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So, I listened to a $1Million Dollar System

So, I listened to a $1Million dollar system.

A somewhat local dealer had an event that showcased the Dan D’Agostino Relentless Epic mono block amps, Relentless Preamplifier, Wilson Audio Chronosonic XVX speakers and subsonic subwoofer. Along with the Transparent cabling, HRS stands, DCS Dac and other accessories I estimate the total cost to be over $1Miilion.

I was able to sit in the front row center. The speakers estimated to weigh over 700 lbs. were toed in quite a bit towards the listener.

The demonstrator played a lot of obscure music that centered on some very deep bass. I must admit the bass was quite impressive.

Eventually (reluctantly) the demonstrator played a few tunes that I requested, and I was quite surprised.

With this million-dollar system the music sounded quite dull, the rep called it “mellow”, but to me it was dull. There was no life to the music, limited highs and zero music coming from the extreme left- right.

For instance, I use the Linda Ronstadt track “Blue Bayou” as a reference. Within this track at about the 40-60 second mark there is a mandolin that plays in the extreme left channel. On many systems that information is buried deep into the mix. However, systems with high resolution can play it clearly. Unfortunately, with this million-dollar system I could not even detect it.

So why is it? Can the Wilson speakers be adjusted in such a way as to accent the bass and attenuate the mid-treble? If so, why would they demonstrate that way? Were the speakers too toed in? Or was it because there were about 10 people in the room (btw, a large room) which muted some of the speaker’s energy? Whatever, I was NOT impressed.

ozzy

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Showing 1 response by agisthos

agisthos
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It's the speakers.

The ultra high end speakers have like 17 drivers in them and not even a 1000w mega amp can drive them properly. Imagine trying to design a coherent crossover for such a multi driver array, with many of those drivers housed in 4-5 different separated cabinets.

This is why all they excel in is the bass and large orchestra, the smaller scale stuff and music at low volumes sounds terrible.

The other issue is lack of positioning. A movement of cm, even a few mm, can dial in a speaker drastically. These top of the line ultra speakers all weight at least 200kg, sometimes 400-500 kg each. They just get plonked down and that's it. Yes they calculate the position beforehand, but this can never account for the real world room conditions, and its impossible to do trial and error positioning with such heavy speakers.  

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