Flawed? Wilson's Aspherical Propagation Delay


Greetings,

I've always wondered about this...

Recently I read an interview with Alon Wolf who stated that separating drivers into boxes that are adjustable would not work for him because the crossover would need to be reworked or adjusted.

Wilson is proud of their adjustable cabinets in their upper models, but I'm wondering how, in technical terms, they avoid phase and time errors and as Alon pointed out, how the crossover deals with the drivers in different locations and different angles?

I've heard Wilsons set up before and there is a distinct advantage to the adjustable enclosures when they are setup optimally for the listener's height and distance from the loudspeakers, but is there a shortcoming or compromise in doing so?
hce4
If the dispersion of the drivers is uneven (as they are in many audiophile designs) then adjusting the tilt and toe in of individual drivers can certainly be used to accommodate for inadequate design, however, this all comes at the expense of increased edge diffraction. The ability to tweak is definitely a selling point within some market segments.
If the wavelengths at the crossover frequency are long relative to the adjustments that are made, the effect on system phase response will be negligible. Also, the adjustments may well be restoring ideal geometry for listening positions that are not at the height and distance the speaker was optimized for. I'm gonna side with Wilson on this one.

Duke
dealer/manufacturer
Gotta agree with Duke. If time master Roy Johnson uses adjusting speakers, there must be a way to do it right.
Flawed, yes. Its a business model thing. Think about it, the bigger the 'boxes', the higher the price you charge. The 'effect' of Wilson speakers can be purchased at one tenth the price they charge. Wilson prides itself on a bigger is better approach. It is a guy thing.