Wilson Audio TuneTot Review (high-end bookshelf speaker)

[dukanvadet]

I am happy to refund anyone's donation at any time. Please start a conversation with me if you want to do that.

That aside, when someone is reviewing a Rolls Royce, comparisons to a Honda is meaningless. I have a wealthy friend that bought a very small run of BMW Alpina V12 (?) when they first came out. He said he paid $20K to upgrade the seats alone! While that sounds very strange and odd to average person, I fully appreciate that being something he would do. I myself have high-end class audio equipment and am not going to bother making comparisons to budget desktop products with them. They are what they are. You get to brag about how they look, how much they weigh, etc.

Also, bulk of the review are the measurements which are made regardless of whether I am testing a $100 speaker or $100,000. That is what people come here for. What I write subjectively based on my personal priority and judgements are out there for folks to look at, or not. Not here to sell you on them. I don't get the point of dictating to me what I should care about when evaluating a product any more than you would appreciate me advocating to you what you should do.

I just purchased a mixer to make Pizza dough. It is from Italy and costs $1,800. When it arrives, I will judge it on what kind of dough it makes, not how much more expensive it is than a mass market mixer.

I assume that even if no direct comparison is made he would still be disappointed if his new bmw performed worse than the honda and the high price at that point would not be an excuse at all? I guess he even compared it to other high performance luxury cars like porsche, amg etc. If at a certain price point any flaw is forgiven and every speaker is uncomparable to any other why even measure and listen? Maybe you can review it as a fancy cabinetry.

I am not telling you what to do, just speaking my mind on an open forum. I withdraw my support because i no longer support it morally. And since i still think you have done amazing work before i am not asking for a refund.

 

[Mystical Boar]

So go ahead and tell me what is cheap and expensive with respect to price of a speaker and prove that is representative of everyone here.

Are you saying there's no objective criteria for something being expensive just because it's different for, say, someone living in Africa or inside a cardboard? I think most people on this forum would agree on what is expensive and what is not, hence the widely used term "a budget speaker".

 

[amirm]

I assume that even if no direct comparison is made he would still be disappointed if his new bmw performed worse than the honda and the high price at that point would not be an excuse at all? I guess he even compared it to other high performance luxury cars like porsche, amg etc. If at a certain price point any flaw is forgiven and every speaker is uncomparable to any other why even measure and listen? Maybe you can review it as a fancy cabinetry.

??? I measure and listen to give data on performance of a device you can't evaluate yourself. This is why I do that. And is price independent. Nothing was forgiven here because the cabinet was expensive. I rated it higher than the measurements sum up due to fidelity that I heard. As I noted in the review, I do not like the look of this speaker and regardless of how good it is, I would never buy it for that reason. So if you think I gave it a pass because it is a luxury product, I did not whatsoever. I am simply not here to penalize everything I test on basis of price when there are so many subjective factors in something like a speaker. A DAC, sure. But not a speaker. You have to like how it looks, how big it is, how easy it is to drive in your system, etc.

 

[Walter]

Are you saying there's no objective criteria for something being expensive just because it's different for, say, someone living in Africa or inside a cardboard? I think most people on this forum would agree on what is expensive and what is not, hence the widely used term "a budget speaker".

To your first statement, I say emphatically "Yes." To your second, I think you are wrong. I would not even give the same answer to that question at different points in my life. When I was single and making a US professional's salary, $1,000 for a pair of speakers was cheap. Now that I live in a developing nation and have 4 children to support, it is very expensive.

 

[restorer-john]

Where is that bench test of the Levinson?

Stereophile did a comprehensive review of the MLs. It makes no sense for Amir to repeat it, unless he want a visit to his chiropractor afterwards. They also are likely to push the precision dummy loads a bit too hard.

At 500-1000Watts, tiny mistakes are very costly. Big sparks.

 

[amirm]

Are you saying there's no objective criteria for something being expensive just because it's different for, say, someone living in Africa or inside a cardboard? I think most people on this forum would agree on what is expensive and what is not, hence the widely used term "a budget speaker".

And that is what? Give the specifics and lets see if everyone agrees.

 

[voodooless]

100hz is too high for sounding it bigger. This range is about 60-80hz which makes speakers to sound bigger.

Well, it's depends on how you interpret things:

It will sound punchy and warm, possibly a bit muddy. I'm pretty sure that will be a crowd pleaser in the demo room.

 

[Mystical Boar]

To your first statement, I say emphatically "Yes."

Then I guess we must now abandon words like "expensive", "cheap", or "budget" as it is completely subjective... Is a 1 mln USD watch expensive? No it's not because to Jeff Bezos it's nothing.

And that is what? Give the specifics and lets see if everyone agrees.

Why would I? Prices are dictated by the market and what is objectively worth the price is always in regard to competition.

 

[gsp1971]

Are you saying there's no objective criteria for something being expensive just because it's different for, say, someone living in Africa or inside a cardboard? I think most people on this forum would agree on what is expensive and what is not, hence the widely used term "a budget speaker".

It has nothing to do with location. It has to do with disposable income and priorities.
There are rich people in Africa who can afford luxury goods. There are also poor people in Africa. That is true of any country or continent.

