One reason the original x-over is boosted in the mid-band is so Wilson could increase their efficiency rating over the choice of a smoother fq response. Also rigid port tubes are resonant by nature. Why pipe organs use rigid pipes. I always roll my own port tubes using cork. That way the port tube is a rigid pipe at low frequencies but as the frequency increases, the cork is a great media for reducing resonances.
No, it is pure cork. I use 1/8 to 3/16" cork sheet applying masking tape where the seam is on the inside with half the tapes width exposed so when the cork rolled around the former, the other edge is held in place with the inner masking tape. Then wood glue completes the bond. Then a second layer of masking tape is applied to the outside to cover the seam. I use PVC pipe for the former making sure that the cork is not too tight so once glue is cured, I can slip the cork cylinder off from the form. This compliant/flexible tube virtually eliminates most pipe resonances, yet at low frequencies the tube acts as a rigid structure. I first saw this cork port tube in Goldmund Dialgue speakers many years ago. I immediately understood the advantage of this design. Maybe Goldmund has a patent on this, I don't know. Since I only build custom designs, it doesn't effect me.
Cool idea. But rigidity at low frequency would be dependant on their resonan frequency. Once excited they will oscillate and wobble around at their resonant frequency.
@@mcgovernjimmyAgree! I like how well the powerful spring loaded terminal clips grip my binding posts with their jagged, nine nines oxygen free copper teeth.
So these cost one grand more than Wolf von langa SON, with 11 inch Field Coil woofer with passive radiator and high end mundorf AMT in open baffle. 70% of Wilson prices is marketing.
Having listened to many in room RU-vid demos of Wilson speakers from their midrange Sasha to Alexa or whatever all the way up to their top of the line speakers, they all sound very forward and in your face. So I think that’s the Wilson sound. I’m surprised your customer bought these speakers not knowing that in advance.
When you go to Heaven God is going to commission you you to fix his speakers. I noticed that the bass port opening is not flared. It is counter productive to use relatively expensive aluminium without flaring when ironically , cheap flared plastic tubing would have been far better acoustically.
When the port is just big enough for the application then flaring it will help as there is high air velocity. However, if the port is oversized for the job, air velocity is not an issue. So making the port bigger in diameter and longer (keeping the same tuning) reduces port noise as well.
Different loudspeakers for different applications but if one compares the response curves to a Genelec or Neumann - Wilson is just audio jewellery, pure bling. Thankfully, recording engineers aren’t using Wilson for monitoring.
Many recording engineers use monitors that aren't all that flat, or even ones that they would never use to listen to the music outside their work. Of course that doesn't apply to all of them but the point is that the important part is truly knowing the monitor you're using and how it relates to the sound you want to achieve.
I can't help but wonder if sometimes the design team gets the first crack at the speakers, and then says to the technicians, here this is what you have to work with.
visual design? yes i agree, especially if they're working on a whole new line with a new look, the artistic / product designers will have a visual design into which a speaker has to be inserted, and the production cost accountants will be controlling the price of what goes in. but strange they spend all that dough on a potted external crossover and not put the money into foil inductors and really good caps and resistors..
Huge disappointment from Wilson Audio. Response looks like Klipsch Chinese speakers. Maybe they feel that making those crappy sounding they could push customers into buying more expensive models
i am still annoyed that that amount of money and you still get ported box. i know that bass is the foundation and reviewers only listen to them alone, you still need a subwoofer to make a complete system, full range reproduction should be the baseline.
I wonder what the Wilson folks would have to say about this review. "Crap Bob, we built flawed $12,000 bookshelf speakers...should have hooked a meter up before they hit the assembly line..." I think Bob and Co. did a little more than that, and were quite satisfied with exactly how they sounded for what they felt their market and history wanted and dictated. I think there's a signature sound fellas designing speakers and entertainment electronics strive for. The person who sent in the speaker for adjustment didn't particularly like the sound based on his tastes. Flat curves are great if you're not looking anything exotic or dynamic in the way that possibly your tastes might be. I spent a few days in the business, and speakers with flat metrics usually were studio type stuff, and not particularly exciting or esoteric, but desirable in mixing or as monitors for whatever you doing professionally or even casually based on room and setting circumstances. The good stuff never has what you'd expect as evenly toned technically, but that's the whole point. You'd have to imagine Carnegie Hall if you've never been, and realize by measurement there is plenty wrong technically with that space, but the experience tells a profoundly different story.
