Subwoofer Reviews

Features, setup, and phase
Rather than repeating every feature and setup parameter detailed in the LōKē's online manual (footnote 8), I'll highlight those I found most important. But first this: While it's true that placing LōKēs near room boundaries and corners provides even more bass reinforcement, care must be taken to avoid introducing upper-bass colorations caused by overloading upper-bass room modes.

Subwoofers come, broadly, in two varieties: those that operate entirely in the analog realm and those that digitize the music. The LōKē is in the latter category (footnote 9). Controls on LōKē's rear amplifier panel include an input-level switch, a power-mode switch, a Feature Setup knob, and a main power switch. The input-level switch lets you choose between Normal and Hi-Level, which attenuates input signals by –6dB. The power-mode switch lets you choose between On and Auto; the latter setting puts the amplifier into standby after 20 minutes without an input signal. The clickable Feature Setup knob lets you adjust the LōKē's many DSP features, and a small LCD display facilitates setup. The panel also features balanced and unbalanced analog inputs and (line-level) outputs, an IEC connector, and a USB control connector.

The DSP settings accessible via the Feature Setup knob include volume; high-pass (footnote 10), low-pass, and subsonic filters; a two-band parametric equalizer; and phase (0–180°). Each LōKē comes with a standard power cable, spikes, Wilson's Acoustic Diodes, and various installation tools.

Wilson recommends placing a pair of LōKēs on the same arc as the front baffles of the main speakers—the same distance from the listening position—but the only space available in my room was near the sidewalls a bit ahead of the Alexia Vs. Peter did the installation. I missed some of it—fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, dogs must be walked or there's mud in my eye—but I was present to provide feedback, turn knobs, and hold the 110lb subs steady as Peter adjusted the Acoustic Diode supports and leveled the LōKēs.

Before the dogs and I took our stroll, I asked Peter if he could set the crossover point high enough to enable the LōKēs to compensate for the bass dip in my room that begins around 63Hz. When he tried, he could not make the subwoofers disappear. No doubt the bass sounded egregiously overemphasized and generally out of whack. Eventually, he settled on a crossover point of 38Hz.

In dialing in the phase, Peter listened for maximum amplitude; his goal was to ensure that music from the subs and the main speakers arrived at the listening position at the same moment. "You can feather the phase one way or the other to get the LōKē to sing with the main speaker," Peter said. "It's hard to describe what I'm looking for at 40Hz, but it's like when you're on a boat that has two engines and you throttle the engines, you can hear this sort of synchronous 'bing' when the two engines lock in and become precisely one pitch. If you vary the rpm by as little as 25 one way or the other, they no longer do that. That's what I'm looking for in the woofer. If you listen carefully, you can almost hear where the two drivers seem to be locked in. But first, you must have all the other basic parameters set, including the amplitude and volume. If one is too loud, the phase won't lock in properly. But when they're matched correctly and the crossover frequency has been set, phase is the final adjustment."

The cable and power conundrum
Are premium power cables and interconnects advantageous with subwoofers? "Good design should reward the listener the more they put into it," said Daryl, who uses Shunyata power cables and a Shunyata conditioner with the subwoofers in his own system. He cautioned, though, that results will depend on a host of factors. "If the room is clean, you have room treatment, and the setup is ideal, you will hear cable differences more readily. But this is a product that you may need to squeeze into a corner behind plants or under a desk. Even with standard power cords, you'll hear an immediate improvement. But good power cables can reduce any kind of potential hum. The cleaner the power, the cleaner the LōKēs will sound."

Peter added, "Using the LōKēs with their supplied power cables and nominal balanced interconnects"—that would include the pair of Mogami 2534 XLR cables my friend Peter Schwartzman loaned me for the installation—"will suffice to show what the woofers can add to a system such as yours. Of course, you or any other end user is welcome to go as far as they would like in the pursuit of a higher level of performance. But given the limited band pass of the woofer's application, hugely expensive cabling might not yield as much of a sonic benefit as it would in full-range applications."

Eager to discover the difference better power cables might make, I decided to try two discontinued Nordost Valhalla power cables that were not currently in use. Addressing the power source, however, was not possible. The only outlets available to me were neither on my dedicated line nor anywhere near my AudioQuest and Stromtank power devices. At least the electrical wiring had been changed from aluminum to copper, and I had made some other changes that further cleaned up power. While Daryl never mentioned interconnects, this inveterate audiophile could not help but wonder if improving them would also make a difference. My replacement for the loaner Mogamis, two 5m Nordost Blue Heaven subwoofer cables with XLR terminations, arrived at the end of the review period (footnote 11).

Let the music begin
A musical selection Peter used for setup was an organ rendition of "Davy Jones" from Hans Zimmer's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, performed by Anna Lapwood on her EP Midnight Sessions at the Royal Albert Hall (24/96 MQA, Sony/Tidal). Engineered by Mike Hatch, the recording captures the space and less-than-silent backdrop of Royal Albert Hall, the distance between mikes and organ, and the instrument's myriad mechanical sounds. The three-minute, 37-second track begins with chimelike sounds in the organ's high register. Then the music dives deeper and deeper until it delivers deep bass strong enough to test any system. Ultimately, it returns to those lovely atmospheric twinkles before ending with the sound of the hall.

