Finally found THE SPEAKER!!!


I have been a HiFi guy starting at 12 years old with my father passing along the love. We would spend almost every weekend auditioning speakers looking to find the perfect system. We purchased many speakers over the years and they all had their pros and cons, but the trade off always seemed to be nuanced and delicate vs. dynamic and punchy. When auditioning speakers people would always ask what kind of music do you like to listen to? Rock, female vocals, classical, etc... We had/have eclectic taste and would listen to it all. Why could't a speaker just play all of it?!?! Anyway my love for music, sound, etc... became my profession as I am now an Oscar nominated Supervising Sound Editor with well over 150 movies under my belt.

For the last 5 years I have been looking for speakers that can play films at reference levels with all the detail and punch, yet when I want to listen to music can give that nuanced and detailed imaging, space, air, articulation without being harsh and fatiguing. I have listened to SO MANY speakers and spent hundreds of hours auditioning everything I could find. I would fall in love with something for music and then try play one of my films at reference level and it just never gave me the impact I was looking for. I get it - hard to move a lot of air and still be nuanced and articulate. There are some excellent compression drivers/horns that can do the impact stuff, but for me they always have that harsh edge when it comes to music. The flip side with dome type tweeters I have found things have to be pushed to the edge to try to give that theatrical impact. Looking for the quick transient response of an electrostatic, with the punch of compression driver type of system.

Then a dealer recommend I listen to some speakers from Wisdom Audio. I have to admit I was pretty skeptical at first. I read about these and it all sounded like marketing to me, but the dealer I was talking with said he was blown away by them. So I reached out to the company and setup a demo. They use planar magnetics which is not exactly new, but is very difficult to manufacture. I asked them to have one of my films available to listen to. I chose one that I knew extremely well that has a LOT of dynamic punch as well as subtle nuance. I live in Los Angeles and the company is in Carson City, Nevada. I bought an airplane ticket and I was off. I was treated to a tour of the factory and shown how the speakers were made. USA manufactured!! Then we spent a few hours listening to all types of music on different ranges of speakers. I LOVED what I was hearing with the music part of the audition. Then I asked to hear my film in their theater. I expected to be disappointed based on what I had experienced in the past. Then it happened... I heard the film play and it sounded AMAZING! These speakers could do it all!!! No compression, no fatigue, HiFi sound and still able to play theatrical film tracks as they are meant to be heard. In fact - better! I called my wife in disbelief that my search for "The Speakers" was finally over! I even called my father to tell him what I had just heard. It was the impressive! I remind you - I do this for a living!

Since we are undergoing a major remodel at our home, my wife expected that the family room was going to be filled with big speakers as she has become accustomed to living with me. With some of these Wisdom Audio speakers, they are actually designed to be flush mounted in the wall. I thought there is no way a wall mounted speaker could ever sound as good as a traditional speaker. I was so wrong!! So not only did I find the perfect speaker, but not big boxes in the room 3 feet away from any walls! My wife was thrilled.

If you have never heard speakers by Wisdom Audio you need to find a dealer where you can audition them, or fly to the factory for a private demo!

Best,
Andrew
drewde
drewde- I get your (voluminous) arguments/observations, etc. I have heard good things about Wisdom Audio myself so I have no problem with a successful technology that you want to discuss. I know classical music has dynamic shifts etc. My only observation is that people are known to speak softly even to a whisper on a film which also contains "other" sequences with loud to extremely loud content as well. And I still maintain that 7.2 home theater is in fact very different than 2.0 music coming from small to medium to 600 lb./each floor standing speakers
that assumes all the sound is coming from a bandstand or a stage. The 2.0 system has (99%) no conversations in any tone of voice in the mix. 
If Wisdom speakers sound phenominal that's great. I myself (just me!) prefer a movie like My Friend Godfrey or It Happened One Night to Transformers or another Marvel sequel. OK?
@french_fries 

I get it. My favorite film is Citizen Kane. Transformers and Marvel films are not really my cup of tea either. But there are plenty of other dynamic films that are not stupid comic book stuff. 

I would put a stereo pair of Wisdom Audio speakers up against pretty much anything I have listened to. Again... the majority of my time at Wisdom was spent listening to just that. Stereo music of ALL types. If I could afford the LS4 models I would get them. Just amazing. The great thing about a speaker like these is that they play at lower levels with greater detail and presence than more traditional speakers. Just because they CAN go loud, doesn't mean you need to listen to them at that level. My evaluation of these speakers is on quality not "volume/loudness"

Enjoy!


@drewde your comments and information are greatly appreciated. You have invested a huge amount of time on this thread. I am also a musician and a strong advocate of improving the sound quality of home theater as well as music reproduction systems. I agree that people who use sound bars and other inferior products are missing out on half the fun of movies. 

The latest, and worst iteration of the "SFX" problem is the canned crowd noise being transmitted over the announcers during NFL games. You can hardly hear the play by play over the gratuitous (and ridiculous) white noise.

My McIntosh AV preamp offers compression settings and I try to use them, but frankly, the setup of these units is so complex they need to be professionally set up. Based on your suggestions, I will do two things: Push the center channel settings and try to find an expert to calibrate my system. 

If that doesn't work, I will audition the Wisdoms.
@dukeofdoowop 

What are you using for your Home Theater setup? Speaker configuration 2.1, 3.1, 5.1, etc...

What speakers are you using now? You may have stated this earlier, but I don't recall.

What McIntosh preamp are you using.

Have you done any home theater calibration? At a minimum would be setting the correct delay compensation for each speaker and then a simple pink noise SPL cal. That should get you in the ballpark for sure.

The compression options many preamps provide are just that - compressors to address the needs of which you speak. These are not ideal, but might help reduce the loud peaks so you don't have to chase the volume for quiet DX scenes and then loud action sequences.

By raising the center channel you will also help give a boost to the DX (along with everything that is in the center channel) The center channel is the most utilized speaker for film mixes.

I would start with the basic calibration of the correct delay compensation and SPL level for each speaker. Then trying one of the compressors built into your preamp. Then if you feel the need for more DX separation bump up the center channel.

You should not have to buy all new speakers to get proper levels unless you have a severely mismatched center channel compared to your L/R mains???

If you are looking for new speakers, THEN you might want to put Wisdom Audio on your list of speakers to audition. They may fit your needs or maybe not, but if you haven't heard them you owe it to yourself to take a listen.

This was the intent of my post(s).

Let me know if I can help get your system better dialed in for you!

Best,
Drew
Thanks Drew
My components are as follows:

Aerial 7T Speakers

Aerial SW 12 Powered Subwoofer

Aerial Center Speaker

 

McIntosh MC 205 Multichannel Amplifier

McIntosh MX 121 AV Control Preamp

McIntosh MVP 891 DVD / CD player

McIntosh MPC 500 Power Supply

McIntosh MS 500 Music Streamer


I run my system as 3.1. I went through the built-in calibration and setup protocol  using the included microphone. The 7T's are new this year and sound magnificent, but many of us, like you, are always thinking about that one last upgrade...........