I have always liked the big Wilsons, having owned X2S2s and XLFs. I liked the JS Audio setup better because it had my amp, Boulder 3060, rather than D'Agostino Momentums that were in the Audio Salon rig. The Boulder got more out of the XVXs, particularly on big orchestral music, and the system was very impressive.
Impressed with recent Wilson XVX audition - is there anythings that presents that kind of detail without sounding analytical?
- Thread starter Nuprin
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Thank you. Certainly appreciate the offer and if the opportunity and time presents itself in the future, I would love to make a trip up to the northwest.
Thank you for the generous offer. If I ever make it all the way out to Seattle, I would certainly plan to stop by Portland. Sadly I've never visited the Northwest and it's one of the top destinations on my list in the US.
I suspect the issue is with my poorly-articulated recommendation, and not with the resolving power of Marten speakers. Your point is a good one and true. I can hear when a tube is off in my Horizon dac and even differences in cables. But I guess what I meant was that Marten are like the Horizon, lots of tube configurations and many are better than others, but none sound terrible. That is perhaps a better articulation of my point, though perhaps still not perfect.
This should be a source of JOY
. In the end, this is what it is all about.
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I disagree that the XVX need a large room. Framer’s room is not large. It’s all how the room acoustics are setup and how the speakers are placed and adjusted.
Nagra and Wilson is about the best combination you can have, if you want musical vs analytical. If you weren’t impressed, it was the room or the source.
The Magico M series sounds quite a bit different than than the S5 Mk II. If you’re looking at XVX, the M6 should be on your list of speakers to listen to.
Moreover, as others have noted, it’s always hard to know whether it’s the XVX that sounds analytical to you or the dCS stack. But if you’re going to pair very analytical electronics with your speaker, then I have to admit M series Magico is probably not for you because you’ll hear how analytical your electronics are.
yes; but he has 15,000+++ records and rows of shelves in an adjoining space tempering the size relevance of his small room. and i'm sure the music would breathe more in a larger space around the speakers directly compared to his space. so it is limiting. just not lethally so.
i don't view Michael's situation as evidence that a small room will work well with the XVX. only that it can work depending. rooms filled with 'stuff' can sometimes sound unpredictably wonderful in some ways. but hope is not a plan.
the question really is whether if Michael had a conventional type room "much larger" how much better might they sound given the same amount of love and care?
i would agree that the right small room well sorted out works better than too large a space, or the right space not sorted out. so size alone is not the main issue. but if you start there the performance floor is higher and the performance ceiling much higher. your ROI on speaker investment is better. maybe buying a large expensive speaker system is much cheaper than acquiring/building a larger space and you roll the dice that you can 'make' it work? for Michael the risk was on the Wilson Audio dime.
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I went to munich with quite an open mind .
The Kharma / R Koda and Rockport Lyra / CH sound was on another level compared to the XVX demonstration ( also compared to the Magico M6 demonstration)
Elliot G.
Industry Expert
without trying to sound snarky How does anyone know that MF's system sounds wonderful or any other adjective if they haven't been there?
Maybe it sounds great and works wonderfully in a moderate room, maybe it doesn't but without experience one can only assume. I agree with Mike that a super large speaker system can sound better in an appropriately sized room. Underline can this is not written on the tablets just they usually require more space and that can be an important factor in the overall sound quality that can be achieved.
I have seen what I was told is a room frequency response sweep of Fremers room. Its not anything like what I have seen from say Marty's room.
i've heard from local friends who have spent time there recently who's ears i trust that Michael is getting very good sound.
I don’t know your timeline but the NW is best experienced after the 4th of July when sunshine is the norm and pleasant temps through September. If you love rain, come anytime we have plenty.
Interesting. Not trying to disagree with what you heard; but I read 5+ reviews saying the Wilson/Nagra room at Munich 2022 was the best of the show. The lines of people waiting to get in were definitely the longest, an indication of the popularity. We draw our own conclusions, of course.
Personally, I’ve ”been there done that” with low power SET amps (I own an all Kondo Japan front-end) and after hearing what DarTZeel and Nagra can do, I would never go back. So the R Koda is not my cup of tea; not for the price, anyway.
I think we can draw the conclusion then that my ears aren t any good .
No problem i ll go try again this year under the motto "listen till you love it "
Ps As said before i dont even appreciate 60 thousand dollar cables , i am not a real audiophile
It doesn't matter that I love XVX also. Not liking Nagra on Wilson is a totally legitimate preference.
Please don't tell me you're arguing that if an audiophile doesn't like your favorite amp and speaker combination there's something wrong with him/her?
Elliot G.
Industry Expert
everyone is certainly entitled to their own viewpoint, I was at MOC and listened to most of what was there and IMO and leaving out our speakers and room, the CH room with Lyra was better sounding ( also crowded but smaller and better controlled access). The Nagra room was very crowded especially since they did many promotional type events there with recording engineers and others. It was so crowded and they talked so much that it was almost impossible to listen with the crowds of people talking and moving around all the time. Maybe it was good but how could you tell. FYI I went back 5-6 times and each time on each day it was the same. MOC does get large crowds and many rooms were jammed, that's a good thing, trying to critically listen very very very difficult. IMO trying to take absolutes from any show is a bad choice, trying to get some indication of what you might want to explore further is truly what the purpose is. I do give large props to all that try to give a great show as I know how much effort, money and work it requires. I can't wait to see this years show.
My point was just that everyone is different and this is why it's so difficult / impossible to draw much of anything from reviews or others' perceptions.I think we can draw the conclusion then that my ears aren t any good .
No problem i ll go try again this year under the motto "listen till you love it "
Ps As said before i dont even appreciate 60 thousand dollar cables , i am not a real audiophile
Even when you audition under great conditions, there are so many variables, and everything matters, it's impossible to draw conclusions for how said components will sound in your own space.
I cannot over-emphasize how much of a difference AC grounding and active vibration isolation platforms made to my system -- these things are just important as the speakers, amps, etc.
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