I was irked by Alan Lofft's article on perfectionist audio ("High-End Stereo: Sense and Nonsense," October 1982), but probably not for the same reasons some other undergrounders will be.
Actually, I thought the article was excellent, and do not take…
Ten years later, both TAS and Stereophile are still expending a goodly portion…
Wilson: Very subtle adjustments. Now this is something I don't understand exactly why it should be so. With the Series 1s through the Series 4s, there was a range of adjustment of 2 or 3dB from WAMM to WAMM in different rooms. So the assumption could be reasonably made that what was happening was that the system was being equalized to match the characteristics of the room (which is what most people think equalization is for). As it turns out with the Series 6, of which there are probably 14 or 15 in the world today, all of those systems—…
Wilson: Lots of dollars per hertz—but it only hurts for a little while! So the development of the Puppy proceeded, the final configuration being two Dynaudio woofers—the units with the large magnets—in an enclosure which basically encloses four other enclosures; a ported design, with a rear-firing port; extreme rigidity to cut down panel readout so that it doesn't color the sound in the upper bass/lower midrange; a crossover point high enough so that it really can take the ball from the WATT up there where the WATT is still dynamically linear,…
For some Wilco fans, the response to a new Wilco album has become predictable: On first listen, it just doesn't grab you. Like looking out the window of a speeding car, it all seems to run together. But when you stop, go back, and walk along that same stretch of road (though when it comes to this band, tortured path may be a better metaphor), details emerge and deepen, until you're suddenly confronted with…
However, a persistent number of audiophiles go into apoplectic dysrhythmia when the Apple iPod, music servers, or music downloads are mentioned in…
Synecdoche is not a city in upstate New York but a rhetorical device in which a specific example stands in for a whole class of similar things: fifty sail for fifty ships, cutthroat for assassin, etc. When it comes to high-end audio, Wilson's WATT/Puppy speaker has symbolized the entire high-end ethos throughout at least the product's last four generations—perhaps (to labor a classical metaphor) since the original WATT sprang fully formed from David Wilson's brow.
To those who view the High End as an attempt to fleece gullible…
The room acoustic of Toby…
Description: Three-way, floorstanding, dynamic loudspeaker in two sections. Drive-units: 1" (25.4mm) titanium-foil inverted-dome tweeter, 7" (177.8mm) midrange cone, two 8" (203.2mm) woofers. Crossover frequencies: ca 125Hz, 2kHz. Frequency response: 21Hz–22.5kHz, +0/–3dB. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Sensitivity: 92dB/W/m.
Dimensions: 41" (1050mm) H by 13" (333mm) W by 18.75" (475mm) D. Weights: WATT, 65 lbs (29.5kg); Puppy, 105 lbs (47.7kg. Total net weight: 170 lbs (77kg). Total shipping weight, complete system: 566 lbs (257kg).
Finishes: Various…