Finally found THE SPEAKER!!!

After getting Lord of the Rings on DVD and Blu Ray, I would have to crank up the volume to hear soft conversations by the actors, and then reduce the volume rapidly to save my hearing  during "action" sequences of any kind. Same for Avatar, Independence Day, etc. There's no way I would subject a good pair of speakers designed to reveal separate instruments in an ensemble or do justice to a folksinger plus guitars, banjo, string bass, and so on. That's not to say Wisdom Audio makes a bad product or JBL makes a punchy sound but lacks finesse.
So that's my only problem with this article- it's not about speakers- it's about radically different ways sound engineers mix a movie with ENORMOUS variations in volume from minute to minute, and music-only albums which are mixed from PP to FF 95% of the time. The there's the issue of how well recorded the music is in the 1st place, and the same goes for movies made long ago to today's blockbusters. I don't mean to be sour grapes, but a Bette David movie is recorded so you can hear every word, which to me just makes common sense since the script is the most entertaining part. 

Just want to say enjoy hearing about your industry experience. And, had not known about wisdom audio before. Always eager to hear about new products & technology. Appreciate grace with which you respond to haters.

 I also inherited my love of audio equipment from my father, albeit from a different era. I inherited his AR2's, went to AR3's, wharfdales, Dahlquist DQ10's and DQ20's, even a pair of Tannoys the size of a refrigerator. Over decades, my system has evolved to a pretty high end system with five McIntosh components and Aerial speakers including their powered subwoofer. My system has always included a home theater aspect to it. I think that many of us are frustrated in the quest for speakers that excel in the context of both music and theater.

I agree with @french_fries that movie production values are part of the problem. We have all experienced the problem of over-modulated sound effects and music drowning out the dialog  (assuming the actors can actually speak so the listener can understand them.) We were all led to believe that this problem would be addressed by dedicated center speakers. In this regard, the dialog of some movies is actually more easily understood on an iPad. 

Do you think that the speakers you have chosen will address this problem?

@french_fries
I hear your frustration and the films you gave as examples are action films. When we are mixing these films for Theatrical release we strive for dynamic range on purpose. We monitor the mixes in carefully calibrated dub stages with EQ and volume settings that are used industry wide.

You are one of the people who appears to not like dynamic range in your movie/TV viewing experience. I get that. But there are a LOT of people that do enjoy the power that sound can deliver to the movie going experience.

We actually do what is called a "near field mix" for home viewing with is a compressed version of this very thing. We use small near field speakers and monitor the mix at "lower" to "much lower" reference level depending on the studio, director, etc... What happens with a lower reference level is that the quieter scenes end up getting raised while the louder scenes stay the same. We are compressing the dynamic range from the bottom up in this case.

I am one who advocates for this as LONG as a version of the uncompressed version of the track is kept in tact. After all... There are those of us who want a Theatrical experience at home.

Certain studios and/or directors demand that the track stay in tact which means no compressed home version.

If the compressed version is still not to your liking most DVD/Bluray players as well as surround processors have built in compression algorithms that might help you with your situation.

You indicate that all that matters to you is dialogue, which I would agree that dialogue is king in the mix, but is not all that matters by a LARGE degree than I might also suggest raising your center channel by 3 to 4 dB or to your liking.

We as a filmmaking society actually work very hard to NOT make a mix painful and to not play everything too loud. Sure it happens, but more time and effort is put into delivering the director's vision of his/her film than you may be aware of during the editing and mixing of the soundtrack.

Dynamic range is not something new and in fact is something I look for in a speaker as I not only enjoy female vocalists, jazz, blues, etc... but films, classical music, rock, country, and the list goes on.

Classical music composers have utilized the power of dynamic range to convey emotion for hundreds of years!

I love classical music. I have played violin since I was in First grade and I am quite a bit older than that now.

As a musician I can also tell you that playing music at a lower level that what is intended will also change the emotion of said piece.

