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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
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
Drewde, your subs have to be configured as a linear array or they will not project power like your line source speakers. You  can position individual subwoofers against the front wall on the floor under the screen at intervals of 4 feet or so. The higher you cross over the closer the subs have to be. 4 feet is perfectly adequate for crosses up to 100 Hz. The subwoofers will be function acoustically as one big driver all the way down to 1 Hz and project power like a line source. You can do the same thing with two towers but they have to be as high as your ceiling, and they take up vertical space possibly interfering with the screen. I do not like screens in front of speakers. If you look at my system page you will get the idea. If you want to lean more about subwoofers feel free to message me. I have been using line source speakers since 1980.
As far as processors go I would go with the Trinnov over StormAudio. I think their Room control is better. I am strictly two channel so I would go with the Amethyst but they have theater processors up to 32 channels. It is interesting that both companies are French. How you use the room control is different for theater than 2 channel. Some people never actually sit in a specific spot to listen, music is for the background only. If you do sit in the listening position and listen seriously you can usually store a profile for strict two channel use and switch back and forth. 

dukeofdoowop
13 posts
 
Drew

In case you missed it (which I doubt) here is an old discussion of passive vs active speakers.

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/any-thoughts-on-passive-v-active-speakers

It seems to me the Wisdom system is a hybrid system that addresses many of the stated concerns about flexibility in upgrading. My two cents; you have done extensive listening and research, have a very discerning ear and unusual expertise. You were so blown away by this system that you started this thread. I once played in an orchestra backing up the great Raphael Mendez. After an excellent rehearsal he said "Perfect! Don't play it any better than that tonight." Buy the system that blew you away. Don't make it better.

Thank you for your ideas in tweaking my system. I have tried them and definitely feel you have started me down the right road. The rest will be trial and error. My subwoofer is set at 80hz per Mike Kelly's recommendation. (When you call Aerial for advice, Mike answers.) That should supersede any automatic Audessey settings. Given my issues and my 3.1 setup, do you recommend using Dolby or some other proprietary setting?

Thanks for a very thought provoking thread.

Dan


drewde OP
53 posts
 
@dukeofdoowop  I have not read the thread you have shared, but I will head that way after this post. I am fairly familiar with the pros and cons of active vs passive speakers and the pros and cons. 

I would agree that Audessey can pretty easily over do things trying to make it better and in turn make things worse. When we calibrate our dub stages we don't use any auto calibration and do each speaker one at a time. It takes a bit, but the results can't be beat.

Well when mixing in an "immersive" format Dolby Atmos is the format of choice. Everything else gets scaled down from that format. That is including DTS. In Hollywood I am not aware of anyone who mixes in the DTS format... I could be wrong, but I have never heard of it being done.

Dolby has been such a leader in the professional audio community that it is still the benchmark. A Dolby engineer is present during the print master part of the process. They are are literally there with us on the dub stage monitoring the process to make sure all is as it should be.

That being said what you listen to in your own home is up to you. If you find the DTS format works better in your home and you like that better, by all means go for it!

The difference between the DTS and Atmos in a home situation is much more limited in that we are usually not talking about the same number of speakers as are used in a large venue theater / professional dub stage.

You can usually put your receiver on Auto and it will pick the correct format to be used based on the input signal it receives.

When we go to a premiere (in the old days before Covid) and have the ability to pick what format we will present.... I always pick Dolby Atmos if that helps.

Best,
Drew
snbeall
63 posts
 
@drewde
You asked about suggested amps. VTV or Apollon are two manufacturers who can customize exactly what configurations you want and at economical prices - particularly given the number of channels you’re going to require!

I must also correct my earlier post about the history of Wisdom. I had my two originators reversed. Contrary to (my) rumors of his death, Mr Bohlender is very much alive. It was Mr Graebener’s death that resulted in the dissolution/sale of BG Radia. My apologies to Mr Bohlender. My sympathies with friends/family of Mr Graebener.
snbeall
63 posts
 
BTW, Drew, you may be interested in the fact that the original BG Radia company (from which Wisdom spun off) was bought by Christie - primarily for the IP and planar driver technology. As you know, Christie is a major movie theater display/speaker company.
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