Dave Wilson taking his gloves off
default -- Fri, 05/08/2009 - 20:36
http://www.wilsonaudio.com/sasha/history_movie.html Is that a frontal attack on Magico, or am I missing anything?
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It is interesting for two reasons.
One, Wilson has never been a company that reacts, they used to be above it all and great at promoting an image.
Magico must be cutting into that for them to panic like this.
Two, although they are quick to point out what they percieve to be superior technology on boxes, they are
absent on the obviously equally important driver technology, where it appear Magico is way ahead of them.
I say it's all a waste - do away with the box. Like Linkwitz, Alon/Nola, Jamo, Bastanis, Hawthorne and the latest from Tim de Paravicini....
Wow, That is unbelievable. I had to see it again. No subtleties… Not so sure about their “boxes technology” either. These graphs that they are showing are pretty meaningless without disclosures of structural context.
Definitely, Magico falls right in the crosshairs of this message. I'm a mechanical engineer with a concentration in vibration and dynamics, and I agree that the graphs prove very little in a practical sense. It is obvious that the Wilson material has very good self-damping characteristics, but the actual performance of any material in a real speaker will depend heavily on the overall shape of the material, and the pattern of excitation. For instance, highly curved shapes will tend to exhibit much less "peaky" resonant characteristics than rectilinear ones. For Wilson to go out with such a focused, marketing centric, and even slightly misleading message says that they do see Magico as serious competition. As they should.
And the point from Winkie about Magico driver technology is also relevant. The largest percentage of material resonance-induced distortion in a loudspeaker comes from the driver material itself, and Dave Wilson of all people knows that.
But all that said, I'd bet, even as a V3 owner myself and never having heard the Sashas, that the Sashas will offer the V3s very stiff competition. Wilson is a proud and tremendously competent organization, and they certainly have the capacity to raise the bar when challenged. And I read that the Sashas will retail for $27K? That price sounds familiar, wonder why :)
"...they certainly have the capacity to raise the bar when challenged."
Not so sure about that anymore. I have not heard a Wilson I liked in many years now. The W/P 8 was clearly inferior to the W/P 7 and that new “midrange” does not look like anything “new” whatsoever. Not to mention that god-awful tweeter. Even the shape of the new speakers, is so W/P that to call it a “new era” is simply ridicules. Wilson is looking more and more like he is out of touch with the market. Since his company was never driven by “real technology”, he may not have an answer, other than mudslinging, to some of his new competition.
I'll say one more thing, and that is that Alon Wolf can be quite publicly disdainful of other speaker companies' efforts, in a way that Dave Wilson has never been. I wouldn't be surprised if Wilson is taking that somewhat personally; I probably would if I were him. When you've spent 30 years building a very successful company and turning out very successful products (personal taste aside), to be dissed by a brash upstart has got to be a bit galling.
"...disdainful of other speaker companies' efforts, in a way that Dave Wilson has never been"
I guess you never set in a “Wilson devouring B&W” demo…
LOL. I'd never heard of that one. Kharma will get you in the end!
The speaker company or the Wheel of Fortune?
And eye yam youshly sech a gud speler ...
How about Krell? CES 2006 ( http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2006/010506wilson/ ). Wilson is sure a slick dude. You wouldn’t know he is trashing anyone. His knifes are covered with special Utah butter. Big smile, no pain, just collateral damage. I love how he gets these reviewers to do his deeds. Listen to Wes Phillips: “today's demo was designed not to show that Wilson's Duette ($11,000/pair) was better than the competition—in this case B&W 800 Diamonds ($20,000/pair) or Krell LAT-2000s ($14,000/pair)—but rather to demonstrate how they might provide a solution for a common loudspeaker problem, namely where a normal person might put the darn things.”
Is that absurd or what? If he was just trying to “provide a solution for a common loudspeaker problem” why was he not using his own floor standing loudspeakers?
That is funny! I have not seen the Krell party rained on, but I sure set on more than one B&W “killing me softly” demo. I always wondered if there aren’t any legal stipulation to such practices. After all, these demos, are extremely controlled and made to push a very specific agenda. BTW, to a trained ear, not very successfully, IMO.
I actually think that there were some legal issues. I have not seen Wilson do these things again. At that time I worked in an audio dealer that had both Krell and Wilson on the floor. We were very upset with that whole thing. We were under tremendous pressure to keep Krell speakers out of the store and I believe that the owner felt that if he will bring them in, he will lose the Wilson line. A shame since I thought that the Krell were better speakers.
No one has commented that the later cabinet materials Wilson has come up with have "wood particles." Maybe wood isn't so bad after all. But Wilson might have you believe it is and that they have invented the perfect cabinet material (again, until next year when they miraculously come up with what they claim to be an even more perfect material, ad nauseum). Yawn.
Brian Walsh
Essential Audio ~ Chicago area ~ 773-809-HIFI (4434)