Wilson-Benesch

[Axel]

Those Resolutions are currently sitting in my living room 15 mins away......

Hi and welcome! Ooh, you are a tease!

What do you think of the Resolutions?

[wwm]

Hi Guillaume,
I have to agree with you regarding the overall improvement using sam. I was never that happy with my C60's when I had my near top end Naim gear, the bass was very poor rolling off at about 40hz. I first heard the d800 at HiFi Lounge and decided there and then to chop in the Naim and go to Devialet.
The sound did improve but after bringing my C60's back from Paris after being sam'd the quality and quantity of the bass was superb.
With the 1000pro the C60's really sing.
Cheers,
Bill

[heihei]

Those Resolutions are currently sitting in my living room 15 mins away......

Hi and welcome! Ooh, you are a tease!

What do you think of the Resolutions?

Actually been here a while as I have a D200 as a second system!

I'm liking them! Soundstage is phenomenal, and now we've spent a bit of time tuning the bass to the room the top-to-bottom coherence is very good.

[Axel]

Those Resolutions are currently sitting in my living room 15 mins away......

Hi and welcome! Ooh, you are a tease!

What do you think of the Resolutions?

Actually been here a while as I have a D200 as a second system!

I'm liking them! Soundstage is phenomenal, and now we've spent a bit of time tuning the bass to the room the top-to-bottom coherence is very good.

Glad to hear it. So do you think you'll be hanging on to them? Where do they come in the range, is it below the Cardinals? I can't seem to find them on the WB site.

[nicoludio]

Its below the Cardinal, and priced accordingly too.

[brit]

Fantastic day with Luke from Wilson Benesch. 

Spent a few hours listening to the A.C.T. One Evolutions after Luke set them up in the room meticulously using lasers and a tape measure. The A.C.T.s were installed using ball tipped spikes on kinematic cups on top of a carbon fibre plate:



Compared to my Sashas the A.C.T.s felt tiny! 

I loaded up the SAM profile for the A.C.T.s and activating SAM made a considerable difference to the sound across the frequency spectrum. I'd say the effect was far greater than on the Sasha. Also I removed the two GIK bass trap units that were positioned on the ground between the speakers. Wow! This really unleashed the bass of the A.C.T.s with no bloat whatsoever. Luke tweaked the toe-in a little and this had quite a big effect too.

The A.C.T.s took a couple of hours to settle. Then there was another wow moment as I realised that everything was snapping into focus. It was during Gregory Porter's Liquid Spirit that I realised that I was hearing some of the best midrange ever. Switching to Steven Wilson's new album To the Bone the magic continued, wonderfully expansive midrange with terrific imaging of guitars and vocals. It made me think that perhaps the Wilson-Benesch was the more transparent speaker. As the speakers settled it seemed as though the sound was getting a bit more weight. 

As we were starting to run out of time we swapped the Discovery IIs in. Immediately I could hear that they had a very different presentation and perhaps one I would associate with a smaller speaker. There was far less bass but the bass that I could hear was of great quality and refinement. The top end seemed a little brighter and more strident but I am sure that with more time they would have settled. Overall a very impressive speaker. Luke mentioned that he ran a pair of these with a Torus to great effect. 

At which point we realised we were running out of time and Luke had to think about making tracks. A four hour car journey as it goes. 

So now the good news... there are a demo pair of Resolutions only 15 minutes away! After a couple of phone calls a plan was hatched... I would get to keep the A.C.T.s over the weekend and on Monday these would be swapped out for the Resolutions which I would get to hear for 24 hours or so. How cool is that?!  

Over the weekend I hope to be able to spend a bit more time analysing their sound and will report back in more detail. This was just a quick summary really. 

Guillaume

Hi Guillaume,

Have now managed to finally pick up a WiFi signal in Myanmar! Glad to hear that you are enjoying the W-B ACT 1 Evolution (may have to try them myself when we get home). Speak on our return!

