Revel Salon 2 versus WP 8

after years and years of auditioning wilson speakers, i have come to the conclusion that it is wisest NOT to compare them to other speakers. their designs, sonic attributes, and price points rarely coincide with what other loudspeaker companies are trying to acheive with THEIR products. i strongly feel that you need to buy the right amplification, preamp, wire, and cdp (the exception being perhaps turntables) along with the wilsons (whenever you can financially swing it). your room might (let's face it, probably) will also need some work before the dealer/installer can set them up for your listening position. also be aware that truly lousy recordings should be moved to the attic/basement- they will sound icky (i have eggleston andra's, a more forgiving speaker, but i will not listen to old rock and roll cd's on them just to end up hating the band- and it wasn't really their fault, it was supposed to sound "ok" back in '68 on a pioneer system, and it did. but not anymore.)
wilson's are an audio religion where you are obligated to bring the music into ever-sharper focus. the aesthetic experience is re-defined as eliminating any/all forms of distortion or veils between the listener and a performance that was recorded using great equipment by an engineer that wants you to hear every musician, not just the "cello section". if you missed the composer's "idea" while concentrating on these sonic details, perhaps it's not the main reason you put the cd on in the first place. if you picked up on that too, obviously that's great. BUT, after reading harry pearson's article on cd's he feels are recorded properly in the latest absolute sound, i am astounded by the specificity he employs in picking and choosing, not just the cd, but which movement, or even PART of a movement that sounds "right" and "true". clearly he is, while writing for the magazine, also dissecting this section and that, to satisfy in his own mind where someone "messed up" but then somewhere else, perhaps for the last 5 minutes of track 6, came "close" to the absolute sound. one cd was from a movie soundtrack for moses's sake, and had no musical value at all...

while i am not a wilson fan, the w/p tweeter is not at all grainy or harsh. a violin's sound, however, WILL be sharply defined. to some people it sounds "etched", to others it is refreshingly free of distortion. as i said earlier, WITH the right room acoustics and high-caliber components properly matched, the W/P will blow alot of other speakers away. it is these very strict requirements, however, that make buying wilson's a daunting task- to acheive their maximum potential. for those looking for an easier and usually less-expensive path of putting a good system together, i can think of several other speaker designs that ALSO sound startlingly good without quite as much attention to the room and the rest of the audio system, although they will still need something well above NAD or ROTEL electronics. and as stated before, at that point, many people may not be that happy listening to recordings that USED to sound "pretty OK" and will strongly prefer better-sounding records and cd's.

i still would like to know after all of this sophisticated verbage and back and forth if one (or both) of these very expensive speaker systems sound like real pianos, violins, guitars, voices, etc. in a moderately (or a bit larger sized) room with actual furniture in it, some pictures on the walls, and some coffee-table books with artwork in them to browse through (but not during brahms of course!). if neither of them is convincing then the graphs might be of some help in explaining a "lack of overall balance" or even serious problems in the upper-mids/lower treble (too bright which drives everyone crazy), or a boomy lower-mid/upper bass (which is unacceptable unless you are a cerwin-vega fanatic). in any case $20,000 (or in this case quite a bit more than that) should sound so good it will quite often move you to tears of joy. if not then this hobby is specifically for people who are by-in-large tone-deaf, eh?