For some reason factory positive and negative pairs always have the positive and negative running in the same direction. What if Wilson flipped the negative side on the “near wall” set to eliminate the room boom? I think they would measure exactly the same but sound different. I’m a fan of yours Danny! I am going to build a pair of your speakers some day. Love the videos!
No BSC???? Whattt???? Poorly summing, highly non-flat crossover? Box resonances? Port resonances? This's like some crap garage DIY before the advent of computer aided design tools. And, they're charging how much $$$$$ for this rip-off incompetance? I've always always always known Wilson was a major swindle, from when they first crawled out from under a rock back in the late 1970s.
Brutal. Yikes. You all but said 'snake oil'. You handled everything about that video way better than I would have. The phone call made me laugh, you managed far better. Excellent production all around. Very informative, as usual. Don't ever change, this is just too good! Please carry on!
Good job Danny. Whenever anyone accuses you of selling snake oil I I compare GR research to companies like Wilson and PS Audio. You offer quality products at a fair price and they sell insanely overpriced products that don’t perform well. It’s clear who is really peddling snake oil.
There's a lot of high end gear that often does not measure all that great. Do people even bother to measure WA speakers costing 200-300+ k? As he said, it's more audio jewelry and a "house sound" at that point it appears.
It appears that this is the original Wilson Duette Series I made from about 2005-2013, so that should be taken into account if considering a new speaker model from any company. Plus, even though Wilson is a high-end speaker manufacturer, not many would have considered this as one of their mid-range or high-end models.
@@Mark-rw3kw Nonsense. When I was in touch with Wilson about this speaker, the person I spoke to spoke glowingly of them. In fact, he mentioned "one of our main guys" still uses them in his office. Your point in this thread seems to be to put strawmen into the conversation and make moot points about when the speaker was made. It's a high quality speaker that now has had the hands of a professional crossover designer on them. It's going to be a great speaker when it's all done. Stop making excuses for Wilson Audio. It is what it is.
@@mcgovernjimmy I am not making excuses for anyone. I personally would not buy a Wilson speaker for a number of reasons, as I have explained several times. But it is worth noting that Series 1 speaker Danny tested dates back to 2006, was upgraded in 2013 (Series 2), and was replaced by the Tune Tot in 2020, so obviously they know there are improvements that can could be made to the original. Making the 2006 Series 1 Duette a representation of the entire Wilson brand is the ultimate strawman fallacy since everyone knows that the other models made them well known in audio circles. Nevertheless, even with the improvements made by Wilson (and Danny), I am sure they sound pretty good anyway, especially when used as "office" speakers (what a joke).
It's a 10k + speaker, it should sound great and measure great, period. As you say, making excuses for WA is silly. It is also a fact that it's common that uber high end gear does not measure well as that's not usually why people purchase it. Big $ stuff usually has a "house sound" you either like or you don't, and due to its costs, pretty looks, and bragging rights, people convince themselves it sounds great... @@mcgovernjimmy
very interesting, thanks! But a flat frequency response without phase control is easy, why do you not care about phase? do you like pink noise so much? ;-) Please reverse the HT cable +- plugs and show us the FR (dip).
Danny. Great video and tuning. Please consider a more greyish/beige background. Could hardly see the black speakers that blended with the black background. Thanks. Same with the screenshot of the X-statics.
This speaker is meant to work well close to a wall, or even on an actual bookshelf. Compromises might have been made to account for near wall boundary loading, and at first blush it looks like the places where the response is 'sculpted' are consistent with that end goal because they are places where close boundaries would tend to 'thicken' the sound.
Even if that were the goal, they would have still had to adjust for the baffle step loss and create a more gradual decrease in output across the lower end to balance out boundary reinforcement. I might add that they also include a cable and a resistor for the tweeter designed for free standing use, on their stands, that the customer also owns.