ASR is a good example. Members are from different countries, in different age groups, and of varying financial means.
Create a poll, asking "Is a pair of speakers that costs $2,500 cheap, expensive or good value?"
Let's see what people will vote

 

[JJB70]

The concept of cost and value is highly subjective as linked to individual circumstances. Whilst it may be difficult to agree on what is cheap or a budget speaker I think even most audio enthusiasts would admit that $10k is a lot to spend on speakers. I have a Blancpain 50 fathoms which I have never regretted buying and which offered value to me, I also recognise it is hellishly expensive and understand why most would consider it stupid to buy such a watch.

 

[Mystical Boar]

It has nothing to do with location. It has to do with disposable income and priorities.
There are rich people in Africa who can afford luxury goods. There are also poor people in Africa. That is true of any country or continent.

ASR is a good example. Members are from different countries, in different age groups, and of varying financial means.
Create a poll, asking "Is a pair of speakers that costs $2,500 cheap, expensive or good value?"
Let's see what people will vote

I often buy music on discogs. If a record is rare and/or old it's usually "expensive" - universally, because record dealers know how much the competition is asking for it. Also, when it's "expensive" it takes more time to sell it and less people have it. It's objectively expensive based on prices in general.

 

[Fidji]

The concept of cost and value is highly subjective as linked to individual circumstances. Whilst it may be difficult to agree on what is cheap or a budget speaker I think even most audio enthusiasts would admit that $10k is a lot to spend on speakers. I have a Blancpain 50 fathoms which I have never regretted buying and which offered value to me, I also recognise it is hellishly expensive and understand why most would consider it stupid to buy such a watch.

And on top, they are nowhere near as precise as Apple Watch. Figure this.

 

[MrHifiTunes]

Based on the measurements I think it's easy to predict what your ears are going to prefer when you setup these speakers next to Dutch & Dutch 8C's.

Are you sure? This speaker is a goof example of what "the system" calls bad measurements. Every measurement doesn't look textbook, hence the low score. But look at all the measurements combined...then everything falls into place. The more I think about it...maybe for some frequencies it sounds better to our ears if the balance between on and off axis is in favour of one or an other. ( combined the are equal again)

 

[gsp1971]

I often buy music on discogs. If a record is rare and/or old it's usually "expensive" - universally, because record dealers know how much the competition is asking for it. Also, when it's "expensive" it takes more time to sell it and less people have it. It's objectively expensive based on prices in general.

there is no such thing as 'objectively expensive'
using your example, a rare and old record costing $500,
(a) is expensive to you
(b) is extortionately priced for a student
(c) is OK if you are a vinyl lover
(d) is peanuts for a wealthy vinyl collector

etc, etc.

 

[Mystical Boar]

there is no such thing as 'objectively expensive'
using your example, a rare and old record costing $500,

Of course there is such a thing and of course a $500 LP is expensive even though there are much more expensive records. Why? Because you can buy a new record for like $30 and this is the typical price. Generalised data renders something cheap or expensive.

 

[Fidji]

Of course there is such a thing and of course a $500 LP is expensive even though there are much more expensive records. Why? Because you can buy a new record for like $30 and this is the typical price. Generalised data renders something cheap or expensive.

Here I would disagree - "audiophile quality re-release" of Kind of Blue for $500 is a different thing to $500 for "First press Kind of Blue mono with sleeve stained by John Coltrane's coffee".

Everything has a value, that somebody is willing to pay. That is it. I made really good money on piece of land, that I was able to sell for approx. 25x of usual sqm price in the area, as this was last piece to enable one development. And everybody made a good business.

I also agree with Amir, performance and price should be somehow detached. You have some folks evaluating in several categories -
e.g. WA Tiny Tot would probably look like this

Measured performance **
Craftmanship ****
Listening ****
Value for Money *

 

[gsp1971]

Of course there is such a thing and of course a $500 LP is expensive even though there are much more expensive records. Why? Because you can buy a new record for like $30 and this is the typical price. Generalised data renders something cheap or expensive.

I have no idea what 'generalized data' is and where you get it. I have explained clearly that something is cheap or expensive based on income and priorities. $500 is not expensive for someone with an income of $10,000 a month. fullstop.

 

[Geert]

Are you sure? This speaker is a goof example of what "the system" calls bad measurements. Every measurement doesn't look textbook, hence the low score. But look at all the measurements combined...then everything falls into place. The more I think about it...maybe for some frequencies it sounds better to our ears if the balance between on and off axis is in favour of one or an other. ( combined the are equal again)

Do you believe Wilson just proved we don't need low frequencies for music, just replace them with a single 115 Hz tone? The wife's are going to be happy. No need anymore for large tower speakers or ugly subwoofer boxes.

Amir confirmed the TuneTot's absolutely need EQ, as expected.

 

[bunkbail]

I think the Chane A1.5 actually measure better and he didn’t recommend it. SMH.

In what way the Chane A1.5 measure better?

 

[Mystical Boar]

$500 is not expensive for someone with an income of $10,000 a month.

Doesn't matter, what matters is how expensive it is to a mundane, generic customer.

I highly respect Amir reviews and I've spent some money based on his conclusions. However, not saying this recommendation is just confusing, like trying to be objective too hard, would not be very... objective.