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A Visit to Stereophile Reviewer, Jason Victor Serinus

dshreter

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Effect box aka “active or tube preamps and SET power amps or terrible measuring power amp, DACs that have terrible measurements and such. What I meant by transparency is when those speakers are fed with Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC and Benchmark AHB2 monoblock amps known for their transparency. However, DSP and room treatment are needed to correct for room acoustics.
Are there spinoramas for Wilson? I appreciate the commentary, but I’m more interested in how their range of speakers actually performs. There’s so much mud slinging, the discussion should be grounded by measurements.

They market and build a lot of superfluous things, but I can forgive that if they actually perform well. For many, speakers are objects as art, and put prominently on display so I can accept if others want to spend on that element, as long as its not purely at the expense of performance.
 

MZKM

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Stereophile has measured them. Not pretty.
In their most recent Wilson speaker measurements, John Atkinson did not measure on the reference axis, he even mentions this when describing the step response:
The optimal blend between the two units' steps occurs a little lower than the axis that I had calculated I should use for the farfield measurements.
Horizontal listening window:
1219Wilsonfig4.jpg

Horizontal off-axis:
1219Wilsonfig5.jpg

Vertical off-axis:
1219Wilsonfig6.jpg


Still not winning any awards, but that apparent dip ~2kHz would not be there if listening on the reference axis (the user manual has a whole chart in it based on listening distance and ear height).
 

direstraitsfan98

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Wilsons require extensive setup to assist with getting better sound out of them. They are deficient in the design area, for all the special fancy doohicky MATERIAL X they spent time on developing, it does not measure very well. If you buy a pair, the local dealer is required to stop by and spend an entire day performing exhaustive measurements and setup process. At least they weigh a lot and you feel like you're getting something of quality. The Wilson Sasha series of speakers weigh 200lb each yet are about half the size of most other loudspeakers weighing that much.
 

Sal1950

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Wilsons are designed mainly by ear and using very high quality expensive materials.
They either appeal to your taste in sound or they don't. A true piece of the boutique thinking let by the marketing team.
If your interested in High Fidelity, much better can be obtained for much less money.
The thing that surprised me most was Chris at CA/AS chose them for his reference system.
I believe some other factors beside top shelf SQ might have had some influence. :(
 
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