How can Wilson Audio speakers sound that good if they are using OEM drivers?

Well, I am listening to Wilson speakers now - Sophia 2's.  They sound wonderful to me.  There have been really great sounding speakers for decades, using all manner of materials. Materials can make a huge difference by easing the inevitable engineering hurdles and trade-offs one must overcome to manufacture a non-resonant cabinet, drivers that don't breakup in their passband and can integrate smoothly, etc., but it's the engineering that makes the difference.

Personally, I've listened to the Wilson WAMM, Maxx 1's and 2's, and every incarnation of the W/P.  Never was impressed - hyper detailed is one good way to describe it - until the Sasha. Still a bit analytical, but I like it a lot nonetheless.  But I'll stick with my Sophia's; as one person described them, "The Wilson speaker for people to don't like Wilson speakers".

Depends on what you like
vs
what might be in the recording
some very nice laser analyzers pointed at those paper, silk, etc drivers reveal about 5-10 dB of of of phase junk.....in a non pistonic driver...
junk that is NOT in the signal coming off that 300B
depends if ya want to move things forward
or luxuriate in ?????

Out of phase junk

maybe we need out of phase spell check....

The ScanSpeak Drivers used in most Wilson Speakers are excellent drivers - they could be somewhat customized too specifications set forth by Wilson.  The 4" midrange driver used in the new Wamm is a beyond excellent midrange driver with a foam surround and a paper cone.

In speaker design its always about how well one makes the drivers, cabinet and the all important crossover design work as a whole.

Here is an example of a 40 year old woofer design integrated with a very recent Midrange/Tweeter Driver on a waveguide - this thing will run circles around any conventional speaker using a 1" dome - what ever its made from, and yes I made it :-)

http://pbnaudio.com/speakers/m2-5-loudspeaker


Good Listening

Peter

 

I understand you all. And agree with you. I’m just confused about some companies not pushing boundaries on drivers too.
One thing is to ask another company to develop a driver with a spec. Another is to R&D on drivers, as I understand Wilson Audio does with the their speakers enclosures. Wilson do a kind of crazy R&D with the materials they use on their speaker enclosures. And I love that. But what if they did this also with their drivers?