found as I moved them in more the sound became "fuller" and the hollowness went away!!! Next I'll move the speakers back towards the front wall and go from there I'm sure there's plenty of adjusting/tuning to do now.

samhar

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