Wilson Audio TuneTot Review (high-end bookshelf speaker)

[mastachio]

I’ve been waiting for a Wilson measurement my whole life lol and it did not disappoint! There are speakers that measure better for $150 and yet Amir still recommended them anyway knowing full well he was going to get a bunch of shit for it and that’s what makes this so awesome!

 

[warnerwh]

I consider cost on every product I buy so I don't understand not considering price in this example. For 10k the performance is so bad I can hardly believe it. Maybe the real price is only 1k and this is a joke. Even at 1k it's not competitive.

 

[ZgSTar]

Am I the only one wondering how that Mark Levinson measures?

 

[warnerwh]

Actually I've wondered how the Levinson measures many times.

 

[voodooless]

WSAE engineers readily detect even the tiniest enclosure vibrations—at the level of billionths of a meter

And yet they fail to notice a clearly audible tweeter resonance?

@amirm: did you have two units? Did you check the second one for the tweeter resonance?

 

[FrantzM]

Is the 10k for a pair? I have to ask, it’s Wilson Audio …

 

[KMO]

Could the distortion be a crossover failure?

I ask, because one of my KEF LS50 Metas had a similar bad 2nd harmonic distortion a little above the crossover frequency, but no major disruption to its frequency response (maybe a slight drop there?). Diagnosis upon return was a crossover problem (but they didn't get more specific than that).

 

[amirm]

@amirm: did you have two units? Did you check the second one for the tweeter resonance?

I only have one unit. The resonance was not coming from the case which is what they used the laser vibrometer for.

 

[amirm]

Is the 10k for a pair? I have to ask, it’s Wilson Audio …

Yes, it is for a pair.

 

[HiFidFan]

Nope.

In absence of a piggy bank panther I voted headless panther.

$10,000+?

Thanks for the review @amirm

 

[GWolfman]

No way. No how.

 

[fordiebianco]

Listened to a set of Wilsons once at an audio fair with about $300,000 of chain hooked up to them (Audio Research/DCS). To my untrained ears no difference to the focals and the KEFs next door. Just uglier.

 

[wwenze]

A bigger mystery is the apparent disconnect between subjective opinion and preference score.

This may fall in line with my belief tho: Above a score of around 3 or 4, we are not actually that picky... or accurate with our preferences.

 

[FreaK]

@amirm : maybe worth a video review? i would love to hear your experience with this speaker in more extent, and i would love to know more about the impulse response and step response graphs.

 

[Walter]

It doesn't measure particularly well, but Amir preferred it to the M106, which is a very nice sounding speaker, so I was first inclined to rate it "fine". However, the M106 costs less than $1500 (final negotiated price from most dealers), so for $10k this gets a "not terrible" from me.

 

[pavuol]

Spoiler: price [a]musing[s]

price [a]musing

 

[Kaiju]

Voted Headless panther for price, like previous member mentioned- would have voted piggybank panther if there was option.

 

[alex-z]

What is that black stuff they glue on all of their speakers?
View attachment 173785

Felt, somewhat common in the DIY space for reducing baffle diffraction. Bit odd they went for that approach rather than doing a tweeter waveguide.

 

[Pearljam5000]

Felt, somewhat common in the DIY space for reducing baffle diffraction. Bit odd they went for that approach rather than doing a tweeter waveguide.

Yeah especially on speakers that cost $300K

 

[Puddingbuks]

With about 90% votes for poor or "not terrible", and these measurements - I just don't get the recommendation from @amirm ....?

And then there are the costs. You almost get an ACTIVE Dutch & Dutch 8C for this kind of money.

And with this statement:
"If I were to just goy by the measurements, the Tunetot would not get good marks. But I have promised you all that I won't lie about what I hear no matter how much of a conflict this provides. To that end, I am going to recommend the Wilson TuneTot with equalization (cost not considered)."

Are we letting the subjective impressions prevail over the poor measurements? I mean, this speaker is nowhere near full range.