Wilson-Benesch

[Axel]

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

What are Resolutions? I can't find them on the Wilson Benesch website.
Enjoy your weekend!