Even before the phase was set, we compared listening with the subs on and off. To paraphrase Bob Dylan's memorable line from "Subterranean Homesick Blues," "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows," you don't need golden ears to hear that low bass grows stronger and more focused when the LōKēs are engaged.

But the LōKēs did more than reinforce the Alexia V's deep bass. As airy and 3D as "Davy Jones" sounded through the Alexia Vs by themselves, the sense of a vast hall (designed to hold 8000 people) increased noticeably when the LōKēs were engaged. My jaw dropped.

Peter's jaw dropped, too, when, after we had adjusted phase, I insisted on switching from the supplied power cables to Nordost Valhalla. The improvement in deep bass focus, solidity, and color was quite noticeable and musically spot on. It is enlightening to affirm that power cables can make a difference even when only low frequencies are involved, even with class-D amplifiers like the one in the LōKē.

The sound improved further when I switched subwoofer interconnects from Mogami 2534 to Nordost Blue Heaven. A soundstage that was already awesome in depth and width grew further and delivered the most convincing depiction of you-are-there room boundaries I've heard from my system.

The time was ripe for a favorite bass assault, the second movement of the Shostakovich Symphony No.11 from Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra's superb recording of Shostakovich Symphonies Nos.4 & 11 "The Year 1905" (24/96 FLAC, DG/Qobuz). The LōKēs provided an impressive improvement in deep bass and soundstage depth. With the Valhalla power cables, bass grew tauter and gained color. Soundstage depth and realism improved. Changing the interconnects added impact and color, individual elements within the soundstage cohered better, the depth of the soundstage became more convincing, and the apparent boundaries of the recording venue (Boston's Symphony Hall) solidified.

How audible would the improvement be on a recording consisting solely of soprano and piano? The lowest note on a standard piano descends to 27.5Hz, but the piano part on soprano Sandrine Piau's recording of Carl Loewe's lieder "Ach neige, du Schmerzenreiche," from Chimère (24/96 MQA, Alpha/Tidal), rarely dips into the low bass. Yet as soon as I turned on the LōKēs, voice and piano moved farther back, with more believable space between the instrument and the singer, and more vivid colors in the piano.

Nor was this effect limited to stereo recordings. When I cued up soprano Maria Callas's incomparably powerful 1954 mono recording of Boito's great spinto aria "L'altra note in fondo al mare," from Mefistofele, on the remastered Callas Sings Operatic Arias (24/96 MQA, Warner Classics/Tidal), air, depth, and realism increased.

Returning to stereo, vocalist Rosa Passos and bassist Ron Carter's 2003 recording of Jobim's "Insensatez" from Entre Amigos (16/44.1 FLAC, Chesky/Tidal), with guitarist Lula Galvão and percussionist Paulo Braga, has never sounded remotely as good in my music room as it did with the LōKēs in the system. Every bass note was focused, with believable color.

One of the biggest revelations arrived via the DSD files of the live recording of the world premiere of Reinbert de Leeuw's 46-minute symphony Der nächtliche Wanderer, conducted by the composer (DSD, Challenge Classics CC72957). Reviewed elsewhere in this issue, this tour de force for onstage and offstage orchestra and tape accompaniment is an acoustic triumph for Jan Stellingwerff's original sound engineering, Northstar Recording Services' audio restoration, and Bert van der Wolf and Oude Avenhuis's editing and remastering. Rarely will you encounter a modern digital recording with so large and deep a soundstage, such pinpoint imaging, and such involving stage noise: The sound of the dog barking in the distance at the start and close is surprisingly true-to-life. The LōKēs' assistance enhanced impact and depth of the percussion and delivered a mesmerizing sense of you-are-there realism. My husband, who prefers to lie on the living room couch and listen to music through earbuds while cuddling with three adoring dogs, paid a rare visit to the listening room and sat in transfixed silence, unable to move. With the LōKēs engaged, every new instrumental or taped sound—every beat of the drum—impressed as a major event.

Beyond the Woof
What makes this review different from virtually all others I've written over the decades is that the LōKē is the first subwoofer I've ever tried in my system. As much as every review is a journey of discovery, this one was unique in that I was learning for the first time, without benefit of comparison, how much more than woofing cleanly, with authority, a fine subwoofer can accomplish.

I expected bass to be bigger, deeper, and more fleshed out with the LōKē. That it certainly was. What I did not expect was the ability of Wilson's smallest subwoofer to enhance every aspect of the listening experience—especially the sense of space. As the soundstage grew deeper, wider, and more coherent, as soundstage boundaries became more evident, as air between and around instruments and voices increased and the quality of music reproduction rose to mesmerizing levels, my appreciation for the transformative potential of the LōKē grew exponentially.

Audition the LōKē. Throw all your favorite music at it, and give it a major bass workout. Turn it on and off and on again and discover for yourself what a difference it makes. If your room and speakers are appropriate for its size and power and your budget allows, it's hard to imagine that you won't be tempted to invite Thor's little brother into your system for a long stay. My highest recommendation.

Footnote 9: Music passing through from input to output presumably remains in the analog realm, but the music that finds its way to the LōKē's 10" woofer is digitized.—Jim Austin

Footnote 10: The high-pass filter affects only the line-level output.

Footnote 11: While the Blue Heavens were on their way, I checked in with speaker setup wiz Gary Bruestle of Seattle dealership Definitive Audio. Gary told me that better interconnects would make a difference.