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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
8,159 posts
 
Andrew, What kind of a system are you doing , 7.2? Multichannel class D amps are fine for the surround speakers. I would use amps like QSC PLX 3602 's for subwoofers (Class H) and I would use serious amps for the main speakers. These are all going to generate heat. Pass 600.8's or Parasound JC1+ would be fabulous. There is also Boulder and Constellation if you want to spend more money. 
If you want to lower distortion further you want to cross to the subwoofers higher up no lower than 80  Hz using a high pass filter on the main amps.
One subwoofer will not do it. My guess is you will need four. You like the line sources because they project power. You can not use them well with a point source subwoofer. You have to create a line source subwoofer to match correctly. My guess is you will need at least 4 to create the array.
You can't put them in the wall but they can be positioned on the floor right against the front wall where they will be out of the way. Please check out the Trinnov processor https://www.trinnov.com/altitude32/  This is a major cool unit and it has a great subwoofer crossover in it.
Please, what are some of your movies. I collect Blu Ray discs. I might have some already!
pophaudio
75 posts
 
Made in USA!!! like election 😀
french_fries
815 posts
 
After getting Lord of the Rings on DVD and Blu Ray, I would have to crank up the volume to hear soft conversations by the actors, and then reduce the volume rapidly to save my hearing  during "action" sequences of any kind. Same for Avatar, Independence Day, etc. There's no way I would subject a good pair of speakers designed to reveal separate instruments in an ensemble or do justice to a folksinger plus guitars, banjo, string bass, and so on. That's not to say Wisdom Audio makes a bad product or JBL makes a punchy sound but lacks finesse.
So that's my only problem with this article- it's not about speakers- it's about radically different ways sound engineers mix a movie with ENORMOUS variations in volume from minute to minute, and music-only albums which are mixed from PP to FF 95% of the time. The there's the issue of how well recorded the music is in the 1st place, and the same goes for movies made long ago to today's blockbusters. I don't mean to be sour grapes, but a Bette David movie is recorded so you can hear every word, which to me just makes common sense since the script is the most entertaining part. 
bosssound's avatar
bosssound
119 posts
 
Just want to say enjoy hearing about your industry experience. And, had not known about wisdom audio before. Always eager to hear about new products & technology. Appreciate grace with which you respond to haters.
dukeofdoowop
13 posts
 
 I also inherited my love of audio equipment from my father, albeit from a different era. I inherited his AR2's, went to AR3's, wharfdales, Dahlquist DQ10's and DQ20's, even a pair of Tannoys the size of a refrigerator. Over decades, my system has evolved to a pretty high end system with five McIntosh components and Aerial speakers including their powered subwoofer. My system has always included a home theater aspect to it. I think that many of us are frustrated in the quest for speakers that excel in the context of both music and theater.

I agree with @french_fries that movie production values are part of the problem. We have all experienced the problem of over-modulated sound effects and music drowning out the dialog  (assuming the actors can actually speak so the listener can understand them.) We were all led to believe that this problem would be addressed by dedicated center speakers. In this regard, the dialog of some movies is actually more easily understood on an iPad. 

Do you think that the speakers you have chosen will address this problem?
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