Have you owned / listened to the Duette? There's no "setup issue / he didn't do it right" going on here. The speakers are "HYPER resolving" with the original crossover. I set these speakers up closer than 24" to the front wall and used the "Near Wall" resistors... both per the manual. For my enjoyment, I had to aim the speakers straight ahead and listen to them way off axis, so they didn't melt my face. Associated gear is all top shelf Ayre Acoustics - QB9 Twenty DAC, Ayre KX-5 Twenty preamp, Ayre VX-5 Twenty amp. A friend owns the same speaker, and also a pair of Alexia. We're both doing the upgrade on the Duette. This is a traumatic experience for some... it's gonna be OK. 🏁🏁🏁
I would love to see the measurements of Oswald Mill Audio (OMA) speakers. Their prices compared to Wilson make Wilson look like it should be sold at Walmart.
yeah measure their monitors with large horns , they also have 8 incher in a ported cube box. worst shape for standing waves- perfect cube. price is around 25 grand if i remember correctly
@quant2011 You are right about that mini speaker. But I have seen where sometimes a designer will design the inside to not be acoustically a perfect square. They use various shaped installation to make the speaker see the box as the golden ratio.
Most big renowned speaker manufacturers build they're speakers by ear not Measurements. I wonder who is right. The ones that do it by Measurements or the one's that do it primarily by ear. Lol
The duette is designed to stand close to the wall, that is why they didn't provide it with a baffle step correction the roomgain would/ should balance this out.
@@anthonyjackson7097 I don't know if the Duette was in fact designed to be close to a rear wall, but typically the mid-size and larger Wilson speakers are designed to be at least 4-6 feet from the rear wall, so "close to the wall" may be a relative term.
@@anthonyjackson7097 Totally depends on the speaker. If a speaker is weak in the low end or midbass, placing it 6" or so from the wall or corner will typically make it better just like @smaudi said. If a rear ported speaker is already fat in the low end it's best to keep it a couple feet away from the wall and avoid corners.
Even if that were the goal, they would have still had to adjust for the baffle step loss and create a more gradual decrease in output across the lower end to balance out boundary reinforcement. I might add that they also include a cable and a resistor for the tweeter designed for free standing use, on their stands, that the customer also owns.
@edjackson4389 Yeah, I understand your point. I feel that using walls to correct baffle step is not the way to go about it. Minus 3+dB at frequencies right in the Fletcher Munson curve will not go unnoticed. For speakers approaching $15,000.00 a pair, what is another cap, coil, and resistor going to matter to the profit margin? While nice-looking speakers, there is nowhere near with stand included $15,000.00 worth of parts. Any manufacturer charging this kind of money should have baffle step compensation, Period! You shouldn't have to use the walls, like you own a pair of Bose 901's.
@@Mark-rw3kw Nevertheless still an embarrassment. They're on the second hand market and what about all the poor(!) people who were fooled for 20y years? A reviewer named "Mark" just bought a pair. Hope he finds this upgrade;-) At least there's now a fix! Thanks Danny
@@carlitomelon4610 I personally am not a fan of Wilson speakers, simply from a price performance point of view (plus they are often butt ugly). However, I don't think the 2005 Duette Series 1 is an embarrassment. I don't know what you mean by fooled for 20 years. You can go back and read reviews of the original Duette Series 1 and see what others thought of the way it sounded. If you want to see a recent embarrassment, see the GR-Research original LGK (Little Giant Killer with one full range driver) and how it was reviewed on ASR and other sites. Fortunately, Danny released some new LGK versions that included adding additional low frequency drivers (and not just some crossover or other minor changes) to address the problem. What ASR revealed is that the tests that Danny does are not comprehensive enough, or do not include listening tests, to uncover a major flaw in a speaker system. Nobody in this world is perfect, and I think there is room in the audio world to appreciate both Wilson and GR-Research, regardless of whether their older products needed improvements. BTW, I didn't purchase a used Wilson. I am not a fan of 2-way "bookshelf" or stand-mount designs. I also not a fan of buying any audio gear that old.
