Wilson Audio TuneTot Review (high-end bookshelf speaker)

[MrHifiTunes]

My friend's Wilson Sashas are immediately impressive. Driven by a Gryphon Diablo integrated and carefully positioned in an open room, they are incredibly dynamic and emminently listenable. However I found the high end fatiguing on all content I've heard on them. It could be the room, but I tend to think it is the Wilsons.

They would need the top end taming for me to live with them.

Can you not adjust the treble? Tonetun allows you to adjust the resisters of the tweeter

 

[beagleman]

The Minimus 7 was/is the biggest selling speaker in history.

I would imagine, Radio Shack, sold QUITE a few of it other speaker lines also.

I can barely count, how many friends, neighbors etc owned some type of radio shack speaker. Although none probably sold even close to the Minimus 7 model.

Begging the question, beyond Radio Shack, what company sold the most speakers.?

Possibly Advent, Acoustic Research, Bose, Polk, JBL?

 

[restorer-john]

Can you not adjust the treble? Tonetun allows you to adjust the resisters of the tweeter

It'd be kinda rude of me to adjust his speakers to suit my ears.

 

[restorer-john]

Possibly Advent, Acoustic Research, Bose, Polk??

It'd have to be a Japanese brand like Yamaha, who sold worldwide, with a huge range of speakers over many decades and still are selling loudspeakers.

But nothing comes remotely close to Radio Shack/Tandy. Absolutely huge range, massive number of stores and decades in the market.

 

[DWI]

Yeah lockdown did put things on hold for a long time now. But you have good reference how the real thing sounds like if you go 3-4 times a week to concerts. I'm sure you enjoy these speakers a lot. A 5,5"woofer is what it is. This one gives a lot of base for it size and will give many 6,5"drivers run for their money. Did you change the resistors for the treble? Or use the standard ones?

Change the resistors?

I don't want to reproduce a large Steinway or Bosendorfer in my home, let alone a full orchestra. Opera? We go every month or two, have Nabucco booked for a couple of weeks time, but never listened to a note at home. Hear Theolonious Monk at home almost every week, but never live. If I liked a lot of rock music, I'd probably only use headphones.

I get that studio monitors are designed to provide engineers with accurate sound reproduction over a wide frequency band up to high sound levels in largely damped rooms with little or no care for aesthetics, and are sometimes adapted for consumers by application of wood veneer, but that's not what I want at all. My speakers suit my preferences, just as anyone else makes choices based on their preferences. I don't need speakers that can play heavy rock to 20Hz and 105db as I don't listen to it.

It doesn't bother me that a chunk of the cost of the speakers is of largely aesthetic value. We could have furnished our music room from IKEA, lots of Kallax for records and a fisherman's chair (very cheap and comfortable), but we spent a lot more on furnishings than we did on the Wilson speakers.

I also have a spatial audio system in my house, currently 6 speakers in my music room, 16 in the main living room, more upstairs. They are very high quality, I usually use Amazon HD or Airplay (built in) or from Innuos by uPnP and they have very clever DSP. Being able to fill a room with immersive sound is often far more satisfying than good two channel sound, which gives me a lot of hope for Dolby Atmos. There has been a lot of work done on spatial audio in recent years, but the system I use works because you can now get fairly cheap hardware to send 24/192 PCM data to an almost unlimited number of wireless speakers (I use four wired Ubiquiti access points) without connection issues.

 

[sarumbear]

115 Hz is 85cm from the back wall. Easy to engineer that.

Then how is the in-room low frequency come together? (ref the null Genelec shows in their graphs.)

Don't you do the same when EQ the room? "Engineer" peaks to compensate room nulls. People who dont have access to EQ software dont have to bother, just pay attention to put the speaker in the right place. Maybe not the best solution, but for many the only way. For sure not flexible like software EQ. But better then doing nothing. Putting a Genelec speaker in your room and expect it to sound flat is further from thee truth.

You have no idea how unknowledgeable you sound.

 

[sarumbear]

I would imagine, Radio Shack, sold QUITE a few of it other speaker lines also.

I can barely count, how many friends, neighbors etc owned some type of radio shack speaker. Although none probably sold even close to the Minimus 7 model.

Begging the question, beyond Radio Shack, what company sold the most speakers.?

Possibly Advent, Acoustic Research, Bose, Polk, JBL?

I guess it’s Harman, when you count car audio.

 

[Ayebee]

They were sold by Tandy/Radio Shack.

Debuted in 1978 and were sold for 17 years across 9500 stores worldwide (at their peak). Came in various colours over the time. Production went from Japan (foster) to Korea.

Many millions were sold- I don't know how many, but the heads of Tandy/Intertan received gold plated ones as million/s milestones in the early 1980s. We were selling them in 1987 through to the early 90s. I'd always keep at least 20 pairs in stock and when on sale, we'd go through 50 pairs in a month. Multiply that by 9500 stores and you get the idea...

Black aluminium with the metal grille removed:
View attachment 174122

Just as an aside; these look very similar to the Braun Output-C monitors that Wilson supposedly used in the first iterations of the WAMM…

 

[sarumbear]

There has been a lot of work done on spatial audio in recent years, but the system I use works because you can now get fairly cheap hardware to send 24/192 PCM data to an almost unlimited number of wireless speakers (I use four wired Ubiquiti access points) without connection issues.

