Resistors

[Bruce B]

Read something interesting yesterday. Wilson puts in different resistors on the mid/tweeter depending on where speaker is headed? Europe gets a different resistor than shipments in the U.S.?

Is that because there are different listening preferences?

 

[treitz3]

Hello, Bruce. I take it that you read this from a reliable source?

Tom

 

[microstrip]

Read something interesting yesterday. Wilson puts in different resistors on the mid/tweeter depending on where speaker is headed? Europe gets a different resistor than shipments in the U.S.?

Is that because there are different listening preferences?

As far as I know they put different values in the bass damping resistor anticipating different room sizes and type of building in Europe than USA - the solid walls and smaller rooms in Europe need lower damping resistors. It was acknowledged in their manuals.
But I have never read anything about mid/tweeter differences until now.

 

[AMP]

I believe that this came up on AA and there's some confusion.

The mid and tweeter resistors are changeable (primarily as an overload protection device), but the values can be tailored to raise or lower the levels of those drivers slightly. This is a common practice as part of the setup on the larger Wilsons and is an option for fine-tuning on the smaller ones. I remember receiving different tweeter resistors on my old W/P 6 as my setup benefitted from about a 1db drop in the tweeter level.

There's a parallel damping resistor on the woofer and this is different for different markets. IIRC the European version is setup for greater damping based on typically smaller room sizes and more solid construction.

The AA thread was a bit of a train wreck as it went in 4 different directions at once.

 

[LL21]

I believe this is correct...and witnessed Wilson's Distributor change the resistors on the tweeters of a second-hand pair of Wilson's which originated from New York. In fact, they changed it twice to accommodate the local room environment which was very different than the one in NYC, and also to accommodate the ears/preferences of the listener.

 

[Bruce B]

I knew you could change them easily, but didn't know why other parts of the world got different values.

 

[mep]

I read somewhere a long time ago in an interview with David Wilson in one of the audio rags that Wilson voices their speakers different for Asian markets.

 

[Bruce B]

Has anyone heard of other speaker companies doing this?

 

[JackD201]

If I'm not mistaken JBL jp mad JBL USA are voiced slightly differently. Sister companies have adjustable tweets in some models. We're starting to see more and more companies providing level controls these days.