@@Mark-rw3kw I have been listening to these upgraded Duette for a while now and I can tell you this... Your opinion of Danny / GR Research and constant sniping against him is laughably disconnected from the reality of what he produces. These Duette speakers, with Danny's new crossover, are now SPECTACULAR. Your constant sniping and making excuses for any speaker he fixes is obsessive and offers no value to the conversation, other that to be an example to others to be careful the credence you place into the opinion of others on the internet... most especially anyone referencing Audio "Science" Review. I hope you have a great day!
>Slightly brave careful which words are chosen on this one - this will be fun.. :) *this is what's all about! *ultimately a consumer is paying not just for a specific design but also 'iteration' within a range is why designers/manufactures can call their price, look at Magico when you thought no more re-design could ever happen to a baffle one man does something entirely new to compliment their own or OEM spec drivers with semi-exotic materials, nothing better than this fabulous & infinite subject.
I have not heard The Bully; however, I'm certain it is a superior value compared to this speaker - even at used Wilson pricing. I like this speaker and wanted to make it better. It is special and different than the Bully. I like owning nice and special things.
It’s really nice these days to use DSP to emulate notch filters, baffle response, and other xover changes without calculating and adding lots of inductors, caps, resistors etc to the huge parts count of a passive xover. Saves me lots of $ stocking parts for experiments! I have worked on speakers like Krell with over 30 components in the xover.
@@dannyrichie9743 Of course, but surely you will admit it’s a pretty quick way to explore different xovers, slopes, etc without getting out the soldering iron and raiding the parts bin?
The best DSP system I've used is offered by UPS ground... when I send the speaker to Danny to fix it. Although, I'm beginning to prefer FedEx these days. 🏁🏁🏁
Is this speaker the original Wilson Duette Series I made from about 2005-2013 or the Wilson Duette Series II made from about 2013-2020 (both versions are now retired)? I think the date of manufacture and exact model should be disclosed. Since no mention of Series II was made, I assume it is the original model first released about 2005. I remember when Danny reviewed one of the very first Eggleston speakers which was made about 1997 and a lot of people just assumed it was a current, or fairly recent model (which obviously it was not).
The different cables may still be affecting lower frequencies? The measurements stop at 200Hz and those cables are supposed to affect boundary gain which would be in the lower frequencies.
You can work that out by taking the speed of sound in meters per second (343) and diving it by the cone diameter in meters (0.2mt for 200mm). 343 divided by 0.2 = 1715Hz (1.715kHz)
a bigger tweeter is not needed - a bigger one only makes sense at very high listening levels. This can be fixed with the same driver by rising the crossover frequency. Downfall then is a downgrade in clarity and more beaming coming from the woofer.
Good video. Can’t wait to hear about this customers reviews in the forum. Is it me or is the felt ring around the tweeter off center? I’m asking because I was planning on putting some felt around my tweeter and I was also going to put it off center
The great dilemma when it comes to Wilson, value is subjective. The build quality is superb, great pride of ownership without question but being convinced that they sound like real music, not so convincing. Tn the early days before the crossovers were potted there was a big AD who modified the crossovers to really improve the sound. even built custom active crossover s for multi amping. The Wisons always had that happy face eq, boomy base, sucked out mids & that ear bleeding Focal inverted doom tweeter that Dave must have bought by the truck loads back in the day, so the currant drivers at least look like a big improvement. I don't know if Daryle has changed the voicing since taking control of the company since Daves passing but as I think they're fairly priced as super speakers go. The real head scratcher is so many so called reviewers own them...which begs the question, how much trust should you place on the reviewers???
Ah yes, I've been involved in the audio game for 45 years now, know many in the business & could tell you stories that are simply unbelievable. I can say that Michael Bremer is one that isn't one that is bought & paid for. Interestingly he now has the big Wilson's so I'm assuming Daryle has really taken the company in the right direction...let's just say that Dave best asset was his salesmanship skills.@@mcgovernjimmy
I've been building speakers for over 30 years and I went and demoed some Sasha. V's a few weeks ago. The Wilson Audio guy asked me how they sounded, and I told him a few issues on what was some problems. He instantly got pissed at me. It wasn't even about the speakers but the room that they were in.
If their speakers don't sound sublime to you YOU'RE the problem. The emperor is wearing a beautiful robe, trust me... that's not his taint you're seeing.
