Hi Patrick....I spent most of yesterday listening and was able to make some observations as to what Im hearing now as compared to what I heard with my Wilson speakers. First off these are highly different designed speakers and I was certainly a Wilson zealot as I have owned so many of their speakers over the past 35 years. The Wilson philosophy is to time align the drivers and to focus the image directly at the listener's ear height based on the sitting distance from the tweeters. The speakers comes with a manual and the algorithms to be able to set the upper 3 modules based on the aforementioned parameters. Essentially the speaker had a laser like focus specific only for the listener in the set spot leaving all other listeners with an out of focus listening experience. So also were there problems if the next listener in that sweet spot happens to be taller or shorter than the person for whom the upper modules are set. This is why at Audio Shows there tend to be so many criticisms of Wilson as there are so many guests in th sweet spot with different heights as well as so many listeners in other seats around the room . For those who follow my system blog
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/thre...e-new-listening-room-of-steve-williams.10535/
you will find detail over the past several years where I switched the upper modules to defocus this razor sound as well as to move the listening position into the triangle where I felt I achieved the best sound ever from my Wilson speakers
Such is not the case in the setup of the Zellaton speakers. I was quite amazed that Gideon had the speakers out of the crates, the rates taken apart and moved downstairs into my garage and that the speakers were positioned, the seat position changed and with some slight toe in, the speakers were ready to listen to all in just over one hour.
Yesterday I listened to vinyl, tape and streaming and truly enjoyed what each format brought to the table, such that I was able to make the following conclusions based upon what I heard
1.Wilson has a sound and is voiced whereas Zellaton has no sound whatsoever and sounds like I am listening to an electrostatic.
2. Wilson has over ripe bass whereas Zellaton is tight and fast but truly natural. This for me was the biggest difference in both speakers. The bass in Zellaton was tight, fast and linear, meaning nothing in the frequency spectrum stood out. IOW the sound was balanced and sounded very natural .Many speakers have sharp highs or overextended bass etc.but Zellaton sounds like a point source
3.Wilson uses different drivers whereas Zellaton uses all in house drivers made by Zellaton so more coherent sound. I feel this point is worth mentioning as I believe it explains more accurately point number 2 above. The Zellaton drivers are very interesting in design as they are foam lined
4. Zellaton has proven more efficient and sounds bigger with less power. This for me was the biggest worry I had when I ordered the speakers as the Wilson speakers are 95 db efficient whereas the Zellaton is 91 db efficient. My prerequisite to Gideon was that the speakers had to be driven by my Lamm ML3 Class A tube amp at 32 wpc. This was a deal breaker if that test could otherwise not be met as I was not considering any change in my Lamm electronics. What stunned me was that I was able to listen to the Zellaton speakers daily and there was so much head room in all of the formats to which I listened, that I found myself having to lower the gain control. My other concern prior to the Zellaton being set up was that they must achieve a soundstage commensurate with that thrown by my big Wilson.....IOW the sound stage must be reality and believable. From the very first track we played this criterion was not only met but exceeded my best anticipation. And this again is with the Plural Evo not with my soon to arrive Reference Ultra. Gideon promised me the soundstage and listening will be even better. I look forward to and am counting the days when these new speakers arrive
5. When compared to the Wilson I felt that Zellaton has much greater resolution and lower noise floor . One interesting caveat was that with the Wilson speakers always had tweeter and midrange driver transformer hum from my Lamm ML3 which I could never ameliorate until I began using the Schnerzinger Grid and EMI Protectors. With these the transformer hum became so faint that it could only be heard with an ear up close to the drivers. With the Zellaton the transformer hum is totally absent
6.Finally the biggest difference that I heard and continue to comment about is just how fat the deep bass and mid bass are with the Zellaton. Without casting aspersions the Zellaton Zellaton is so much faster whereas Wilson in comparison sounds slow and bloated, especially in mid bass
so what does all this mean to my ears....the Zellaton sound is tight, fast and linear with nothing that stands out to suggest coloration. The sound seems to breathe so much easier.IOW there seemed to be so much air around what I was hearing thus creating a feeling that the speaker was an electrostatic yet can move enormous amount of air. The question of using subs with these speakers was raised many times earlier in this thread by readers but TBH then (prior to hearing, and now (after hearing) I have no desire to consider the use of subwoofers as the sound just seems so natural heard with only the speakers. The sound is completely balanced throughout the frequency spectrum and nothing was accentuated. It was linear from top to bottom
So in summary, these are my first thoughts with these speakers and it only makes me look forward to the arrival of my Reference Ultra.....yet having said that, I must say that these Plural Evo speakers at their price point leave little to the imagination
HTH
