An Evening with David Livesay of Wisdom Audio

A friend has owned three pairs of Wisdom Adrenaline speakers in the last ten years, each representing an update of the earlier model, each set up and delivered by Tom Bohlender at the time of purchase. Recently David Livesay was kind enough to visit my friend and adjust the "brain" used with the speakers. I was present at this session and would like to make some observations that hopefully are relevant to the Wisdoms but also more generally room acoustics and the use of equalization to tailor frequency response to a particular room. The room in which the speakers are located is rectangular with an 8' ceiling, perhaps 20' wide and 20' long but opening into a kitchen at one end with a wall closing about half the opening on one side only. The speakers are at the opposite end about 5' out from the back wall and 3' out from the side wall on one side and a little more on the other which contains two openings, one at each side of the corner which can be shut with doors. David brought an Audio Control RTA with him and a number of my observations have to do with what was seen on the RTA.

First, the bass from the speaker adjacent to the two doors (even with the doors shut)exhibited a pronounced suck-out at several frequencies, particularly 40-50 hz which the other side did not exhibit as strongly. [Given the 8' ceiling, it was predictable that there would be a suck-out at 40-50 hz, but the openings on either side of the corner nearest the speaker significantly exacerbated this problem]. Itwas extremely helpful that David adjusted/measured each channel separately, particularly in the bass.

Second, the Wisdom "brain combines a crossover with a parametric equalizer and notch filter that allows the user to set the exact frequency, the amount of boost or notch and the width of the band effected separately for highs and lows and separately for each channel, as well as the slope of the crossover near the cross over point and the crossover frequency. These settings are accomplished through internal dip switches and require a manual of the effects of various dip switch positions. Altogether a very neat arrangement which allows the user a significant amount of flexibility. Fine tuning, balancing of channels and setting the level of the planars vs. the woofers is accomplished through knobs on the front.

Third, final adjustment was by ear. The RTA only provided ballpark settings, the ear the final settings.

The end result was much improved sound with better image density and focus and a more natural frequency balance.

Lessons learned: (1) most rooms exhibit frequency anomalies below 200 hz (peaks and dips); (2) in most instances it is better to reduce the peaks, rather than try to equalize out the dips; although some judicious boost may help; (3) changes to one frequency band will normally effect adjacent frequencies, sometimes in an unpredictable manner; thus experimentation is needed; (4) optimizing the position of the speaker in the room for flatest response should always be the initial step; (5) rooms with 8' ceilings will have a dip in the 40-50 hz region, sometimes as much as 15-18 db.

The Wisdoms sounded much better after adjustment than before. The process has led me to begin rethinking the whole area of room/speaker interaction and the use of outboard devices. David commented that Wisdom had used an Accuphase parametric equalizer at the CES on their new speaker which does not come with the "brain" and that the Accuphase was easy to use and sounded very good.

My thanks to David for an interesting evening./