Wilson Audio TuneTot Review (high-end bookshelf speaker)

[Geert]

Where you get the monotone bass from?

From the 6 dB peak at 115 Hz obviously.

Amir said that without the EQ bass on female voices wasn't so bad

Of course not, as female voice don't contain much low frequencies.

He also said that it has nicer bass then the REVEL M106.

And explained afterwards: "The Revel M106 woofer has much less excursion ability than the much beefier one in Wilson. As a result, I was able to get good tactile feedback with TuneTot than I could with M106".

I know this woofer myself and know how good it is in bass department.

Which demonstrates how flawed the design is.

Im sure they know pretty well what customer they target.

No doubt about that; people who can effort to buy merchandise like this. Some brands make some T-shirts, Wilson offers a toy speaker.

 

[retro]

Why people are saying this speaker have a expensive cabinet etc?
This cabinet only uses cheap wood, not even aluminum.
I dont see any special thing in this cabinet at 10,000 usd.

AFAIK, all Wilson's are built using Corian, not "cheap wood".

 

[sarumbear]

No it's not. This is...

 

[HiFidFan]

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.

Wilson Audio products are hardly aimed at "generic" customers.

A free market is filled with like products (cars, speakers, watches. . .) at different price points. Always was, always will be.

 

[heflys20]

Let me correct an error you made.

So either they "intentionally" designed the speaker to measure/behave this way, or someone lied when writing the specs. I say this in that snake oil, fraudsters and scammers run the audio industry. Thank heavens for the few companies that are honest, decent and actually care about delivering a good product for a decent price. The good companies deserve our patronage!
Amir finds the great and decent companies in his testing. I never want to support scammers like Audioquest, Shinyata and Synergistic etc

Lol. I was trying be respectful without stating that implicitly. I'm too nice.

 

[617]

AFAIK, all Wilson's are built using Corian, not "cheap wood".

Wilson Audio Factory Visit - The Absolute Sound

Wilson Audio Factory Visit -

www.theabsolutesound.com

Looks like the 'x material' is a corian-like composite, probably something which takes paint better, but it looks like the baffles and bracing are something else. The use of a high end dense material makes the most sense for the outer panels which get paint of course. Beautifully made cabinets for sure.

 

[Mystical Boar]

Wilson Audio products are hardly aimed at "generic" customers.

Again, so what?

There are reviews here that didn't get any recommendation despite measuring decent due to there being better products for the price. Also, this site is all about being objective - to the point of some people becoming hostile even when one says they like vinyl. Because hey, digital is better on paper!

... But suddenly, a product that by all objective merits is overpriced given its objective performance gets a recommendation because the reviewer liked its sound for some reason. This. is. ridiculous.

You know, there's a difference between being respectful and apologetic. People overpraise Iron Maiden these days, no matter what they do, and look what happened to that band in regard to their music. Fans hold them to no standard so that's the standard they decided to meet.

 

[zeppzeppzepp]

From the 6 dB peak at 115 Hz obviously.

Of course not, as female voice don't contain much low frequencies.

And explained afterwards: "The Revel M106 woofer has much less excursion ability than the much beefier one in Wilson. As a result, I was able to get good tactile feedback with TuneTot than I could with M106".

Which demonstrates how flawed the design is.

No doubt about that; people who can effort to buy merchandise like this. Some brands make some T-shirts, Wilson offers a toy speaker.

Try find a speaker with really great enclosure and distortion quality then applying some bass boost like that.
You'll know the ugly bass boost is just a memory of low quality speakers.

 

[nc42acc]

AFAIK, all Wilson's are built using Corian, not "cheap wood".

I think they use Richlite but I may be wrong. I know it is a phenolic based board of some type. Richlite is not cheap.

 

[MrHifiTunes]

From the 6 dB peak at 115 Hz obviously.

Of course not, as female voice don't contain much low frequencies.

And explained afterwards: "The Revel M106 woofer has much less excursion ability than the much beefier one in Wilson. As a result, I was able to get good tactile feedback with TuneTot than I could with M106".

Which demonstrates how flawed the design is.

No doubt about that; people who can effort to buy merchandise like this. Some brands make some T-shirts, Wilson offers a toy speaker.

This is what genelec buyers listen too. See graph below. Perfect measurements....but in room? A big dip at 100Hz. Picture comes from Genelec themself.

Much beefier? Revel has 5mm linear travel, the TuneTot 6,5mm. You listen to those full power to make that a difference? Designs isnt flawed. Amir mentioned "TuneTot also had deeper and cleaner bass response than the M106. Overall, I preferred the TuneTot over Revel."
This speaker surely is a niche speaker. Their target buyers will not put sound absorbing material in their room. It is designed for a specific setup. I dont know if Amir adjust the spikes for the measurement distance. I doubt it, if setup like intented I dont think any EQ is needed.

