The Ulfs are not burned in....they probably need 300 or more hours....especially the bass drivers. They should be played at 90+db constantly. The bass and lower midrange will get way, way better......so will everything else.
However, no matter how much burn in.....they are still very compromised from the factory. The xover parts on the midrange are ordinary. Ordinary coil, ordinary cap....and ordinary wire...ordinary resistors. Way better xover parts in the Wilson. I will repeat.....if you remove the xover from the speaker and put longer/better wires on drivers that extended out the back and have the xover mounted on a damped platform behind the speaker......you could then change all the xover parts to state of the art parts. This would completely transform the speaker (I know someone who did 60% of this to his Ulfs and is amazed). You also want to felt around all the tweeters (just now talked to someone who did this on his Moabs) and you will get better focus. You could also do extensive bracing and damping inside that would get rid of the remaining lower midrange and bass colorations (most would disappear with better xover parts, wiring and burn in).
These speakers are $9600 delivered (with the single BE tweeter upgrade that you are listening to). More money for fancy paint. You can buy 11 sets of Ulf's and have them delivered for the same price as one set of Wilson's). If you invested $3k in super xover parts, wire and bracing and damping you would be almost at $13k.......if you had someone come over and do all the mods....maybe add another 2K (assuming you have no DIY skills). So $15k max would not get you a speaker that might actually beat the Wilson. The speaker would be completely transformed. You are hearing just the tip of the iceberg.
Even better would be to tri amp the speaker using a three channel modded Purifi based amp. You could put the 6db per octave xover for the midrange before the input buffer of the midrange amp using the worlds best parts and then you could run the midrange tweets directly from the amplifier with no coil, cap or resistor in series with the tweets.....oh my....you would all die and go to heaven if you heard that. If the xover to the mids is 3K and it is 4 ohm....then you would need about a .22mh coil. If it is 18 gauge......then we are talking at least 25 feet of ordinary copper wire (covered in enamel) in series with the midrange.....that is why the type of coil you use is so important. The coil in the stock Ulf is ordinary copper. What if you used a 12 gauge OFC foil coil.......OMG......way better sound.....but still a lot of foil in the signal path.....that is why triamping and having no coil, is so cool.
Lots of possibilities for those that like to tweak. For those that don’t, they are still a great speaker for the money (once all burn in is done). Again, I will state....you have to POUND those woofers as loud as possible for 300 hours to really hear the speaker.....all the other xover parts will burn in better with loud playing, as well. We are talking 90 plus db constantly. You can do it when you are not home or Jay can do it probably all the time....if you have a detached room....it will not be that loud in your house.
By the way, if you did similar to the Wilson’s you would also die and go to heaven. The Wilson’s have 4 sets of binding posts in series with the mids and highs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yikes.....If you ran wire directly out of the Wilson’s and down to an external xover you could get rid of 3 of those connectors and if you use my binding post bypass system on the input of the xover then zero connectors. Also, you can attach the wires from the xover to the drivers directly to the voice coil wires on the mid ranges and woofers for even better sound. Also the Caddock power resistors sound much better with nude Vishay bypass resistors. Nothing much is done to my standards....I am so fussy! I want the best sound possible. Most people just want plug and play.
However, no matter how much burn in.....they are still very compromised from the factory. The xover parts on the midrange are ordinary. Ordinary coil, ordinary cap....and ordinary wire...ordinary resistors. Way better xover parts in the Wilson. I will repeat.....if you remove the xover from the speaker and put longer/better wires on drivers that extended out the back and have the xover mounted on a damped platform behind the speaker......you could then change all the xover parts to state of the art parts. This would completely transform the speaker (I know someone who did 60% of this to his Ulfs and is amazed). You also want to felt around all the tweeters (just now talked to someone who did this on his Moabs) and you will get better focus. You could also do extensive bracing and damping inside that would get rid of the remaining lower midrange and bass colorations (most would disappear with better xover parts, wiring and burn in).
These speakers are $9600 delivered (with the single BE tweeter upgrade that you are listening to). More money for fancy paint. You can buy 11 sets of Ulf's and have them delivered for the same price as one set of Wilson's). If you invested $3k in super xover parts, wire and bracing and damping you would be almost at $13k.......if you had someone come over and do all the mods....maybe add another 2K (assuming you have no DIY skills). So $15k max would not get you a speaker that might actually beat the Wilson. The speaker would be completely transformed. You are hearing just the tip of the iceberg.
Even better would be to tri amp the speaker using a three channel modded Purifi based amp. You could put the 6db per octave xover for the midrange before the input buffer of the midrange amp using the worlds best parts and then you could run the midrange tweets directly from the amplifier with no coil, cap or resistor in series with the tweets.....oh my....you would all die and go to heaven if you heard that. If the xover to the mids is 3K and it is 4 ohm....then you would need about a .22mh coil. If it is 18 gauge......then we are talking at least 25 feet of ordinary copper wire (covered in enamel) in series with the midrange.....that is why the type of coil you use is so important. The coil in the stock Ulf is ordinary copper. What if you used a 12 gauge OFC foil coil.......OMG......way better sound.....but still a lot of foil in the signal path.....that is why triamping and having no coil, is so cool.
Lots of possibilities for those that like to tweak. For those that don’t, they are still a great speaker for the money (once all burn in is done). Again, I will state....you have to POUND those woofers as loud as possible for 300 hours to really hear the speaker.....all the other xover parts will burn in better with loud playing, as well. We are talking 90 plus db constantly. You can do it when you are not home or Jay can do it probably all the time....if you have a detached room....it will not be that loud in your house.
By the way, if you did similar to the Wilson’s you would also die and go to heaven. The Wilson’s have 4 sets of binding posts in series with the mids and highs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yikes.....If you ran wire directly out of the Wilson’s and down to an external xover you could get rid of 3 of those connectors and if you use my binding post bypass system on the input of the xover then zero connectors. Also, you can attach the wires from the xover to the drivers directly to the voice coil wires on the mid ranges and woofers for even better sound. Also the Caddock power resistors sound much better with nude Vishay bypass resistors. Nothing much is done to my standards....I am so fussy! I want the best sound possible. Most people just want plug and play.