My Wilson Journey...

[slowGEEZR]

Some pics...

 

[sbo6]

Can't wait to hear it, Steve!

 

[marty]

Power Center are all Essential Sound Products Gerald Veasley Signature Music Cord Pro cables.

ESP Power cables are excellent and highly underappreciated. I have used the PRO-ES version of the ESP Victor Wootan Signature cables (identical to the Gerald Veasley Signatures) for many years. They are stellar performers at a very affordable price. They out performed a 10K Tara Labs PC (yes, seriously). It would be hard to find a better bass cable. If there were such an obvious alternative, Wooten and Veasley and countless studios would be using them!!

 

[LL21]

I thought I'd update my Wilson journey. I still have the WP8s, as the sound has improved with every update I've made! Here is my current setup with pictures and descriptions. I'll be happy to answer any questions.

• GEAR: Wilson Audio Watt Puppy 8 speakers with upgraded Carmen Red paint. They are using the IsoAcoustics Gaia I isolation feet. SVS SB 4000 subs. The subs are sitting on IsoAcoustics Aperta Sub XL stands. Turntables: Currently only using the Luxman PD 191A with its 10" LTA-710 tonearm. This tonearm is a joint development of Luxman and SAEC. I am awaiting a new stand and phono amp for my main turntable, a modified by me TTW GEM V2. It has a 42lb copper platter and a heavily modified Jelco 750 tonearm. I will place this table and its rack and phono pre against the wall to the left of the seating position. The phono cartridge currently in use by the Luxman is an Ortofon Cadenza Bronze. Various other cartridges include: Hana SL and Hana ML, Clearaudio Virtuoso, Soundsmith The Voice. I also have ten different headshells, which I rotate from time to time. The phono amp is the BAT VK-P5, which is sitting on IsoAcoustics Orea Series isolation feet. The corresponding SUT is by K&K, who by the way, has retired. The preamp is the Pass Labs XP-20 with the Tubulus umbilical replacing the standard connection to its power supply. Quite an upgrade. The power amps are Pass Labs XA 100.5 mono blocs. They have proven to be excellent with the Wilsons, IMO. Digital: Innuos ZENith mk3 Server/Streamer, with 4 TB SSD storage. Innuos Phoenix USB Reclocker. Ayre QB-9 Twenty DAC also sits on IsoAcoustics Orea series isolation feet. Sansui TU - 919 Tuner. All gear except powered subs and the mono blocs are connected to the PS Audio Power Plant Premier. The amps are connected to a PS Audio Duet Power Center, which has a Shunyata Power Defender plugged in. There is another Shunyata Power Defender and a PS Audio Noise Harvester plugged into the same power duplex as my subs.
  
  Cables: Speaker cables are MG Audio Designs Planus III foil cables. I have tried five different speaker cables with my Wilsons and these are by far the best sounding, to me. All interconnects are Mogami Neglex 2534 Microphone cable except: Audioquest silver cable from preamp to amps, Straightwire Maestro from SUT to phono pre. The turntable has its own cable to the SUT. I use Morrow SUB 4 cables to the subs, Morrow Audio Reference USB cables (2) and RW System CAT 6 ethernet cable. I also have two Morrow Audio Ethernet CAT8 cables on the ready for when I add the Innous Phoenix Net to the system. The power cables on the subs are regular cables and the power cables on the mono blocs and Power Center are all Essential Sound Products Gerald Veasley Signature Music Cord Pro cables. I use a Shunyata Anaconda Helix Alpha power cord to the preamp.
  
  Room: The room is 19'6" wide x 30'10" long x 8'6" high. There is an additional 3'2" that extends past the left side of the rear of the bar. One of the rooms back there is my record room. The Wilson's tweeters are 62" from the front wall, 58 and 3/4" from the side walls and 163" from ear position sitting up and 165" when reclining. Ear normal sitting height is 1 inch above tweeter and reclining is 1 inch below.
  
  Acoustic Treatments: Dead center on the front wall are two 4' x 8' Poly diffusers that I made. I used two sheets of 1/8 inch Peg board. I used T-Slot framing rails and 1" x 3" x 8' boards to screw the peg boards into after inserting into slots on the T-Slot rails. To get the boards to sit perfectly together, I used twisted wire to crimp them together. 36 joins were needed, but the end result was a perfect fit, no over or under hang! Then covered. On each side of that diffuser are four 1" thick GIK Wood Slot Acoustic Panels. Due to soffit, some cutting was required. In the front corners are two GIK Tri Trap Corner Bass Traps. I have two more of them, plus two GIK Soffit bass traps, but they are not required in this room. I'm currently running the subs at -11db! Atop the corner traps are home made diffusors, made by a very good friend of mine. The white diffusors, are twelve Auralex T'Fusor Diffusers. Next are the four GIK 2A Alpha Pro Series 2" Panel Diffuser/Absorbers. Moving towards the rear of the room is one GIK 242 acoustic panel, to absorb any reflection off of the wall by the exit double doors. In the rear of the room are some home made slap echo diffusers, which eliminated the barely perceptible slap echo in this large room. There is also one above the 242. These were also made by my friend. I currently have installed four GIK 242 acoustic panels on the ceiling. Oh, I also intermittently use another 2A Alpha Pro Panel a few feet behind the main listening chair, leaned against the front of the bar. Future acoustic work will include putting two GIK Evolution Poly Fusers on the doors to the listening position's right side and two on the corresponding window to the left. I have two of them and am awaiting the other two.
  
