05-18-14: Bjbcab
Sorry but I have to laugh at some of you guys. Looks to me like the resistor plays a multifaceted role for the Wilson speaker. Read the last sentence in my post ["Additionally, these resistors can be used to tailor the output of the corresponding driver to overcome tonal balance issues that result from room acoustics."]. Also, there is a speaker review of the new Alexia where the reviewer found the speaker too laid back, I believe, and changed the resister (through Wilson I'd course).
That could be easily accomplished, without running the resistors near their limit and using them as fuses, simply by using resistors having the same resistance values but higher power ratings.
That's standard practice when incorporating a resistor (or any other circuit element that dissipates power) into a design. The maximum amount of power it is rated to dissipate (i.e., to be able to handle without getting too hot) is considerably "derated" relative to the maximum amount of power the design is expected to require it to handle.
Regards,
-- Al
