Getting Maximum performance out of Sashas

[MadFloyd]

Originally Posted by hce4

One other thought, what's your rack made out of? If it's metal, I'd give wood a try. If you notice an improvement and you want more, get a SRA stand. I think SRA is very good and very natural sounding.

Something else, the 7.5 ceiling is probably not helping. You might try putting a big shag rug on the floor to see if that helps, or treat the ceiling with more absorption...

You could also move the Sashas to another room in the house. Maybe being in an enclosed space is just not working for you, Wilsons can do fine in open floorplans if they have a back wall to couple the bass to...

You notice the "shout" with all sources, right? Gotta believe it's setup or a cable, or a bad outlet, or something because the Sashas can sound quite natural. Have you heard the Sashas sound amazing? Or are you always hearing a little "shout"? If you do, maybe Wilsons just aren't for you?

My stand, which is in the rear of the room is not great by any means - metal posts with wood shelves. Quite old. Floor is cement so it doesn't seem to be affected by vibration (at least not that I can tell).

I would like to move the Sashas to another room before totally giving up on them. It's just easier said than done. Stairs. Heavy speakers. Can't do it alone type thing. :-)

As for your last paragraph, I've heard the Sashas several times. Honestly, I've never been blown way, but I did like them a lot a couple of times. First time was in a very small room at RMAF and my impression was like "there's less body with these than my Sophia 2's!". I also did hear a bit of a 'bite' in high frequencies but chocked it up to the speakers being new.

The next time I heard a pair was at a dealers and they sounded so dark and dull that my friend and I were puzzled. In fact, we couldn't hear a difference between them and Sophia 2's. This had to be the room or the equipment because as most of us know, there's a HUGE difference.

I then heard them a third time at anther dealer (where I bought them) and they were hooked up with a small integrated amplifier from New Zealand (Perrault I think) and I thought they sounded wonderful. I heard them again at the same dealer, but setup by Wilson and using Ayre gear and they did not sound that good to me (or two other friends I was with). We all heard the upper frequency sharpness at times.

I then heard them in my own house where the bass overwhelmed my room. Most rooms allow some amount of bass to escape, mine does not. Sealed. The main focus was trying to get it to integrate from that perspective. I could tell there was much more resolution than my Sophia 2's, but the bass was a problem. Even though I had some amount of bass traps, I invested in a lot more. I could tell the tweeter was hotter than my Sophia 2 (and ironically one of the reasons I wanted to upgrade was I had heard the Sasha tweeter was easier on the ears than my Sophia 2); however most of my 'test' tracks were not overly problematic. Long story short: it wasn't until I got my own pair that the issue truly arose.

One thing that is different about my pair is that the resistor for the woofer was changed from stock to -0.5 db. At the time I didn't know it was so minimal or I might not have bothered, because unlike the midrange and tweeter resistors that are easy to change, the woofer ones are not (they are soldered in at the bottom of the speaker). Part of me wonders if these resistors are the culprit, but I'm not comfortable with soldering so I haven't tried switching back.

I can tell from constantly re-positioning the speakers that the 'shoutiness' or 'edginess' (which I think is the 1-3k region) is probably all setup. And it's quite possible that the high pitch squealing I hear (5-6k I think) on sibilence and other constanants show up because the Sashas do not roll off in the high frequencies like other speakers (I am guessing a lot of speakers start to gradually slope down around 3k or so). That combined with the fact that we supposedly all hear differently, the speaker may just be too unforgiving for my ears.

I truly wonder if others' Wilsons are producing the same results (and it just doesn't offend) or whether my system/room is different. Hence my asking for people to play the Graceland test track...

[BlueChiaro]

I'm grasping at straws, a bit, but did you try something as simple as reversing polarity?

Enjoying AA on my DROIDX

[MadFloyd]

Originally Posted by BlueChiaro

I'm grasping at straws, a bit, but did you try something as simple as reversing polarity?

Enjoying AA on my DROIDX

No, but it's funny you mention that. Re-reading Jim Smith's book recently I noticed he warns about that, but I haven't quite grasped the way one checks for that. I should follow up on that and at least rule it out.

[BlueChiaro]

Originally Posted by MadFloyd

No, but it's funny you mention that. Re-reading Jim Smith's book recently I noticed he warns about that, but I haven't quite grasped the way one checks for that. I should follow up on that and at least rule it out.

Just swap the leads on the speakers...meaning, just go behind your speakers and swap the cables to the other terminal. Do it for both speakers.

Enjoying AA on my DROIDX

[MadFloyd]

Originally Posted by BlueChiaro

Just swap the leads on the speakers...meaning, just go behind your speakers and swap the cables to the other terminal. Do it for both speakers.

Enjoying AA on my DROIDX

Well that's certainly easy enough to try. I thought you meant electrical polarity, where one piece of the electronic chain can be reversed.

[BlueChiaro]

Fyi, he also talks about electrical polarity, but that's something different. When I attended a Wilson event by Peter McGrath a couple weeks ago, he was swapping polarity recording by recording, but that may be electrical...not sure. The ARC pre amp has a polarity selection switch, apparently.

Edit: Obviously, I was typing at the same time as you...I'm going to shut up, now, since I'm in over my head

Enjoying AA on my DROIDX

[metaphacts]

Originally Posted by MadFloyd

I can tell from constantly re-positioning the speakers that the 'shoutiness' or 'edginess' (which I think is the 1-3k region) is probably all setup. .. the speaker may just be too unforgiving for my ears.

I quoted this way because it is almost certainly correct in the first part and as certainly not correct in the second.

Physics don't change because of the brand of the speaker. You have a superbly designed product.

One can throw all the gear and treatments one wants at the problem but until set up is correct in one's room (by your earlier description, yours is not), one is making uneducated, and likely expensive, guesses.

[metaphacts]

Originally Posted by MadFloyd

Well that's certainly easy enough to try. I thought you meant electrical polarity, where one piece of the electronic chain can be reversed.

Absolute Signal Polarity versus AC line polarity.

Absolute Signal Polarity is easy to check sonically, can differ by, and yes within recordings, and is heard by some people and completely inaudible to some otherwise careful listeners.

ARC preamps as Robert points out, have a switch for it.

For more info: cjwoodeffect

AC polarity should be done for an entire system, not just a single component.

[cmalak]

Madfloyd...sounds like you got your Sashas from the folks in NH. I was at the Wilson Sasha demo when they did it last year with Peter Mcgrath. I am sure they have probably been over to help with initial set-up. I remember when Peter was there demoing the Sashas he made it a point to say that all the Wilson dealers are trained the Wilson set-up method. it may be worth your while to ask them to come to your place again and either tweak the set-up in your existing room or try setting them up in another room. Just a thought. (If they are interested in developing a long-term relationship with you, I don't see why they would not be willing to do so. Worth a try).

[Cellindo]

I think there is something pretty easy to try; ask your Sasha dealer for a loan of this "small integrated amplifier from New Zealand (Perrault I think)".

This combination made you spend the big $$$ to order a pair of WILSON Sasha, you should try it again at home with your source(s) and room acoustic.

If still not good, think about changing the source or move the speakers to another room with your dealer present to help you with all the work to be done.