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Finally found THE SPEAKER!!!

I have been a HiFi guy starting at 12 years old with my father passing along the love. We would spend almost every weekend auditioning speakers looking to find the perfect system. We purchased many speakers over the years and they all had their pros and cons, but the trade off always seemed to be nuanced and delicate vs. dynamic and punchy. When auditioning speakers people would always ask what kind of music do you like to listen to? Rock, female vocals, classical, etc... We had/have eclectic taste and would listen to it all. Why could't a speaker just play all of it?!?! Anyway my love for music, sound, etc... became my profession as I am now an Oscar nominated Supervising Sound Editor with well over 150 movies under my belt.

For the last 5 years I have been looking for speakers that can play films at reference levels with all the detail and punch, yet when I want to listen to music can give that nuanced and detailed imaging, space, air, articulation without being harsh and fatiguing. I have listened to SO MANY speakers and spent hundreds of hours auditioning everything I could find. I would fall in love with something for music and then try play one of my films at reference level and it just never gave me the impact I was looking for. I get it - hard to move a lot of air and still be nuanced and articulate. There are some excellent compression drivers/horns that can do the impact stuff, but for me they always have that harsh edge when it comes to music. The flip side with dome type tweeters I have found things have to be pushed to the edge to try to give that theatrical impact. Looking for the quick transient response of an electrostatic, with the punch of compression driver type of system.

Then a dealer recommend I listen to some speakers from Wisdom Audio. I have to admit I was pretty skeptical at first. I read about these and it all sounded like marketing to me, but the dealer I was talking with said he was blown away by them. So I reached out to the company and setup a demo. They use planar magnetics which is not exactly new, but is very difficult to manufacture. I asked them to have one of my films available to listen to. I chose one that I knew extremely well that has a LOT of dynamic punch as well as subtle nuance. I live in Los Angeles and the company is in Carson City, Nevada. I bought an airplane ticket and I was off. I was treated to a tour of the factory and shown how the speakers were made. USA manufactured!! Then we spent a few hours listening to all types of music on different ranges of speakers. I LOVED what I was hearing with the music part of the audition. Then I asked to hear my film in their theater. I expected to be disappointed based on what I had experienced in the past. Then it happened... I heard the film play and it sounded AMAZING! These speakers could do it all!!! No compression, no fatigue, HiFi sound and still able to play theatrical film tracks as they are meant to be heard. In fact - better! I called my wife in disbelief that my search for "The Speakers" was finally over! I even called my father to tell him what I had just heard. It was the impressive! I remind you - I do this for a living!

Since we are undergoing a major remodel at our home, my wife expected that the family room was going to be filled with big speakers as she has become accustomed to living with me. With some of these Wisdom Audio speakers, they are actually designed to be flush mounted in the wall. I thought there is no way a wall mounted speaker could ever sound as good as a traditional speaker. I was so wrong!! So not only did I find the perfect speaker, but not big boxes in the room 3 feet away from any walls! My wife was thrilled.

If you have never heard speakers by Wisdom Audio you need to find a dealer where you can audition them, or fly to the factory for a private demo!

Best,
Andrew
drewde

Showing 5 responses by dukeofdoowop

dukeofdoowop
13 posts
 
 I also inherited my love of audio equipment from my father, albeit from a different era. I inherited his AR2's, went to AR3's, wharfdales, Dahlquist DQ10's and DQ20's, even a pair of Tannoys the size of a refrigerator. Over decades, my system has evolved to a pretty high end system with five McIntosh components and Aerial speakers including their powered subwoofer. My system has always included a home theater aspect to it. I think that many of us are frustrated in the quest for speakers that excel in the context of both music and theater.

I agree with @french_fries that movie production values are part of the problem. We have all experienced the problem of over-modulated sound effects and music drowning out the dialog  (assuming the actors can actually speak so the listener can understand them.) We were all led to believe that this problem would be addressed by dedicated center speakers. In this regard, the dialog of some movies is actually more easily understood on an iPad. 

Do you think that the speakers you have chosen will address this problem?
dukeofdoowop
13 posts
 
@drewde your comments and information are greatly appreciated. You have invested a huge amount of time on this thread. I am also a musician and a strong advocate of improving the sound quality of home theater as well as music reproduction systems. I agree that people who use sound bars and other inferior products are missing out on half the fun of movies. 

The latest, and worst iteration of the "SFX" problem is the canned crowd noise being transmitted over the announcers during NFL games. You can hardly hear the play by play over the gratuitous (and ridiculous) white noise.

My McIntosh AV preamp offers compression settings and I try to use them, but frankly, the setup of these units is so complex they need to be professionally set up. Based on your suggestions, I will do two things: Push the center channel settings and try to find an expert to calibrate my system. 

If that doesn't work, I will audition the Wisdoms.
dukeofdoowop
13 posts
 
Thanks Drew
My components are as follows:

Aerial 7T Speakers

Aerial SW 12 Powered Subwoofer

Aerial Center Speaker

 

McIntosh MC 205 Multichannel Amplifier

McIntosh MX 121 AV Control Preamp

McIntosh MVP 891 DVD / CD player

McIntosh MPC 500 Power Supply

McIntosh MS 500 Music Streamer


I run my system as 3.1. I went through the built-in calibration and setup protocol  using the included microphone. The 7T's are new this year and sound magnificent, but many of us, like you, are always thinking about that one last upgrade...........


dukeofdoowop
13 posts
 
Drew
You are extremely generous. I will admit that my room is a setup nightmare. Unfortunately, it is a small house and our living room must also serve as a....living room.  The room is 30 x 15. The long wall is all glass and overlooks the river, so the room focuses on the view. Accordingly, the OLED monitor and speakers are arranged in front of the glass along the long wall and no room to move them away from the wall. Conversely, the listening position is only 12 feet away and the subwoofer is in a corner at the end of the wall. I know - audiophile heresy. 

I think the bottom line is I must rely on electronic tweaking. I think of Audessey as a beginning point (I ran two reference points), but the infinite options beyond that are mind blowing. It may well be that compensating for this setup nightmare is beyond the capabilities of Audessey. 

Yes the DX is low overall, so I crank the volume and get yelled at when the shooting starts. We also use captions a lot. I think this is a fairly common problem that seems to get worse the better the sound system. I have several systems, in other rooms, of lesser quality and have less of this problem.

If necessary I will have my dealer's tech come in and evaluate my settings.Unfortunately, he is 70 miles away. In the meantime, I very much appreciate your thoughts.

Dan

dukeofdoowop
13 posts
 
Drew

In case you missed it (which I doubt) here is an old discussion of passive vs active speakers.

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/any-thoughts-on-passive-v-active-speakers

It seems to me the Wisdom system is a hybrid system that addresses many of the stated concerns about flexibility in upgrading. My two cents; you have done extensive listening and research, have a very discerning ear and unusual expertise. You were so blown away by this system that you started this thread. I once played in an orchestra backing up the great Raphael Mendez. After an excellent rehearsal he said "Perfect! Don't play it any better than that tonight." Buy the system that blew you away. Don't make it better.

Thank you for your ideas in tweaking my system. I have tried them and definitely feel you have started me down the right road. The rest will be trial and error. My subwoofer is set at 80hz per Mike Kelly's recommendation. (When you call Aerial for advice, Mike answers.) That should supersede any automatic Audessey settings. Given my issues and my 3.1 setup, do you recommend using Dolby or some other proprietary setting?

Thanks for a very thought provoking thread.

Dan


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