Introduction Wilson Audio is a name that needs little formal introduction. In business for over 20 years, creator of the WATT/Puppy - AudioRevolution.com’s 1999 Speaker and Product of the Year - Wilson Audio is the company behind the new entry-level CUB II loudspeaker. Few companies over the decades have sustained Wilson Audio’s high measure of success and respect within the audio industry. At first glance, the Wilson CUB’s look is pretty darn basic. They resemble fairly typical mini-monitors. That is, of course, if you are looking at them from across a room. The finish on the CUBs, as with all Wilson loudspeakers, is second to none. Wilson calls this their WilsonGloss finish. For those who haven’t seen WilsonGloss at close range, we’re talking pure art. This article and the photos here couldn’t begin to do justice to the finish on the CUBs. I recently had the opportunity to visit the Wilson factory in Provo, Utah, and ...

Introduction The Wadia 830 compact disc player is the latest addition to the Wadia family of CD players and digital separates. At $3250 including remote, the Wadia 830 is the most affordable member of the line up and is based on many of their design achievements pioneered on the more pricey reference 860 CD player. On the 830, Wadia uses the same DAC board design and analog technology found in the 850 and 860. The DACs in the 830 are the top of the line Burr Brown 1702s. These are essentially the same as those found in the 850 and 860, however the chips in the 850 and 860 are the 1702K's, the K representing matched pair status. The other mechanical difference between the 830 and it's big brothers is it's Pioneer Stable Platter Transport. The 850 and 860 use the Teac CMK Mk.4 and Mk.3.2 respectively. The 830 features the digital volume control ...

Introduction The Wadia 860 is a $7,450 CD player and digital preamplifier housed in one complete, highly refined package. Seven inches tall by 17 inches wide by 16 inches deep, the Wadia 860 is an all-in-one, high-power front end that needs only an amplifier, loudspeakers linked with a pair of speaker and interconnect cables to make beautiful music. The Wadia 860 has an elegant and simple design throughout its chassis. The philosophy behind the 860 is to keep as much circuitry as possible out of the signal path in order to reproduce a traditional 16-bit CD (or other future sources via digital input) with the highest level of resolution and emotional impact possible. Wadia, a leader in cutting-edge digital playback since the late 1980s, uses three unique technologies in the 860 which make it truly special. The Wadia Digital Volume Control challenges the ...

Introduction The Wilson WATT Puppy is a truly classic loudspeaker design. Developed in the mid 1980s by David Wilson as professional location monitors, Wilson WATT Puppies have become the high end industry’s standard for music, theater and 35 millimeter film playback. The elements that make the WATT Puppy so special are complicated. First off, the sound is phenomenal. "Punchy," "crisp" and "extremely dynamic" just start to describe the event of listening to music or film soundtracks through WATT Puppies. The size, with its slender footprint, makes the speaker welcome in living rooms as well as mastering labs. Exotic paint and wood finishes give you the opportunity to either have your WATT Puppies blend into your décor, as they do in my room with my Asian Pearl paint job, or you can choose to have them be the focal point of your room with, say, a Lamborghini Fly Yellow finish. The WATT Puppy System is a two-piece ...