David

[heihei]

Resolutions are brand new - they debuted at Munich this year - hence less info on the website. They sit between Endeavours (stand mount) and Cardinals, but after hearing the Endeavours and speaking to Luke they are voiced quite differently, having much more bass presence. They are a 4-way design, using WB's clever engineering in cabinet / driver design which allows for a very simple cross-over, and isobaric bass units which are good down to at least 30Hz.
The response to shows has been very strong so they've already seen good demand, and are about to embark on further shows plus some reviews, so it looks like being a great product for WB.

[GuillaumeB]

Fantastic day with Luke from Wilson Benesch. 

Spent a few hours listening to the A.C.T. One Evolutions after Luke set them up in the room meticulously using lasers and a tape measure. The A.C.T.s were installed using ball tipped spikes on kinematic cups on top of a carbon fibre plate:



Compared to my Sashas the A.C.T.s felt tiny! 

I loaded up the SAM profile for the A.C.T.s and activating SAM made a considerable difference to the sound across the frequency spectrum. I'd say the effect was far greater than on the Sasha. Also I removed the two GIK bass trap units that were positioned on the ground between the speakers. Wow! This really unleashed the bass of the A.C.T.s with no bloat whatsoever. Luke tweaked the toe-in a little and this had quite a big effect too.

The A.C.T.s took a couple of hours to settle. Then there was another wow moment as I realised that everything was snapping into focus. It was during Gregory Porter's Liquid Spirit that I realised that I was hearing some of the best midrange ever. Switching to Steven Wilson's new album To the Bone the magic continued, wonderfully expansive midrange with terrific imaging of guitars and vocals. It made me think that perhaps the Wilson-Benesch was the more transparent speaker. As the speakers settled it seemed as though the sound was getting a bit more weight. 

As we were starting to run out of time we swapped the Discovery IIs in. Immediately I could hear that they had a very different presentation and perhaps one I would associate with a smaller speaker. There was far less bass but the bass that I could hear was of great quality and refinement. The top end seemed a little brighter and more strident but I am sure that with more time they would have settled. Overall a very impressive speaker. Luke mentioned that he ran a pair of these with a Torus to great effect. 

At which point we realised we were running out of time and Luke had to think about making tracks. A four hour car journey as it goes. 

So now the good news... there are a demo pair of Resolutions only 15 minutes away! After a couple of phone calls a plan was hatched... I would get to keep the A.C.T.s over the weekend and on Monday these would be swapped out for the Resolutions which I would get to hear for 24 hours or so. How cool is that?!  

Over the weekend I hope to be able to spend a bit more time analysing their sound and will report back in more detail. This was just a quick summary really. 

Guillaume

Hi Guillaume,

Have now managed to finally pick up a WiFi signal in Myanmar! Glad to hear that you are enjoying the W-B ACT 1 Evolution (may have to try them myself when we get home). Speak on our return!

David

Wow! Hope you're having a fantastic time David! 

Yes the A.C.T. One Evolution is a great speaker. I'm going to do a little tweaking with their positioning today. They are incredibly sensitive to this, like many other speakers. 

Guillaume

[Axel]

I'm interested to know how the A.C.T. One Evolutions were lined up with a laser. Did he use a purpose made cap to fit the top of the speakers with a laser imbedded, or something much simpler?
I'm going to make an add on so that I can line my Olympicas up exactly. I have a powerful rifle scope that I can repurpose for the task.

[GuillaumeB]

I'm interested to know how the A.C.T. One Evolutions were lined up with a laser. Did he use a purpose made cap to fit the top of the speakers with a laser imbedded, or something much simpler?
I'm going to make an add on so that I can line my Olympicas up exactly. I have a powerful rifle scope that I can repurpose for the task.

Hi Alex, as far as I know it was something simpler although he did take a lot of measurements and the lasers were very effective in lining things up. Sorry I didn't pay much attention to this. 

Guillaume