B&W N800 vs Wilson WP7 vs Revel and others

MahanDave: Not to be rude but you really dont know what your talking about here. Stating a Wilson(which uses generic drivers of AVERAGE quality at best)is a better build over ANY Revel Ultima(or Performa even in some respects) product is a farce at best. Lets start with the paint. WIlson speakers use a relatively cheap clearcoat that has a VERY POOR molecular bond. Its like comparing a Maaco paint job to a high quality MFG.(like Honda)paint job.The Revel's clearcoat is of a much higher quality, and people will see that difference after owning their speakers for many years. Driver selection is another thing. Wilson driver's are generic off the shelf components(some of which are available and used in cheap car audio components, like the tweeter which alot of insiders know about)that are average in build quality.Revel uses either special in house drivers and or high quality Scanspeak drivers.And all their speakers run super flat in their designed frequency window) Ever compare the quality or design of the Xover's? Revel sure holds its own here. How about inlab design and research?The actual cabinet? Revel's cabinet is quite well braced and resonant free, as much as any cabinet Ive ever seen regardless of price. And routing every single surface sure doesnt cheapen the cost of these speakers. I remember hearing the Wilson MAXX speakers for the first time. These are what $40,000??I was pretty damn excisted but my wife and myself found that they were poor sounding speakers in a variety of different rooms that they were auditioned in.Plus their exxageratted SSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! All Wilson's have this Ive found. Just a week ago the local WIlson dealer got the new Version 7's in. Same ol,same ol. The Watt's are really no better than the Maxx's.They are poor "eq'd" speakers that require alot of room treatment to band-aid them is what I have always heard and felt, and alot of people in my area feel strongly about that too. Ariel I feel is a much better speaker(though I feel build isnt spectacular but well above average) and compares well with many of the best(Like Vandersteins,Revels, B&W 8 series etc), but please keep Wilson's out of that comparision.

Errr better check real hard again. Wilson's use Focal tweeters, midrange drivers and bass units, the same cheesy ones you find at discount warehouses all over the US,in fact I can even name off the exact model's of the drivers used. I used to sell Wilson,which is known for having the highest markup known to mankind when it comes to money in the dealer's pockets, LOL! And I sure wouldnt put Wilson's midrange anywhere near the best.Its a poorly EQ'd speaker.If you like the "smiley face" setting from the 80's then youll love Wilson Audio! Ill take an Arial or Dynaudio any day of the week for midrange, or full range for that matter.

Actually Wilson uses focal for all 3 mentioned drivers, depending on model of course. As for the sum of the whole theory, I actually agree. I also agree that no speaker actually is "worth" $20k plus. I just feel that Wilson is one of the biggest offenders when it comes to cost/quality ratio which in all honesty kind of sucks. Companies like Revel,Arial,B&W are all also overpriced just like ANY speaker, but when you have a chance to actually take apart the speaker(s),you can see which mfg. took more time and care in the quality of parts used and selected. One reason why Ive always been a fan of Revel(and why I bought em for my own personal system). THey dont just sound great, but they look great, and their parts quality across the board is excellent.

I also have to add that my feelings on their sound is nothing more than an opinion so if any Wilson owners feel offended, it wasnt meant to be voiced that way.

Yeah, see I feel the same way. =) When we first got the Watt puppy/6 versions in the store, we set em up broke em in,and also decided to take em apart(if the owner ever found out we would have all been fired!)to see what they are "made of". With the nice binding posts and decent decouplers we were hoping to see the same goodies inside, but were a bit dissapointed. First cue to me was the focal tweeter. My longtime friend had a pair of them in his car that the previous owner put in. They were very harsh no matter what tuning we did. Even with the tweeter's tamed they had a really bad "mettalic" sound to em. Seeing these come on the WIlson's didnt help my feelings any. Nor did the bass drivers. When we took em out of the cabinet, we werent fully impressed. Xover boards(in a casing that must attrack RFI or EMI no doubt) were populated with iron core coils. Dampening was ok. Bracing was decent, nothing special. Drivers had really short coils of marginal quality, frame wasnt too impressive either. Just wasnt impressed, especially with its pricetag. Floor spikes were flashy and of good quality, as were binding posts as mentioned. Im sorry even the cheesy velcro used to hold on the grilles.Plastic ports, Get my point?Geez, even the paint job, they used like 1 coat primer,1 thin coat of paint and a coat of clearcoat that doesnt bond well to the paint. Really easy and prone to chipping. Big time dissapointed. To the trained eye this is bothersome. Couple this with less than stellar sound, at least to my ears. Some people call it musical, I call it EQ roulet. Im sorry but when you buy a speaker in this price range, it shouldnt just sound good, it should abound with quality components throughout too.

Yes I am aware that they now use more scan-speak components. They still use that damn Focal tweeter though! =P