 

[zeppzeppzepp]

Again, so what?

There are reviews here that didn't get any recommendation despite measuring decent due to there being better products for the price. Also, this site is all about being objective - to the point of some people becoming hostile even when one says they like vinyl. Because hey, digital is better on paper!

... But suddenly, a product that by all objective merits is overpriced given its objective performance gets a recommendation because the reviewer liked its sound for some reason. This. is. ridiculous.

You know, there's a difference between being respectful and apologetic. People overpraise Iron Maiden these days, no matter what they do, and look what happened to that band in regard to their music. Fans hold them to no standard so that's the standard they decided to meet.

Why Iron maiden? Nobody listening to old man metal music like me now.......ha
There are unicorns.
They can beat the rules.
Making a speaker that not matching to simplified evaluation method but getting the good sound is a talent.
Just blame the price, it's OK. the price is ridiculous, I agree.
Go find a real full range floor standing is the way to go for spending $10k for most people.

 

[MrHifiTunes]

You are presuming facts not in evidence. Their wide (but very uneven) horizontal directivity may play well in a reflective room, depending upon placement. The bass peak will only be amplified by boundary gain. Low F extension will improve, but will be masked by the 115Hz peak. Look at KEF FR curves to see a speaker that is designed to be placed near a wall and leverage boundary gain. This is not it.

Im not presuming anything. Look at their website. It is designs for reflective rooms. The bass peak will be disapear when placed at the right distance from the wall. (ref picture from Genelec).

This speaker is designed for high reflective room.
They use a different approach to design their speakers. But it doesnt mean they are less high fidelity.
They need to be placed exactly as intended otherwise there strength will collapse.
Amir said they have some bright treble. This will disappear when listen off axis (read point straight forward as this target audience will place them. When the spikes are adjusted to the correct listening distance I doubt they need any EQ.

Who is better off? One who buy blindly a genelec speaker and place it in their room. Thinking they listen to the green while actually they listen to the red graph. Start to put absorbing material to make it sound right....Or one who buy this speaker and respect their finetuned placement.

Is it a good approach? That is debatable...it has less tweeking possibility then going the EQ route. But that doesnt make it a bad design.

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

I think they use Richlite but I may be wrong. I know it is a phenolic based board of some type. Richlite is not cheap.

Richlite vs alum ?

 

[Beershaun]

As a person who spent a year choosing drive units (we tested 100+) and building a super-stiff enclosure for my Silver5L and I can vouch that 100%.

How about asking Sean Olive to preference test these speakers?

 

[nc42acc]

Richlite vs alum ?

Richlite can be machined with regular woodworking machinery, aluminum you need large CNC machines. I don‘t understand the aluminum speaker craze. Maybe a metallurgist member can explain.

 

[nc42acc]

I am surprised Wilson hasn’t hit Amir with a cease and desist letter. Wilson are protective of their products and have a list of approved reviewers.

 

[heflys20]

This is what genelec buyers listen too. See graph below. Perfect measurements....but in room? A big dip at 100Hz. Picture comes from Genelec themself.

That's in room-response. In a free-field/anechoic type setting the Genelec's are essentially flat, while the Tunetot has a massive 6db hump at 100-120hz, and an almost -5db dip around 2500-3000khz. Show me the Tunetot's "actual" average in room response.

This speaker is designed for high reflective room.
They use a different approach to design their speakers. But it doesnt mean they are less high fidelity.
They need to be placed exactly as intended otherwise there strength will collapse.

If that's the case, why'd they state the average in-room response is 65-25khz +/- 3db? Either they're liars or incompetent.

 

[Beershaun]

Richlite can be machined with regular woodworking machinery, aluminum you need large CNC machines. I don‘t understand the aluminum speaker craze. Maybe a metallurgist member can explain.

If you are referring to the cabinets, you can cast aluminum easily. So like the Google speaker, they can make many of them cheaply with one mold. The mold itself is expensive so you need to make a larger quantity to make it profitable.

 

[Kevinfc]

Can somebody tell me how much in parts goes into one of the $10,000 speaker sets? Leaving aside the cabinetry.

 

[nc42acc]

If you are referring to the cabinets, you can cast aluminum easily. So like the Google speaker, they can make many of them cheaply with one mold. The mold itself is expensive so you need to make a larger quantity to make it profitable.

I have a pair of realistic speakers that I think are cast aluminum. The little minumus two ways. Anybody remember Radio Shack?