Chronosonic XVX.

[andromedaaudio]

A serious question for all the Wilson owners and even more so at their 6 figure loudspeakers.

Does it “bother “ you that the company still uses paper cone drivers ? Objectively they aren’t pistons drivers and light years behind their competitors. Who are even less expensive retail price.


You look at domestic and Magico and YG and they are ahead in objective technology.

Sorry no matter what marketing word Wilson uses to describe resin. It’s still behind aluminum and now carbon fiber.

But the hobby is subjective so I respect your opinions. But frankly , and I mean this respectfully that I’ve never heard or read any magico or yg owner selling their speakers for modern Wilsons.

Although im not a Wilson owner i have a lot of respect for their designs / fit n finish etc.
Papercones/ composites produce arguably the most natural midrange.
No need to go fancy, people dont listen to pistons lol
Paper cones for the bass/ large membrane is another story afaik ( to flexy).
Thats an area my designs will exceed current WA speakers most likely
The previous WA speakers had the fiberglass composite cones (focal audiom)
If im not mistaken.
They were very stiff with ( good bass) maxx 2 , I havent heard the new Wilsons yet to be honest.
I hope to hear this one at the munich show

 

[tima]

View attachment 60595

This XVX setup is discussed at length in a thread from the owner at Audio Aficionado
Previously he had the Alexx in this room.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

To me if you buy a wilson chronosonic speaker it means you wanna go all out.
Real estate can be a concern off course, thats another discussion.
I m not a cables/ tweaks guy but speakers room amps must work as a system.
A speaker is just a building block
One could build a top notch system with an alexx as well (everything needs to be in perspective and tuned.)
A top room can only bring the absolute top level sound expirience
May be M lavigne should start giving courses.

I keep thinking however that with all that mids membrane surface area this was designed to work with a basstower.
I could be wrong off course.
Actually with this i mean the first original Chronosonic design not this one .

thank you for the kind words.

yes; a 'top' room does help, but there is much wisdom in the details of your post. especially the part where you say 'a speaker is just a building block'. my perspective is to find a speaker that is not limiting for your room. which means if you have a big room you need a speaker system that (1) can move a lot of air, (2) is adjustable in the bass; the more adjustable the better, and (3) where the speaker's output does match the room to a certain degree so it can 'hook up'.

then it took me 10 years to figure out what to do (where i was going) with a good speaker system in my 'top room', and another 2-3 years to actually do it.

i think if we were to choose 10 'uber' dynamic cone speaker systems at the top of the food chain including the big Wilson Master Chronosonic, the room, system and room tweaking would be much the dominant factor in what our ears hear. and i think that the separator would come down to amplifier naturalness and headroom, and the mid bass and seamless coherence. every 'uber' speaker system does mids and highs sufficiently. this (mid bass and seamless coherence) would be what would determine how far the system could go in terms of scale and ease.......if you close your eyes. open your eyes and all bets are off. biases (equating performance with brands and $$$) and agendas come front and center.

speakers are just tools. big expensive eye dominating tools.

getting back to these XVX speakers in these smallish rooms. i think we need to give anyone the benefit of the doubt and not to pre-judge what we have not heard. 19 years ago i had 550 pound Kharma Exquisite 1D's in my 12' x 18' room. they sounded fantastic when i kept the music small scale or lower SPL's. these were speakers with a big sound. visitors were just astonished. were there limitations? yes. but the sound was very fine and i got my money's worth. of course; at the end of the day i sold my home and moved to my new place with a barn to remove limits from the music. but that was a great sounding small room and system. so i will never criticize a big sounding speaker in a small room.

 

[andromedaaudio]

You re welcome

Most likely at least room for improvement then.
Best sounds i ve heard were not necessarilly the most expensive systems, but the most converging ones iow where everything just fits together room speakers amps.
It takes skill.