  Pictures in my next post.
  

Fantastic reading! One minor question...I see you use "PS Audio Noise Harvester plugged into the same power duplex as my subs."

What was this for? Ground loop hum which I understand is common with subs? Just curious. Thanks!

 

[slowGEEZR]

ESP Power cables are excellent and highly underappreciated. I have used the PRO-ES version of the ESP Victor Wootan Signature cables (identical to the Gerald Veasley Signatures) for many years. They are stellar performers at a very affordable price. They out performed a 10K Tara Labs PC (yes, seriously). It would be hard to find a better bass cable. If there were such an obvious alternative, Wooten and Veasley and countless studios would be using them!!

Agreed. They were excellent value and are very well constructed.

 

[slowGEEZR]

Fantastic reading! One minor question...I see you use "PS Audio Noise Harvester plugged into the same power duplex as my subs."

What was this for? Ground loop hum which I understand is common with subs? Just curious. Thanks!

I'm not using it as a ground loop hum buster, just as a line conditioner. I had it, as well as the two Shunyata plugin conditioners, so I figured I should use them. Also, it is plugged into the right channel sub outlet, while one of the Shunyatas is plugged into the left channel sub outlet.

 

[itay123]

Some pics...

Fantastic work!

I've had quite a few pairs of Wilsons in the past, including the Excellent 8s.

 

[slowGEEZR]

Fantastic work!

I've had quite a few pairs of Wilsons in the past, including the Excellent 8s.

Thanks!

 

[Basile: Locrian Audio]

Outstanding set-up. So happy to see that you have retained your WPs. I have been happy with my WP7s for over 15 years, as well. They are paired with Concert Fidelity electronics. The next update is a good rack from Live Vibe Audio over the summer, along with an Accuphase DP-770 CD player and an EMM Labs NS1 streamer. Thanks for sharing those beautiful photos. Many good ideas for replication. Basile

 

[itay123]

looks very nice!

If you have already uploaded your previous setups with Wilson speakers, then I would be happy to share as well

me, about 4 years ago, with the previous setup,
An attempt to combine a very serious and high-quality cinema and a high-quality stereo setup.

Music
wilson Maxx 2's
karan reference set (KAS600+Ref KAL3)
MSB The Analog Dac

Cinena
Trinnov alt16 Sorround Processor
oppo bdp105 EVS modified + Zidoo
Wilson watch center (twitter upgraded to watch 3)
svs ultra16 sub
lexicon power 7ch

IsoTek super titan
Solid-teck ROS's
transparent reference XLs cables

and more...

 

[slowGEEZR]

Outstanding set-up. So happy to see that you have retained your WPs. I have been happy with my WP7s for over 15 years, as well. They are paired with Concert Fidelity electronics. The next update is a good rack from Live Vibe Audio over the summer, along with an Accuphase DP-770 CD player and an EMM Labs NS1 streamer. Thanks for sharing those beautiful photos. Many good ideas for replication. Basile
View attachment 126875

I like those in yellow! Even if our Wilsons are old, they still show improvement with every advance in acoustical treatments and gear, in my experience. I came from Martin Logans to the Wilsons and thought I had made a mistake, but as I improved my gear and treatments, it became apparent that the problem was not with the Wilsons! Enjoy your gear updates!

 

[slowGEEZR]

looks very nice!

If you have already uploaded your previous setups with Wilson speakers, then I would be happy to share as well

me, about 4 years ago, with the previous setup,
An attempt to combine a very serious and high-quality cinema and a high-quality stereo setup.

Music
wilson Maxx 2's
karan reference set (KAS600+Ref KAL3)
MSB The Analog Dac

Cinena
Trinnov alt16 Sorround Processor
oppo bdp105 EVS modified + Zidoo
Wilson watch center (twitter upgraded to watch 3)
svs ultra16 sub
lexicon power 7ch

IsoTek super titan
Solid-teck ROS's
transparent reference XLs cables

and more...



View attachment 126880

Wow! Very nice!

 

[slowGEEZR]

Updates to my system:
I've replaced the MG Audio Designs Planus III foil speaker cables with the top of their line MG Audio Designs Planus IV AG silver foil speaker cables. Picture of new and old speaker cables below.. The larger cable in front is the new one. Changing to the silver speaker cables required the removal of the Audioquest silver interconnects to the amps. I replaced the Audioquest interconnects with Mogami Neglex 2534 XLR Microphone cable.

