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Ok, Does this Dynaco MK 3 work with Wilson Audio Watt 3 / Puppy 2 ?

D

DenverJW

New Member
First off thank you to everyone for helping a newbie many times, this site is amazing! I am looking for a high current tube amp or integrated for my Wilson Audio Watt 3 / Puppy 2's. Under $2K and thinking about pulling the trigger on a set of Dynaco MK 3's at 60 WPC. I have no idea if the current is high or low? Can anyone offer some advice I read the Wilson's like High Current especially for Bass Reproduction? I don't need them to play super loud, but I want a full sound with bass.

The others I have my eye on are the Dynaco ST70, but that is only 35 WPC and Quicksilver has 2 sets, one at 30 WPC and one set at 60 WPC. Rogue Audio has some interesting stuff but it's a bit more $. I really need to know if I should pull the trigger on the MK 3's or continue searching.
 
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Tube amps are not high current devices. A pair of MK-III's will work. However you may have restricted dynamics and volume if you run them full range. AFAIK Watt Puppys are not amplifier friendly.

I use a pair of radically modified MKIII's to drive my Magnepan 1.7's, However I use an electronic crossover to send everything below ~65Hz to dual subwoofers.
 
JoeESP9 said:
I use a pair of radically modified MKIII's to drive my Magnepan 1.7's
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I had my MarkIIIs with my Maggies for many years. These were not radically modified, but did have most of Dynaco Doctor's MarkIII updates. Iron and chassis were original. It did sound nice but have moved to sand gear.

I can't imagine running Mark IIIs in original form. You will be missing so much.
 
Maybe you'll like the result, who knows for sure until/unless you try.

But, as Joe mentioned, they don't appear to be tube-friendly speakers for whatever that's worth.

666WP3FIG01.jpg
 
Thank you, Love the tube sound and I want to give it a try. Do you think I should just go for the highest power tube amp I can afford? or could the low power ones sound good too? I don't know enough to understand why these speakers are not tube friendly on paper?
 
A lot depends on what you consider low powered. If you mean a SET (single ended triode) forget it.

For the Watt Puppies SS is probably your best option. I would go for the highest power I could afford.
 
DenverJW said:
Thank you, Love the tube sound and I want to give it a try. Do you think I should just go for the highest power tube amp I can afford? or could the low power ones sound good too? I don't know enough to understand why these speakers are not tube friendly on paper?
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Because they have a lot of fairly wide impedance swings and the rather low overall impedance through the midrange and up.

With the output impedance of tube amplifiers being (relatively) high, the variance and swings of speaker impedance have effect of altering the frequency response of the amp. The tail wagging the dog, if you will.

A SS amp without output transformers tends to have higher output impedance and is less affected by the load-induced frequency response aberrations.

Then, the rather lowish overall impedance through the mid really begs for an amp that can drive low impedance.
 
Have a pair of Dynaco MKIII’s that I’ve used to drive a couple of “hard to drive speaker” sets, CV AT-15s, and Infinity RSMs both 4 ohm.

My MKIIISs have VTA dual octal boards and use the “Yellow Sheet” rectifier mod, and they push each set of the above speakers to over 100 dB without issue, but that’s about the Max with those speakers.

Realize that environment and music types have a huge impact on the overall performance of an amp, but I’m happy with mine...

However the VTA 125 mono-blocks (4 KT88s) are right there at the high end of your budget, and they are fine amps....
 
Imo what you should be your look for is a Hybrid Integrated or separates like stated above . You’ll get the sweet tube sound with the power of SS.

Audiofreak71
 
Great stuff, thank you...still deciding what to do. Most of what I can find says these speakers like power and sweet-sounding amps. Seems like everyone is going with 100 wpc tube or a 150 or wpc SS with a warm sound. I guess the speakers don't like bright or analytical. I like a musical non-analytical sound and do not need to crank it. And, I do like low and mid-volume dynamics. Anyone know some tubes amps or sweet musical SS under $2K used? I'm on the fence about the Dynaco MK3 because they are 60 WPC, not bad, but maybe not enough??
 
DenverJW said:
Thank you, Love the tube sound and I want to give it a try. Do you think I should just go for the highest power tube amp I can afford? or could the low power ones sound good too? I don't know enough to understand why these speakers are not tube friendly on paper?
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I have 5s and not sure how close they are to 3s but the impedance is in the 2ohm territory at a certain frequency range, 4 ohms nominally. Despite a reasonable efficiency, the 2ohm thing is hard on amps.

Because its playtime right now, I have gone from my AR VT100..which to me sounded great, to my KR Anteres, SET, only putting out 14-ish watts. I think more detail from the KR(not that VT100 was lacking) sounds nice in many ways, but lacking weight behind it.

Summertime I run a Tri Vista, 600w at 4ohms..does the trick nicely!
 
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Audiofreak71 said:
Thank you , she’s a South African Boerboel (Mastiff) 171lbs of gentle service dog .

Audiofreak71
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Nice dogs, we unfortunately had to put our Boerboel down about 6 months ago:(..her stomach got twisted up somehow, and could not find a vet to do surgery in time.
The bummer of having pets.
 
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