 

[Elliot G.]

thank you for the kind words.

yes; a 'top' room does help, but there is much wisdom in the details of your post. especially the part where you say 'a speaker is just a building block'. my perspective is to find a speaker that is not limiting for your room. which means if you have a big room you need a speaker system that (1) can move a lot of air, (2) is adjustable in the bass; the more adjustable the better, and (3) where the speaker's output does match the room to a certain degree so it can 'hook up'.

then it took me 10 years to figure out what to do (where i was going) with a good speaker system in my 'top room', and another 2-3 years to actually do it.

i think if we were to choose 10 'uber' dynamic cone speaker systems at the top of the food chain including the big Wilson Master Chronosonic, the room, system and room tweaking would be much the dominant factor in what our ears hear. and i think that the separator would come down to amplifier naturalness and headroom, and the mid bass and seamless coherence. every 'uber' speaker system does mids and highs sufficiently. this (mid bass and seamless coherence) would be what would determine how far the system could go in terms of scale and ease.......if you close your eyes. open your eyes and all bets are off. biases (equating performance with brands and $$$) and agendas come front and center.

speakers are just tools. big expensive eye dominating tools.

getting back to these XVX speakers in these smallish rooms. i think we need to give anyone the benefit of the doubt and not to pre-judge what we have not heard. 19 years ago i had 550 pound Kharma Exquisite 1D's in my 12' x 18' room. they sounded fantastic when i kept the music small scale or lower SPL's. these were speakers with a big sound. visitors were just astonished. were there limitations? yes. but the sound was very fine and i got my money's worth. of course; at the end of the day i sold my home and moved to my new place with a barn to remove limits from the music. but that was a great sounding small room and system. so i will never criticize a big sounding speaker in a small room.

I certainly have not heard those rooms with those speakers but I would say it will be extremely difficult to get the maximum performance from the speakers in rooms that look like those. There are circumstances that sometimes fool us and certainly HP's old room with the IRS was one , but there are rules of physics that generally can't be circumvented.
BTW its easy to criticize a dealer for making such a sale but I doubt that most would tell their client you can't buy this if they want it. People want what they want even if it won't be perfect. I've seen loads of expensive cars in garages that are almost never driven too.

 

[microstrip]

I certainly have not heard those rooms with those speakers but I would say it will be extremely difficult to get the maximum performance from the speakers in rooms that look like those. There are circumstances that sometimes fool us and certainly HP's old room with the IRS was one , but there are rules of physics that generally can't be circumvented.
BTW its easy to criticize a dealer for making such a sale but I doubt that most would tell their client you can't buy this if they want it. People want what they want even if it won't be perfect. I've seen loads of expensive cars in garages that are almost never driven too.

Fortunately most of us are not driven by constant comparisons and permanent maximum performance - we enjoy the hobby our way and I can easily accept that aspects related to residence take higher priority than audio for many audiophiles.

Big speakers are not only scale and big dynamics, most of them have also unique aspects that show even in smaller rooms - I found most times a few well chosen components do more for them than just a big room with a lot of acoustic treatments. Surely when looking at photos our eyes can't tell us of the system sounds, and having lived with Soundlab A1's in a 10 x16 feet room for some time I know how limited can be our visual imagination in terms of sound reproduction.

BTW, I did not get the WAMM's because of the financial aspects, not because of my room size!

 

[andromedaaudio]

The kharma exquisite at that time had afaik one of the same woofers as i use a 12 inch Eton( what kharma did to it i dont know /regarding modifications)
Great speaker i agree
The Wilsons mentioned here have probably at least a 12 and a 15incher plus more mid drivers .
Its off course nice to own a flagship speaker , but in absolute soundterms i think one would be better of in this case with the alexx and 100 k on profesional room in a room acoustics


Ps i il look the precise driver size up

 

[andromedaaudio]

Actually the bass driver size is comparable with the alexx 10,5 inch and 12,5 inch , so regarding membrane surface there is only addition in the mid range.
Still they look rather large for the room , its a difficult one .
I would nt be surprised if scaling down to alexxia with roomtreatment would make for a very good Result as well .
You loose indeed a bit of the big speaker sound then i agree

 

[bonzo75]

Customer gets bragging rights, dealer gets a new pool...win win.

