Fleetwood Deville vs Wilson Sound

I have been really impressed with Wilson speakers… often blown away (like well set up $500K ones), but I have never been inclined to want them for myself. But have recommended them for folks that value that kind sound. Same with. Magico.

I am unsure why Wilson gets so much hate. 

#1

Wilsons are just so ugly...

A thing of beauty is a joy forever.

A thing of ugly is bonerloss forever.

#2

Just carried by high end electronics... It is no miracle of the speaker. Dave Wilson was always sneaky as sht at shows back in the days...always make it a difficult dumb load so dudes are forced to deploy the serious electronics. Such serious electronics can even carry a hog to victory lane.

#3

Same rinse/repeat/rehash of the same crap for decades...no innovation...just buy drivers from Focal ( learn to make your own driver one day Willy!),

etc etc

It's a crap brand with fake hype dude.

After owning both the Devilles and the Scalas, I keep teetering back and forth between just keeping one set of speakers or both.

I am currently in honeymoon phase with the Scalas and when swapping to the Devilles, I still do enjoy em quite a bit. 

One thing that sort of steered me away from the Wilsons was because they have such a premium baked into the cost due to their brand name. If that speaker had won my heart over I can look past that but thankfully it did not. I spoke to a few Wilson owners and majority of them even when happy with the sound do feel some of their money went towards the "brand name" when purchasing the speakers. Of course nothing wrong with that at all. I do respect/appreciate what Wilson as a brand had/has contributed to the audio world at the end of the day.

Happy listening.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

$19,000 for a pair of birdhouses without stands. With stands, around $21,000.

The price tag puts them in the same category as Wilson Audio Sabrina X. 
 

Completely different sound and the decision on what looks and sounds best to you is yours. However, when I look at the Fleetwood Deville, with or without stands, and I look at Wilson Sabrina, I struggle to understand why the DIY looking Devilles, even though they sound good with limited and specific type of music, should cost as much as they cost. They impressed me with their ability to image on small scale acoustic stuff but they pooped on fast and dynamic live jazz…and forget rock. 

If there’s a premium baked into the Sabrinas, what’s baked into the birdhouses? The Devilles look like a $21,000 joke next to the Wilsons. 
 

@deep_333 design decisions are made based on what sounds best and Wilson Audio manufactures their own components. When there’s better quality and more effective to source parts from external entities, then a decision is made to do so. It is a smart business model and as long as it doesn’t result in sacrificing performance (I’m sure they go thru rigorous testing to confirm this), it should be completely fine. By the way, I don’t think Wilson Audio uses Focal drivers anymore. But they did. Focal is known for their drivers so once again, I don’t see why that’s the basis or a reason for hating the brand. 
 

Wilson Audio speakers were never cheap.  The first time I heard a pair of Watt/Puppies in 1996, I was smitten.  As bad as I wanted a pair they were out of reach for me back then.  I bought a pair of Thiels which I felt came close but still wasn’t quite the same.  Wilson speakers use all top notch components inside and out.  Everything on the inside is just as top level as what you can see on the outside.  That includes especially the crossover components.  That stuff adds up quickly.  

Watch some of Danny’s videos where he tears down popular speakers.  Most look hifi on the outside but contain the cheapest components on the inside.  My cousin rebuilds speakers and crossovers.  Even my Thiel speakers which had all roll film caps in the crossovers were the some of the cheapest film capacitors you could buy, he told me.

Wilson speakers aren’t for everyone.  And I have learned first hand that these speakers are just the starting point.  It takes a commitment to get them the best electronics and cabling you can afford.  The payoff is a rewarding concert like sound in my listening room that can captivate me for hours.  It took a lot of effort and $$$$ to get the digital sound up to par.  What I found is that as the digital got better, I could play the music louder.  On the analog side, the limit was the noise floor- groove noise, tape hiss in the recording, pops etc.  The noise floor raised up with the volume.  But with digital the noise floor is inaudible.  The volume used to be limited by the amount of grain or digital glare.  That’s gone.  Now I have to make an effort to turn the volume down.  It is like an addiction.  The sound is so good I crank it up to increase my pleasure.  Used to I did not like listening to live music.  The Wilsons make live music really jam.