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In Reply to: Re: someone mentioned a while back about the $25K Apogees.. posted by mac on October 28, 2006 at 00:47:09:
Unfortunately, the Wisdoms are not easy to set up - they really need a trained dealer who knows what he is doing, excellent amplification, and a large room. If they sounded "broken", I would question if they were set up properly before concluding they are bad speakers because they are some of the best I've heard.
Follow Ups:
Perhaps "broken" is an overstatement.The guy who owned them is quite the consummate audiophile and I have no doubt that he had them setup properly in his large room with his top notch equipment (Spectral).
I've also heard Wisdoms at the shows and they have all have had a similar quality that other's have mentioned. The large BG planar magnetic line source driver has a unique fingerprint, especially in the upper octaves.
In any event he's been a happy Orion owner now for two years.
I can tell you from experience that the B&G ribbons don't particularly like SS gear. They are very revealing of problems at high frequencies and perhaps the problem was the sound was then too brittle. I would ONLY use very good tubes or hybrids to make this ribbon tower sing. Use whatever SS bruiser you want on the bass modules.I am not saying that the Orions aren't a better speaker but your consummate audiophile friend should have tried a different amp than the Spectrals on the ribbons before deciding.
The sound was not "too brittle" but the coloration of the driver was clearly audible. It's possible that a tube amp (or tone control) might have obfuscated the effect."Amplifiers were solid state. They were Wisdom Audio prototypes designed by Steve Dunlap, of Memphis, with the Adrenaline in mind."
http://www.soundstage.com/masz02.htm
In any event, he's happy with his Orions, and to my knowledge, the new owner is happy with his D-75s.
I think that this driver has a bit of coloration but I suspect that it is exaccerbated by the fact that Wisdom uses them as a monopole and that the sound is coming off the back wall and through the driver. In my implementation it seems less colored than most box speakers I have heard but more so than the Apogees I had before (probably the least colored speakers ever made) and Acoustats.
As I mentioned previously, his were the dipole version. See link in previous post.
Oops, missed that point. I am just used to Wisdoms being monopoles and didn't read carefully enough.
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