Wireworld: To Be or Not To Be...

Given how good Wireworld's Platinum Eclipse cabling sounded with deHavilland and Glow electronics, I was delighted to encounter Wireworld's David Salz demming another Glow/Sonist system in the adjoining room. I'm sure Wireworld's Equinox 6 interconnects ($200/pair), Equinox 6 bi-wire speaker cables ($750/pair), Stratus power cords ($100/2m), and Matrix power strip ($120) were doing just fine. So, I expect, was the source, a Cambridge 550C CD player ($595). But the Glow 832 SET 7wpc stereo amplifier ($795) was challenged driving the 93dB-sensitive Sonist Recital 3 floorstanding loudspeakers. Things sounded okay with the volume turned down low, but when you invited singers to come out from behind the closet door and stand in front of you, the sound began to distort and fall apart. It takes an extremely efficient loudspeaker to enable those amplifiers to truly glow. To its everlasting credit, Wireworld's cabling did not mask the problems associated with the mismatch.

COMMENTS
Stephen Scharf's picture

I really liked this room very much. After the leaving the Emerald Physics/Modwright room, this room was like a breath of fresh air. Granted the Sonist speaker needed more than 7 watts of power to play at high levels, but a low listening levels, the sound was very musical and very pleasant indeed. And David Salz was a pleasure to chat and share some music with; a super guy. I was impressed enough with his cables that I am going to buy some.

Ken Merrigan's picture

I’m a recent convert to the magic of tubes, but couldn’t imagine being able to afford true tube nirvana (SETs) because of the prices of speakers with the efficiency to match with amps pushing 10 Watts or less. After spending about 30 minutes listening to the Recital 3s yesterday morning I don’t think that way anymore. The Recital 3s sounded great to me at moderate levels, which is how I listen 95% of the time. In my home listening environment, I can rarely crank the sound up to live music levels, so the fact that a 7 watt amp could not drive the Recital 3s to jet engine decibels didn’t bother me in the least. An added bonus was spending time with designer Randy Bankert a real world regular guy who provided a much needed cup of Blue Mountain Coffee on Sunday Morning.

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