Hey Danny. This quote from John Mark’s review in Stereophile mag may help explain the decision to not use Baffle Step Comp: “The Duette was designed to be used in nonoptimal placements, such as on a credenza or mantel, or in a bookcase or built-in cabinet.” I can see it in John’s measurements, and he mentions it also.
I set the speakers up per the instructions in the manual... "Near Wall" resistors for 24" or less from front wall, etc. The problem is that even setup closer to the wall with boundary reinforcement, I still have to listen to them way off axis - pointed straight ahead. Even 10 degree off axis is fatiguing. If Wilson "intended them to be this way and let's not account for any baffle step compensation"... well, I don't like it. And now Danny has fixed it... The problem "hear" isn't the end user or improper setup. A good buddy of mine has a pair and he's doing the upgrade as well.
@@mcgovernjimmythanks for the response. I get what you’re saying, just maybe trying to help explain that portion of Wilson’s design choice (not that I necessarily agree with it). Enjoy!
If one were to design a speaker for close wall placement, the step loss still has to be accounted for. Then it is the ranges below 100Hz or so that are softened a little to mirror the gain of the front wall.
I think anyone who puts out that kind of money for speaker is a fool. The richer you are, maybe the less fool you are; but still a fool. Buying things that are obviously priced so that you are giving them vast amounts of your money based on their big name, is only something that a true status seeking person would do; or an audio maniac. I'm sure there are speakers at 1/8 their cost that would do as good or better sonically. If you really search around and find good value.
Hi, I know I'm late to this conversation but I just came across your channel so I'm catching up! Are you doing listening impressions as well? There is always more than just measurements. Great work, I'm really enjoying what I've watched so far. Especially the Maggie upgrades :)
For the Inductive loaded "Umbilical" cables to have any sonic effect differences, a Measurable Inductance difference should exist between the 2 cables & similar length of standard Normal Inductive speaker cable....There are many Affordable accurate digital LCR meters available....Possibly a missed Opportunity to measure the "Inductive" Umbilical cables was missed ??
I was lucky to listen to a pair of Alexx V on mono blocks and a great front end. Probably the most precise and balanced speakers that I’ve listened to. B&W 801’s on McIntosh are beautiful. I’ve heard Magico M3 and a lot of really high end stuff like Focal’s Utopia EVO. I have a few favourites for different reasons. The Alexx V were remarkable. Their Sophia left me very underwhelmed though. I imagine that I’d feel the same about these little 2 ways.
It has always been pretty obvious to me just looking at the Wilson designs that they are in it for the art and look of the speaker and don't have any actually qualified audio engineers in the company. They follow all the magazine article engineering fallacies in these designs and create speakers that look amazing but have very wild swings in response in different directions due to the large distances between drivers, and lots of cabinet corners etc. They produce an entertaining artistic speaker, not as opposed to an accurate high fidelity speaker with an even radiation pattern. As they where the special underwear that's popular in Utah, I expect they are closed minded and likely don't take criticism of their work very well.
I would really be interested about your thoughts for improvement on the Musician Night one speaker. Does it have good bones or not worth the 2000.00 Canadian.
I've never heard Duette speakers, but it's obvious that the design of them is very different from most other Wilson speakers. As a result it's probably not possible to make a valid generalization from this video about most of their other products. I recently traded a pair of Spatial M-4 speakers for a pair of WATT 7 speakers and was surprised that the imaging and soundstage when going to a non open baffle design didn't change a lot. For sure the WATT 7 speakers delivered more low frequency impact. In my set up the Wilsons were on balance an upgrade. Not sure that would be the case if I had a pair of Spatial X-4 speakers.
The lack of baffle step compensation is simply Wilson's way of making a strong unspoken sales pitch for a subwoofer. They don't want to make it sound too close to their $100k speakers. If they did that, they would never sell the expensive stuff.
Yes. This speaker with dual subs makes their floorstanding speakers a much more difficult sale... if people are actually buying based on performance, and not Look / Bling.