Big speakers in Da house! Makes for a great forum headline. Though 10 and 12 inch woofers Da statement speaker doesn't. That's wimpy

 

[andromedaaudio]

I think the master chronosonic was/ is the statement model .
But that has indeed also 10,5 and 12,5 woofers .
Its not gonna move as much air as the X2 or XLF in the lower registers , but I suppose they might be a bit faster .
My favourite bang for buck Wilson has always been the maxx series .
Also no Lamm ml 3 s on the chronosonic im afraid.
But how they construct( the chronosonic ) loudspeakers ,... I will tell you its not cheap

 

[Joe P]

For all those who feel the need to comment about the performance of the Master Chronosonic or Chronosonic XVX in this thread, please let us know if you've heard them.;-)

 

[Al M.]

For all those who feel the need to comment about the performance of the Master Chronosonic or Chronosonic XVX in this thread, please let us know if you've heard them.;-)

That was not the point. Nobody here has commented on the performance potential of the speakers per se. Yet you can comment on expected problematic speaker/room interactions. As Elliot pointed out, there are rules of physics that generally cannot be circumvented.

 

[ack]

Please do not underestimate the fact that top Wilsons are highly electrically adjustable in a variety of ways, with resistors in the crossover. This goes a long way in accommodating larger speakers into smaller rooms; the same is true with how I've built my own, adjustable, crossover.

 

[chuck]

I certainly have not heard those rooms with those speakers but I would say it will be extremely difficult to get the maximum performance from the speakers in rooms that look like those. There are circumstances that sometimes fool us and certainly HP's old room with the IRS was one , but there are rules of physics that generally can't be circumvented.
BTW its easy to criticize a dealer for making such a sale but I doubt that most would tell their client you can't buy this if they want it. People want what they want even if it won't be perfect. I've seen loads of expensive cars in garages that are almost never driven too.

What room is needed for "maximum performance" from these speakers in your experience?

 

[Joe P]

 

[Al M.]

Please do not underestimate the fact that top Wilsons are highly electrically adjustable in a variety of ways, with resistors in the crossover. This goes a long way in accommodating larger speakers into smaller rooms; the same is true with how I've built my own, adjustable, crossover.

That's a good point. The adjustment of your speakers to your room is great, and I think the lack of adjustability of Magico speakers would drive you crazy. One of several reasons why I doubt they would work in your room.

Adjustable is always good, and I commend Wilson for that.

 

[ack]

That's a good point. The adjustment of your speakers to your room is great, and I think the lack of adjustability of Magico speakers would drive you crazy. One of several reasons why I doubt they would work in your room.

Adjustable is always good, and I commend Wilson for that.

Yes, I have mentioned to you guys that the lack of adjustability in Magicos - in any room - would indeed not work for me. I just emailed you guys about micro-adjustments worth just 0.1ohms in the bass, which translated to rounder bass. To be able to do this kind of stuff is really great.

I really like the adjustability of Wilsons, von Schweikert, Tidal and so many others.

 

[Al M.]

What room is needed for "maximum performance" from these speakers in your experience?

I am obviously not Elliot, but if I had the means for such speakers, I would also want to have a house with a room of minimum dimensions of 18 ft x 30 ft x 10 ft. This is what I would feel comfortable with, at a minimum. If that allows for "maximum performance" is another matter. Possibly not.

 

[andromedaaudio]

I look at it that way putting speakers in a closet and expect good sound no it wont work .
Putting speakers in an open field doesnt work either.
There is an optimum with which can one gets the best results.
Depending on speaker membrane surface
For exact room dimensions you d better ask a good acoustician.
I always found a trapezium shaped room the best sounding.
Speakers against the short wall.
With active bass / adjustment you cant put tubes on the lowerregisters any more.
With the chronosonic i would reckon .
5 -6 meter wide 7- 8 m long and at least 1 m ceiling clearance from the top of the speaker.
But im no expert

Ps that a trapezium shaped room sounded so good has to do with different distribution of reflections i think.

 

[Al M.]

With the chronosonic i would reckon .
5 -6 meter wide 8 m long and at least 1 m ceiling clearance from the top of the speaker.
But im no expert

This seems to be more or less in the ball park of my suggestions. Your dimensions would translate to 16.4 to 19.7 feet wide, 26.2 feet long and 9.5 feet high (the speakers are 6.2 feet high).