"There's no way I would subject a good pair of speakers designed to reveal separate instruments in an ensemble or do justice to a folksinger plus guitars, banjo, string bass, and so on."  No offense, but this in a nutshell expresses my frustration over the many years of listening to loudspeakers. Why not have a speaker that can deliver everything? Every single speaker that I have heard in the past that supposedly were intended to deliver the nuance of an ensemble, etc... well they couldn't even play at a level that remotely came close to what an orchestra can reproduce in those moments I wanted to listen to them, let alone playback rock, country and forget about film.

So this comes down to the personal preference of the buyer, viewer and my personal choice is not to buy a speaker that limits what I can play on it.

The Wisdom Audio speakers I have auditioned EXCEL at detail and nuance. Remember that what you are talking about is transient response time of a driver. The planar magnetic speakers deliver this in spades! A violin sounds like a violin without any harshness that one can get from so many domes, horns, etc... At least in my experience.

My first requirement was how does the speaker play music. Then I would proceed to films. When I finally found one that could do both at the peak of the game was I satisfied.

I've owned DYNAMIC speakers that could bang out rock, but I never liked them as HiFi. 

Thank you for your input and I hope my response is taken in the spirit in which it is given.

Thank you!

@dukeofdoowop
Hi Duke... I think I may have addressed some of your questions, but not directly so I will try to do that here.

When you say over modulated, do you mean "distorted" or just louder than what you think they should be? We use over modulated to mean distortion so I am wondering if you just mean levels. Based on the rest of your thread I am going to assume it refers to level.

Again - what you are describing is the "dynamic" range issue.

Here is how things play in a mix. Dialogue (DX) is king. It is the reference level for the track. We play DX at a comfortable level while we are mixing and everything is relative to that. One of the ways we can make a scene louder without having to kill the audience - (yes believe it or not, MANY of us try to do this with our mixes) is to let the music and/or SFX (sound effects) drown out the DX without having to resort to things just getting stupid loud. As a viewer you know that the car, plane, train, whatever is loud now because the DX is now drowned out by the SFX.

I know this is not what you are talking about, but just thought I would share. Now there is one director in particular who does tend to burry DX (dialogue) with music with EXTREME level. Many of us have complained about this in the industry but again it is the director's vision so be it.

A center channel absolutely should help with your issue. My previous suggestions of raising the center channel by a few dB and maybe engaging the DRC Dynamic Range Correction algorithms built in to most DVD players and/or receivers might help achieve the "version" of the film mix you enjoy more.

There are also film enthusiasts that go full blow Atmos home theater and want that Theatrical dynamic range that is absolutely part of the movie going experience.

I have SO many headphones, but my goto personal music listening are my Focal Utopias. These have weight, detail, depth, dimension etc.... But they don't have what a full range loudspeaker can deliver. It doesn't give me sound I can also feel.

As a violinist I also feel the music. To be honest I haven't played my violin for at least 8 years now... not sure why it just sort of became less and less of my life. Talking about it makes me want to open the case and see if my fingers can still do the dance! Anyway... playing in an orchestra you can absolutely FEEL the music in your body as well as just your ears. I guess it would be like just tasting with your tongue and not your smell - you are not using all of your senses to their fullest... in my opinion.

I have no problem with levels in my own home with regards to film playback and this is not playing things at reference level most of the time. I am not utilizing any compression, but I guess I am ok with a little more dynamic pop than some. HA!

Your iPad experience is simply this. Those limited range speakers are designed to favor the DX range of the audio frequency which if you prefer DX only/mostly will work in your favor. I on the other hand miss the power of the score, SFX that bring to the film experience. Many filmmakers recognize that SOUND if at least 50% of the movie going experience.

Does any of this help???

Again... nobody is right or wrong about their own personal preference(s).

Glad to discuss further but as usual I get lost in the weeds as I ramble on here.