With the great help of some friends, I've removed the center portion of old rack and now have three free standing racks. The center rack is the Adona Eris Model 4C from the Eris II series and the left and right racks are still the Adona AV45 racks. The racks have been recentered and moved toward the front wall. The center rack is a couple of inches closer to the front wall, as it looks better that way. We repositioned all of the equipment to allow for both of my turntables to be added. We put two of the leftover shelves from the center Adona AV45 rack we removed and placed one each underneath the IsoAcoustics Aperta Sub XL stands beneath the subs. We also moved the amplifiers to the rear. I also added two Reliable (that's the brand name) Uberlight Flex 3200TL clamp lights for the turntables. I highly recommend these lights, as they appear to be overbuilt (very sturdy and strong) and flexible and have nine different light settings. System setup picture below.

I've added a Soulnote E2 Phono Equalizer and removed the BAT VK-P5 Phono Preamp. This change gives me the capability to switch between four different tonearms, one of which can utilize my optical phono cartridge. The Optical Cartridge is the DS Audio DS-W3. I have mounted it to one of my Isokinetik Carbon headshells. I also rearranged the equipment on the center rack, so that the phono amp isn't between the preamp's power supply and the power regenerator. Pictures below.

 

[tima]

Nicely organized - a good looking room.

 

[sbo6]

Updates to my system:
I've replaced the MG Audio Designs Planus III foil speaker cables with the top of their line MG Audio Designs Planus IV AG silver foil speaker cables. Picture of new and old speaker cables below.. The larger cable in front is the new one. Changing to the silver speaker cables required the removal of the Audioquest silver interconnects to the amps. I replaced the Audioquest interconnects with Mogami Neglex 2534 XLR Microphone cable.

With the great help of some friends, I've removed the center portion of old rack and now have three free standing racks. The center rack is the Adona Eris Model 4C from the Eris II series and the left and right racks are still the Adona AV45 racks. The racks have been recentered and moved toward the front wall. The center rack is a couple of inches closer to the front wall, as it looks better that way. We repositioned all of the equipment to allow for both of my turntables to be added. We put two of the leftover shelves from the center Adona AV45 rack we removed and placed one each underneath the IsoAcoustics Aperta Sub XL stands beneath the subs. We also moved the amplifiers to the rear. I also added two Reliable (that's the brand name) Uberlight Flex 3200TL clamp lights for the turntables. I highly recommend these lights, as they appear to be overbuilt (very sturdy and strong) and flexible and have nine different light settings. System setup picture below.

I've added a Soulnote E2 Phono Equalizer and removed the BAT VK-P5 Phono Preamp. This change gives me the capability to switch between four different tonearms, one of which can utilize my optical phono cartridge. The Optical Cartridge is the DS Audio DS-W3. I have mounted it to one of my Isokinetik Carbon headshells. I also rearranged the equipment on the center rack, so that the phono amp isn't between the preamp's power supply and the power regenerator. Pictures below.

Looks great Steve, the Soulnote is really a looker and I'm sure it sounds great.

 

[slowGEEZR]

Nicely organized - a good looking room.

Thank you!

 

[slowGEEZR]

Looks great Steve, the Soulnote is really a looker and I'm sure it sounds great.

Better than I had hoped.

 

[thedudeabides]

Hi Steve,

Gordon Gray here. Way cool that you are still into the hobby. In a serious way so it appears. As you can see, I have gone in the somewhat opposite direction. Love the simplicity and user friendly aspect of my current system. Listen to more music now than I did in the past. Bad news. My house didn't survive the recent South Fork fire here in the Ruidoso, NM area. Lost 40 years of my music collection and the real pisser was that it was arson. Good news. Get to buy new golf clubs.

Still miss the now defunct MLO forum. WBF is a great place to post but, as you know, these dudes are way too serious at times. Not nearly as much fun and camaderie that I found on the MLO site. Otherwise, am doing well and contemplating my next life venture. Take care and be well my friend.

 

[slowGEEZR]

Hi Steve,

Gordon Gray here. Way cool that you are still into the hobby. In a serious way so it appears. As you can see, I have gone in the somewhat opposite direction. Love the simplicity and user friendly aspect of my current system. Listen to more music now than I did in the past. Unfortunately, my house didn't survive the recent South Fork fire here in the Ruidoso, NM area. The big loss was 40 years of my music collection and the real pisser was that it was arson.

Still miss the now defunct MLO forum. WBF is a great place to post but, as you know, these dudes are way too serious at times. Not nearly as much fun and camaderie that I found on the MLO site. Otherwise, am doing well and contemplating my next life venture. Take care and be well my friend.

Gordon, so sorry reading that the South Fork fire got to you and you lost your music collection! Hopefully, you will still be able to listen to music. Agreed, the old MLO forum was a lot of fun, for the most part. I see a lot of the guys that were there are around on different forums now. If you're ever up near Colorado Springs, come by for a visit.

 

[Argonaut]

My house didn't survive the recent South Fork fire here in the Ruidoso, NM area. Lost 40 years of my music collection and the real pisser was that it was arson. Good news. Get to buy new golf clubs.

So sorry to read of your misfortunes Gordon , the main consideration being you and yours were not physically injured or worse … Treat yourself to a stellar set of clubs