Revel Salon 2 versus WP 8

You keep mumbling and I will keep telling you that there is very little value in assessing speakers based on their in-room measurements. Particularly you’re in-room measurements which are not even averaging/sampling approximates area measurements.Also, since we all know you are a good reader, I suggest you read some books about loudspeakers design. You may understand why Wilson depress midrange is simply bad XO design and nothing else. Wilson, apparently never heard of the 6db baffle step issue. Speaker building 101.

Just one question-why you toe-in Salon2 so much?

It is what they recommend in the Salon2/Studio2 user manual for "optimal imaging and timbre."

I do plan on playing around with it more in early March when the speakers have finished burning-in.

i still would like to know after all of this sophisticated verbage and back and forth if one (or both) of these very expensive speaker systems sound like real pianos, violins, guitars, voices, etc. in a moderately (or a bit larger sized) room with actual furniture in it, some pictures on the walls, and some coffee-table books with artwork in them to browse through (but not during brahms of course!). if neither of them is convincing then the graphs might be of some help in explaining a "lack of overall balance" or even serious problems in the upper-mids/lower treble (too bright which drives everyone crazy), or a boomy lower-mid/upper bass (which is unacceptable unless you are a cerwin-vega fanatic). in any case $20,000 (or in this case quite a bit more than that) should sound so good it will quite often move you to tears of joy. if not then this hobby is specifically for people who are by-in-large tone-deaf, eh?

I recently auditioned both with the important caveat of different rooms different electronics. Impressions are on my system thread. But in a nutshell between the two I preferred the Revels though neither floored me much. Wilson, its an odd house sound I find, and perhaps that's why it tends to develop a love/hate relationship with community. For me it sounded dry, with the lack of timbre, tonal color that I cherish.

french fries,

I've been moved by both speakers. I'm still finding that the W/P8 is more detailed imaging-wise in comparison. I am going to move the speakers further into the room when they are fully burned-in to see if that will strengthen the imaging and space between instruments, but for now I have too much stuff going on. If I have to pull them too far into the room they just won't work in my HT room because of my screen.

The instruments on both sound real to me, though as mentioned, one throws an image that is more precisely locatable as well as offering more space between the instruments, but the amplitude issues because of my room response and the extra boost in the kick drum on the W/P8 can be annoying. Seeking to PEQ it with a cheap (really cheap) digital PEQ flattens the response, but it seems to affect the dimensionality slightly. I'm not sure how much is the quality of the digital PEQ device vs. the act of changing the FR. The mid-range transparency is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, there is not as much focus on the Salon2, but on the other hand, recordings that are not perfect (such as live performances especially) don't sound as coherent on the W/P8.

In the lower frequencies with the Salon2's boundary compression turned on in my room, the sound just goes a lot deeper and is more defined than the unequalized W/P8 with my room issues and the speakers' 70Hz bump. This has always been one of my biggest complaints with how the W/P8 integrates with my room... It is obvious the cheap PEQ (Behringer Digital) does improve the sound, but some of the dimensionality is lost in the process as opposed to the Revel's built in (analog?) approach. I'm not sure if this could be improved though, if I used a decent analog PEQ instead.

I would say the Revels are slightly bright (as per the ~+2dB shelving mentioned in Stereophile). I do have the ability to lower the treble as well as toe them out more later. This should change things, as I played with it briefly the other week and it was an improvement. OTOH, the W/P8 is slightly rolled off. One exhibits more sibilance, while the other doesn't (though this has faded during break-in). It is usually easier to fix extra treble than it is to try and add extra.

I think both are excellent speakers, and both require special setup needs. Out of the box, the Salon2 comes with more options for fixing any room issues it comes across as long as you have the freedom to choose optimal placement (which i don't because of my recessed projection screen), while with the W/P8 you could need further help (PEQ) if your room has major reinforcement modes. I think the important thing I'll find out around the end of this month is, can the imaging clarity be improved much more by moving the Salon2s further into the room...

Most of the bass issues you are referring to French_fries are going to be a result of room issues and room placement issues more than an issue with either of these speakers. Of course if your speaker placement is restricted (such as mine is), and that 70Hz bump falls on a room mode, then you could have similar issues to the ones I am having. These can be PEQ'ed but that is additional costs above and beyond the speaker price...