Is Mickey ordering the Goldmund, trade in that obsoleted Continuuuuuum goldmund is made to order and it has limited sales, and it has this and that it's got stuff in it the Continum ain't got, how could anyone into analog LP listen on anything other than this new Goldmund....A $100K continum, come on it's the 21st century BSR. Goldmund or nothing...I hope to see next month raves about this new TT. Doesn't it also have climate control, so even the listener is optimized for the event!!! Where is is made, China? Is it really gonna be $300,000? MF, you know it's gonna be better than that cheap continum, trade on up to a real TT. You should get at least what, $25K for that USED TT you got, probably already out of warranty? Second mortgage the Continum, maybe, and get the GoldMund. It's gotta be good, has two full pages of pictures, shot from below, to make it look impressive....$300,000 TT Yupper, to play a garage sale 50 cent record!!!Mortal ears won't get the benefit.

I've listened to numerous components that were really good...and I didn't like them. If we all liked the same things then all the gear would sound the same. Maybe a component does 90% of what I like really good and 10% not so good. If that 10% is in an important area for my tastes, I'm not going to like it, but can still see how many others would. On the flip side, I've heard stuff that would force me to use all my fingers in counting the things I could hear that wasn't as good as others I've heard and I would still love how it sounded. Some things are simply balanced as a whole more to my tastes than others.

Wes is simply recognizing and pointing out that reviewers aren't telling people what to like, but rather what something sounds like to him. I wouldn't try to tell my 65 yr old mom she should like a Corvette more than a Cadillac.

Btw, this is what the poster is eluding to. As for changes, I wouldn't expect much in the way of content and contributors, but in distribution and marketing. Let's hope the folks that bought the portfolio aren't complete idiots.

Bobwood,

I was very surprised at the measured room response at WP's place. I am going on the take that this is NOT indicative of what most, if not all, customers would expect from the Wilson Dealer.

I was also surprised at RB's comments at Craig Kallman's WP8's "overpowering" his listening room. It should not come as a surprise that many if not all large floor standing speakers need some "space" to sound their best and why often a great pair of 2-way monitors may be just right for a smaller room allowing for less room interaction. This is Kalman Rubinson area for sure.

At this price point I would be disappointed for sure not to be within 2db across the spectrum. I would hope this is not unrealistic for a $25K+/pair speaker.

We will be hearing more from Jeff Kalman once he gets his installed and broken it. Unless the sound is sooooo good he falls into the "listening black hole" and we never hear from him again. LOL

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And you have to wonder with 10db peaks and valleys at 1/6 octave what the heck Wes heard anyway?

bobwood, don't let this little thing affect your purchasing decision. Just make sure you use the $15,500 Zanden DAC, at 20% THD it will complement those peaks&valleys quite nicely...

It needs wood blocks, probably used the wrong.....................................WIRE!!! So now Stereophile is part of a company that also distrbutes CD/DVD? Is that gonna subject the impartiality in anyway? Hmmmm

Here is a link to the National Research Council of Canada's measurements of the WP8. Here is a link for the WP7 from the same source.

The listening window measurement on the 8 isn't bad, neither is the on axis FR. Every speaker is going to have peaks and nulls in a room based on that room's resonant modes. Would you rather people stop reviewing speakers because they have to do so in an imperfect environment? No one would be able to review speakers anymore because there is no perfect environment.

I think this article by Richard Rives is revealing of other important considerations to take into account especially in terms of Frequency Response.

I'm not trying to be a jerk, and I hope I'm not coming across that way. I just don't think things are as bad as people are interpreting them to be. Having those kinds of peaks and nulls in a listening room is not abnormal, since many people don't treat their listening rooms for specific speakers. That is why it is unfortunate that the dips and peaks in the FR of the WP8s and this particular listening room's modes correspond in an unfortunate way.

Here is a graph of my own room measurements, before and after room construction and initial treatment using my B&W 802Ds (before any final fine tuning stage with Rives - I'm waiting on the WP8s to arrive and to have them voiced in my room before I start the fine tuning stage): three comparitive FR results.

The blue line is the current room with the Meridian Room Correction "Off." The red line is with the Meridian Room Correction "On." The Maroon line is before room construction and bass treatment. The speakers were in almost the same exact positions. I added extra wall off the original wall to bring the drywall further off the concrete, so they have moved a little, and consequently the room shape has changed a little as well. In any case, I don't think there is much question that the FR has been significantly improved in the bass region. I am excited to measure the WP8s in this same way once they are voiced, and to then begin the fine tuning stage (sans any pre-construction measurements unfortunately)...

I spent a little time last night looking through many of the high-end speaker FRs on Stereophile and those that were available on Soundstage as well. I think people could possibly benefit from doing the same. The only speaker that I saw that measured very flat was a monitor. My studio monitors that I have been using temporarily as surround sound speakers in my Listening/HT room measure flatter than the ones I allude to above (I didn't want to buy anything new since I knew I was going to change speakers). They are Samson Resolv 80a active studio monitors. They measure flatter than all of the speaker FRs that I looked at online last night! They certainly don't sound that great.

Yeah, Wes's room isn't the paragon of flat FRs, neither is the WP8, but Wes did mention the faults that the imperfect FR elicited in his listening experience. I find that to be quite remarkable. Of course, you can read that information in the measurements section of the review. So I apologize if I am being redundant or annoying.

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I read it and still don't get it. EQUIVOCATION, ladies and gentlemen. It's good, but you might not like it?

So the reviewer left me confused. The measurements didn't impress either. And you have to wonder with 10db peaks and valleys at 1/6 octave what the heck Wes heard anyway?

But hey - new owners for Stereophile. Time for ch-ch-ch-changes by David Bowie on the Goldmund TT?

Having read the review, this is what I got out of it:

Wes didn't think that the W/P 8 was all that, however, he recognized that some may like it. I don't think that he thought that this system was as good as it should have been for the money, but it wasn't so awful as to be complete garbage. There are some who like very detailed, dry sound with slight brightness, and I think that this is what the W/P 8 sound like (judging strictly from the review, not having heard them personally).

Perhaps Wes can correct me if my impressions are off, but that's the general impression that I got from the review.