1. Home
  2. speakers
  3. 166257-976

You pay for it and you get it...

When it comes to large speakers, IME what you get far more than any other attribute, is the sense of scale...which is what seems to delineate the best large speakers from the best small speakers. As an example, yesterday I had the pleasure of listening to the new Wilson Sabrina X’s and the new Wilson Alexx V’s. While both speakers are from the same manufacturer, and both employ what looks like some of the same drivers, this is basically where the similarity ends. The big Wilson is about seven times the price of the small model! So, besides a much larger cabinet and a few extra drivers what do you get for your money...the answer is SCALE!! This is something that unless heard, is a little hard to fathom. The small Sabrina X’s do most things well..and I was very impressed by them, far superior across the board to the original model Sabrina. The Alexx V’s in a very large room ( which is also a MAJOR requirement for them to work their magic, and if one does not have this I believe then this is the wrong speaker for you) are able to throw a sense of scale that has to be heard to be believed. This is what you pay for with these large speakers, and in the Alexx V’s case, what you get. The frequency response of the larger model is not that different in the highs..and in some extent I think the midrange resolution was similar, but the bass is where it’s at...and this is where I think the sense of scale and enormity comes from. On paper, the smaller model can drop down to within probably ten Hz’s of the larger model, yet in a room of commensurate size, the little Sabrina X’s will never be able to portray the scale of the Alexx V’s. This aspect seems to apply to all large speakers in large room vs small/middle size speakers in large rooms.
Question is is it even possible to get scale with a smaller speaker in any size room, so far I have not heard this...anyone else?
daveyf
james633
1,056 posts
 
Yes I should clarify I guess. My thought is the Yvette or older Sophia 3 with a pair of subs high passed (JL CR-1 etc) at 60hz would play in the same league as Wilson's much bigger models. I don’t like monitors with subs at all. Just to different of a dynamic impact for me. The advantage is you can work around room nodes much better unless you can get this big speakers 7’ off the wall. 
But what is scale? Image size? Which is defined by dispersion and room interaction (time alignment, reflections etc)? Or it is the impact of moving more air? So much of the sound comes from the mids and tweeters so how much more air is being moved by a very large speaker vs large speaker with subs. Honest question, I really don’t know.  
My guess is that it comes into room and time delay of the sound combined with dynamic impact. Big drivers just move more air for less displacement. I know my headphones don’t do it and the driver to room size could not get any bigger than headphones so maybe it is more phase, room/ time delay. 
russ69's avatar
russ69
3,579 posts
 
Don't over think it, big speakers have it going on. If you have the room and the money, just go for it. 
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Question is is it even possible to get scale with a smaller speaker in any size room, so far I have not heard this...anyone else?


Question if you even have any sense of the room you are in just how good these are? 

I must say though I enjoy Doug MacLeod, and have always wondered what it would sound like were he ten feet tall playing a guitar the size of a string bass.
daveyf's avatar
daveyf OP
3,115 posts
 
The room clearly has something to do with the ability of the speaker to portray scale, BUT I think even in the big room, a small speaker, like the Sabrina X that I referenced, cannot portray this.

@millercarbon I hear what you say about the ten foot tall artist holding a guitar the size of a string bass...and this is one of the traps that a lot of large speakers fall into. If you read MF’s review of the Chronosonics, he actually mentions this aspect in his conclusion. I am very aware of this problem, and it will disqualify the speaker for me if this is present. The new Alexx V’s were not falling into that trap. I listened carefully to see if i could hear that problem with small ensembles, solo guitar etc., no problem. This makes this particular speaker even more impressive, IMO.

The portrayal of scale is important in the overall sound quality-- as it allows one to more completely believe in the ’illusion’ of the real. Something that is not that obviously missing from many systems, until one hears when it is. IME.

@douglas_schroeder I think you have described the issue well, it doesn’t bode well for smaller rooms and systems, like most of us utilize.
daveyf's avatar
daveyf OP
3,115 posts
 
 @james633  I high pass my dual REL subs. They are limited by the size of my listening room. Nonetheless, I do not believe that even in a much larger room, that they can bring scale like the big speakers. They can bring dynamic impact, but like Douglas Schroeder correctly points out, (large) scale and dynamic impact are not the same thing.
More to discover