Fleetwood Deville vs Wilson Sound

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. 

 

tonywinga

651 posts

01-27-2024 at 02:51pm 

…

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

Yup. Don’t get an Escalade if you can’t afford the gas. 

@tonywinga Well said!  + 1