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Succession is a fact of life in both royal dynasties and venerable audio products. It inevitably calls forth
complex emotions, hence the resonance of the phrase above, reputedly first uttered upon the death of Charles
VI of France, and thereafter part of the ritual of ascension in many European countries, including England.
For the past 23 years, no product represented the soul and history of Wilson Audio more than the WATT/Puppy.
With well over 15,000 units sold since its inception, its place in the pantheon of great audio products is
assured. Martin Colloms described the WATT in his landmark book, HIGH PERFORMANCE LOUDSPEAKERS, as the perfect
enclosure. Its distinctive pyramidal shape has inspired numerous imitators.
The WATT was conceived of necessity. At the time (the early eighties), Dave Wilson was engineering a series of
audiophile recordings and he needed an accurate location monitor. Nothing commercially available met his
standards, so he decided to design and build his own. The WATT was in instant demand among Dave's professional
peers. Once it was combined with a dedicated woofer cabinet (the Puppy), its long reign as audio's most
successful over- $10,000 loudspeaker began.
From 1986, when the WATT was introduced at that year's Consumer Electronics Show, to 2009, the WATT/Puppy system
evolved through seven revisions. New cabinet architecture, new enclosure materials, new drivers, the introduction
(with System 6) of Aspherical Group Delay—all of these changes came as Wilson's loudspeaker technology
progressed and found expression throughout the family of Wilson products—from Alexandria to Duette. The
WATT/Puppy, as the paterfamilias, was never allowed to languish far behind Wilson's state-of-the-art.
So why not a System 9? Why a new loudspeaker that embodies the spirit of WATT/Puppy, evokes a similar form factor,
but which can no longer simply be called a WATT/Puppy? Why was it time for Sasha?
Throughout its evolution, the WATT was always a self-contained, two-way loudspeaker. It had its own crossover;
the WATT always had the capability of being removed from the Puppy and operated on its own. MAXX and Alexandria,
meanwhile, were multi-cabinet loudspeakers that integrated drivers through crossover modules mounted in the bass
cabinet, a design strategy that has many proven sonic benefits. The WATT/Puppy platform itself became the
obstacle to fully leveraging the latest advances in cabinet materials,
crossover design, and proprietary driver design. Sasha makes all of
those things possible, while maintaining the central position in the Wilson product line held by its illustrious
predecessor.
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