Can you explain how you achieve spatial playback with wireless speakers?

 

[heflys20]

You have no idea how unknowledgeable you sound.

No offense to him, but I had to stop responding when he suggested perfect room placement would remove a massive low-end peak (bass boost) that was appearing in a free-field/anechoic measurements; or that it was designed that way intentionally to compensate for room nulls, knowing every room is different.

 

[Spkrdctr]

The last few posts just scream for tone controls or built in EQ for systems. The one thing I don't like about my Yamaha surround AVR is the bass boost does nothing. I'm sure it is broken or designed to give a small amount of boost that sounds like no boost to me. My 30 channel EQ does it first class. But this is off topic. I will slink away now.......

 

[HiFidFan]

Just as an aside; these look very similar to the Braun Output-C monitors that Wilson supposedly used in the first iterations of the WAMM…

I never heard of the Output-C, but I had a pair of A/D/S L300's that are very similar to the Minimus 7

 

[DWI]

Can you explain how you achieve spatial playback with wireless speakers?

Like this. Zuma.ai
I was initially after a lighting system, but the sound quality blew me away. It also solved home cinema by having 6 units in an array playing TV and sound from an Apple TV box, with the sound via AirPlay. I can do sound direct from the TV, but it is unusable (Bluetooth and out of sync).
Being able to completely fill a room with sound is really an enjoyable way to listen to music. When we have friends round and put it on (using Alexa) they have no idea where the sound is coming from. Even when you tell them they don't believe you. The sound does not come straight down, like Sonos, it radiates like an umbrella, so there is no impression of a point source and it spreads very evenly. It also means you can fill a room with music and people can still chat away.
That said, the lighting is as good as I've come across and I'd use it for that alone.
I went through three wifi systems before I got it to work properly.

 

[sarumbear]

Like this. Zuma.ai
I was initially after a lighting system, but the sound quality blew me away. It also solved home cinema by having 6 units in an array playing TV and sound from an Apple TV box, with the sound via AirPlay. I can do sound direct from the TV, but it is unusable (Bluetooth and out of sync).
Being able to completely fill a room with sound is really an enjoyable way to listen to music. When we have friends round and put it on (using Alexa) they have no idea where the sound is coming from. Even when you tell them they don't believe you. The sound does not come straight down, like Sonos, it radiates like an umbrella, so there is no impression of a point source and it spreads very evenly. It also means you can fill a room with music and people can still chat away.
That said, the lighting is as good as I've come across and I'd use it for that alone.
I went through three wifi systems before I got it to work properly.

That is not spatial audio, not even surround. You are simply playing multiple stereo speakers in a room. Like in a club or bar.

 

[thewas]

Just as an aside; these look very similar to the Braun Output-C monitors that Wilson supposedly used in the first iterations of the WAMM…

Yes, here it is confirmed https://www.fidelity-online.de/wilson-audio-specialties-die-wamm-story/

A very "high end" mashup of several different loudspeakers...

 

[thewas]

Does it not preform like mass market $1000 dollar speaker? Amir likes it more then than $2000 Revel M106.

Not true, the M106 got from him his subjective highest panther ranking "4. Great (golfing panther)" which is higher than his panther ranking on the TuneTot.

Revel M106 Bookshelf Speaker Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Revel M106 bookshelf speaker. It was kindly purchased and drop shipped to me. It is not a new sample but came to me with full packaging and protective wrapper. The M106 costs US $1,000 each or $2,000 for a pair. It is only sold through dealer...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Spkrdctr]

Yes, here it is confirmed https://www.fidelity-online.de/wilson-audio-specialties-die-wamm-story/

A very "high end" mashup of several different loudspeakers...

I just cringe seeing that........

 

[sarumbear]

Yes, here it is confirmed https://www.fidelity-online.de/wilson-audio-specialties-die-wamm-story/

A very "high end" mashup of several different loudspeakers...

Not much engineering to start with then..

 

[thewas]

Not much engineering to start with then..

Seems the brand stayed loyal to their starts then.

 

[DWI]

That is not spatial audio, not even surround. You are simply playing multiple stereo speakers in a room. Like in a club or bar.

Dolby Atmos is currently mostly offered by speaker systems that bounce sound off the ceiling, whether stereo or multi-channel. This system disperses from the ceiling, although you can link to a floor-based system at the same time. Each unit can play either channel, so currently, L, R or mono. These units have both Apple Music and Amazon HD onboard, so I can play either HD or Atmos mixes from my Amazon HD account. From what I understand, unlike traditional multi-channel, Atmos can be automatically converted to other multi-channel or stereo formats. Sooner or later the software on these units will most likely be upgraded for multi-channel allocation. They have all the Atmos facilities onboard, the other one being AirPlay.

None of which is relevant to the Wilson Tunetot, which I regret not listening to when we went shopping for new speakers, although it does look better on a shelf than a stand and I don't like subwoofers, which it probably needs in a primary system.