Audiophilepure

https://www.hifinews.com/content/wilson-audio-wattpuppy

Despite the way The WATT/Puppy dealt with both the delicate and the majestic, it was the latter that proved the most enticing. The speaker was proving to be the opposite of the diminutive LS3/5A, for example, to which I turn for savouring vocals. Thus I was driven to playing the whole of Led Zeppelin II [Atlantic SD8236], with which John Bonham’s juggernaut drumming came ascloseasthis to the Sasha V. The slam, the dryness of the bass drum, the sizzle of the cymbals were reproduced with such command that I was finding it difficult to imagine more.

What sold me, however, was a raw performance from a long-forgotten various artists LP sampler from 1973, Let It Rock [Atlantic K40455]. After a blistering ‘Back In The USA’ by MC5, all scorching guitars with greater speed than The Ramones could muster, I sat back to savour Magic Dick’s harmonica lead on J. Geils Band’s ‘Pack Fair And Square’. Arguably the greatest harp solo in history, it soars while testing clarity and transient crispness. It was, to put it succinctly, as in-the-room as I have ever heard in 50-plus years of loving it.

Of course the biggest feature here is the presence of vacuum tubes, for which Astell&Kern did a lot of work on minimizing the microphonic noise. AK uses a matched set of RAYTHEON JAN6418 miniature vacuum tubes, which are very popular in portable audio designs nowadays. This tube is designed to meet military specifications and traditionally was used in military communication equipment. It quickly garnered recognition for its distinctively warm and soft sound, leading to its integration into regular audio devices.