I gotta believe Wilson did this on purpose. They did similar with the original WATT. Why? Having the voodoo cables kind of spoils my opinion of their engineering
Halo , i have been.watched your video all day long is very good well explained . Sir has good reviewed to all the equipment stuff n crossover is just normal quality , my opinion you should share some short video sound before and after renew caps , so all users have some new experience with their speaker what is it like from normal to good n great ! tq tq
Hi Danny, thank you for your kind reply. I understand it but I thought maybe in the past years you might have modified the crossover for these speakers and I was interested to buy the components from you in a kit form.
Hey danny great content as usual, it baffles me that a pair of speakers costing 12 grand, and they still fuck it up it can.t b that they didn.t have enough pennies in the jar to meet the price point, i want to change my speakers at some point, but im lost , u just do not know what ur buying these days.....
Great job Danny as always. very odd they hide all manner of possible evils like that in a potted crossover rather than spend all that production money on better quality parts. that they're not afraid for you see.
Jamo Concert 11 - Please Danny. I'm from South Africa and about to drop a LOT of money on original crossover but better components. Would rather pay YOU the money for a proper crossover :-)
As well built as these speakers are, for near the same money I could have the Dynaudio Confidence speakers which are fabulous, but not perfect. This is where Danny comes in and does his thing.
Just an additional FIY, while the crossovers are potted. There are a lot of binding posts, and internal screws, nuts, and washers connecting everything. All of the binging posts, internal screws, and nuts are either Copper, Brass, or Aluminum. However, there are two resistors above the potted crossovers that are connected using a connecting junction, and the resistors are held down with and twisted around steel screws.
@@dannyrichie9743 Hi Danny, when you say "residual charge", what kind of electromagnetic phenomenon are you referring to? Can you share any references so I can learn more about it.
@@siarez Go back to your Jr. high level science class when you learned that you could wrap a wire around a nail and then by hooking that wire to a battery it would create and electromagnet. You might also remember that when you disconnected that wire from the battery, the nail no longer was a magnet. However, it held some electric charge and still showed some magnetic pull. Ferrous material does that. It hold an electrical charge.
I own a pair of Wilson Audio Sabrina X. Everyone is entitled to their opinions about what good sound is. I also think who are we to judge how people want to spend their hard earned money? Isn’t this hobby about enjoying music and high level reproduction to get us (the listener) as close to the sound of the original recording as possible? I’ve always aspired to moving up and owning better quality audio equipment. For me that’s been part of the fun. As a long time audiophile who didn’t always have top quality gear, I appreciated all of it at every level. As there diminishing returns the higher up you go? Absolutely! But better is better. And these Wilson’s are the best sounding speakers I’ve ever owned. I’d be interested to hear if Danny thinks he could make them better?
Sounds like you’re now terrified that WA have done a similarly cr@p job on your speakers and conned you out of $$$$$ As the Sabrina x are 3-way there is a good chance that the crossover between the woofer and mid has helped compensate for baffle step loss. But who knows? Maybe WA’s house sound is to have a non-flat midrange? I’ve never liked any WA speakers I’ve heard. Ugly and bright sounding. If you want to hear the music as it was originally created then you should seek out a speaker that has flat on-axis response and optimised directivity for accurate off-axis response. Check out anything that has a clean set of measurements using a Klippel nearfield scanner. This includes distortion measurements, something that Danny doesn’t publish in his videos, but definitely useful information about how a speaker sounds.
Matt, dude, seriously. He listened to the speakers and he liked them. He knew what they cost and he thought they were worth it. He still likes them. They didn't con him and he's not worried in the least that he didn't get his money's worth. And, really, on what planet would he be "terrified" of any of this? Do you actually live in fear that products you like and pay a lot of money for may one day be deemed inferior according to one man's opinion of it? Your opinion of Wilson is your opinion and completely irrelevant to anyone but you. Guys like you and Danny have this idea in your head about how a speaker should measure and if it doesn't well then it can't sound great. But, again, that's an opinion, not a fact. Danny knows how to make a pretty response graph and for people who think like him and have his taste I'm sure they will like his designs. I'm in the camp of if I like it then I like it. If I think it's worth it then I think it's worth it. Heck, for all I know the speakers I like may measure the way Danny likes them to measure. But if they don't then I don't care because I'm never going to measure them. Nor am I going to worry about whether some measurement wizard or one of his minions thinks I'm wrong. When he's paying for the speakers he gets a say. Until then he's just a dude selling his opinion.
