How can Wilson Audio speakers sound that good if they are using OEM drivers?

Wilson seemed to love stuffing big Focal W cone woofers in things for a while. All the Alexandria line sports W cone woofers. I'm not terribly surprised Wilson steered clear of Focal mid-range drivers. Focal likes to make mid-range cones rather large and Dave strongly believes in using the smallest driver that will get the job done. One of the reasons I've heard he moved away from Focal tweeters was he couldn't get the to do much below 2000Hz. I have to wonder if part of the reason Wilson moved to paper woofers was because they couldn't get Focal drivers anymore. 

 can do the math ( slowwwwwwly ) and I can figure out why they might have to wire that fantastic  midrange out of phase after screwing it up with a steep slope crossover

Wilson is akin, IMO, to a fully tricked out Corvette. You can make it really fast - even faster than production - and really luxurious. It's super awesome . . . but it's still a Corvette. Front-engine, V-8, there's only so much you can do.

Wilson takes great pains to trick out their cabinets - some of the best in the business in terms of vanishing low cabinet resonances. Also, they really do a good job listening to tweak the passive parts from the binding posts to the crossovers. The end result is an awesome product. But you can only do so much with, what, a 6" midrange made from paper, fiber or plastic. All those gains in the cabinet are given back with the sub-optimal drivers.

or in a midrnge driver frame, magnet, and structure that reflect back 70% of wave...right thru the cone.....

i recall somebodys patent expiring.....

lots of engineers talk a good. game about system engineering.....i know these things on beasts with over a million parts.....

and have been humbled....

Honestly, this is a really funny, but fascinating thread.

Not too long ago, a poster asked why do so many conversations devolve into technology, this post is all about technology, but only superficially. The OP assumes there are absolute improvements in driver performance given strictly by the materials.

So, the answer in my mind is in at least these dimensions:

1. The goal of the designer of the speaker
2. The complete performance envelope of a driver is far greater than merely it's material. There are good Be tweeters, and terrible Be tweeters.
   

So this puts me in an interesting position of answering the OP's question. I'm not a Wilson fan, and yet I am a fan of some of the components they use. The mid-woofer in general is often ScanSpeak, of which I own, and I rank them as superb components. Do I like how they go together in a Wilson? Meh. I think they are OK, but not worth the cost.

Do I think B&W (after Matrix) is all that? Not really.

So, Gonzalo, honestly, I think that you would be well served by making your own pair of speakers. Why don't you find a good kit from Meniscus or Parts Express or Madisound and build your own? I think you would learn a great deal more that way than via this forum alone.

This is actually good advice for all audiophiles: At least once in your life, build your own speakers.

Best,


E