@@mattholland315 Of all the measurements that can be made on a speaker, the distortion measurements tell you little to nothing about how a speaker will sound. It can highlight a problem if there is one, but differences of 1% or 2% are hardly audible and indistinguishable from the music. The same is true for distortion measurements of amplifiers. 1%, .1%, or .01% is not a measure of sound quality.
@@dannyrichie9743 completely agree with respect to low levels of THD, but the whole point of measuring THD is to spot problems as you say. Also, we can see how capable the bass driver(s) is in terms of controlling distortion. Yes THD is less of an issue subjectively as lower frequencies, but I do think we should be striving to reduce THD as much as possible because it certainly it is audible if high enough
>Noticed on APC site a tech-note indicates "dB & damping factor loss due to cable resistance" they indicate certain cable gauge with added length appears to change 'damping-factor' a strange measurement not often mentioned or understood when it is - myself included.
One has to wonder, how Wilson Audio, who've been building world class speakers for decades, could get it so wrong!? Could it be that it's all about WHERE the measurements WA and Guy are taken from/how they're taken. Surely WA cannot be THAT bad at designing a crossover for their own speaker, can they? The two cables supplied do seem to be BS I have to admit. Anyone at WA care to comment?
WA will not bother commenting on this, and many of their owners will not care either. For many WA owners, it's about the image being projected to others, not the sound being projected to your ears. WA has plenty of customers lined up to buy their refrigerator speakers for their Miami Beach condos. The Duette, however, is a cool 2-way with 8" woofer and quality drivers. It is a unique speaker... and conveniently no longer made by WA. I have spoken to a dealer at WA who says WA thought this speaker, paired with subs, was just too close to their big boy speakers... and it certainly changes the value proposition for them. So, they killed it.
11:00 My conspiracy theory is that they do it on purpose so you might buy more expensive speakers. So they can get more difference in their price range. And this explains why some really cheap speakers can sound amazing for such low price (for example the famous SONY cheapies). Maybe some cheap manufacturers don't make them sound "bad" on purpose (it seems). I have some B&W 706 speakers and they suck! The voice sound is muffly and brass sounds are foofy. But there is plenty of top end. There seens to be a gap at around 4 khz (just guessing). They are my referece speakers for my speaker builing hobby and my made speakers absolutely smash the B&Ws...cos my made speakers actually have texture in the voice sound. 😅 So why do my made speakers sound more like the Nautilus speakers, than the 706s (if this Schiit isn't done on purpose)? 😅😅😅😅
with such freq resp messed up, how on earth they are better than super flat Neumann KH 150,active, with 245wpc amps built in? which go for $3k vs duette 2 for $20k ?
Don’t forget Philharmonic Audio. Their speakers are probably the most accurate, passive designs, anywhere. They are truth tellers. They achieve +/- 1.5 dB, without active DSP.
Hi Danny, thank you for generous and informative videos. I have pair of yamaha NS-6490 speakers, beyond changing each crossover components is there any other crossover that I can build to improve sound of drivers? Thank you
That curved baffle around the tweeter is the worst possible shape for getting a flat response. But it looks nice and thats clearly Wilsons priority over performance.
@@dunkelheit843 comments are asking for comment, period. To even ask the question shows that you are not even sure that the glaring issues in the original product being fixed, and having a much better and smoother response, may not actually sound better. That tells me you're the perfect Wilson customer, go spend your 30k because the brand name and magazine reviews tell you it's great, and it has prestige... I'll enjoy my 2000 dollar diy speakers that are objectively better in every way besides being fancy furniture. It was a silly statement mate, and I gave my 2c, deal with it. That's RU-vid.
@@Artcore103 It wasen't a question, just hoping the new filter lets him enjoy the speaker more. Don't see the point of you starting to flame me for that.
12K and doesn't include stands high end home audio always kills me you can't tell me that at 12k they can't include a stand. the before and after looks pretty great on these not sure why they wouldn't pull that higher frequencies down to begin with.
