XVX Installation with Mac amplification

[Charles]

Originally Posted by PeterMusic

Hi Charles,

WOW! I only wish you lived close enough to Boston for me to pop over for a listen.

I am curious about the dimensions of your room relative to the XVXes. How far are they from the walls, ceiling, seating position, each other? Were extensive room treatments required?

Thanks and enjoy

Thank you so much! Peter, that's an excellent question. Yes the room has been extensively treated. Right now it is on the bright side. Most of the treatments are reflective and the ceiling is very heavily blown acoustic. I can almost turn the room into an anechoic chamber but then the sound becomes lifeless, dull although very precise.

As for the measurements, I haven't made them. I haven't felt the need to. Because the sound is very good. Go to "Community" on the AA home page and there you will see Charles System. There you will see my old Mac XRT 30 speakers and their panels almost toughing the ceiling. The mids were almost unbearably hot but I did not attribute this to my A-Frame.

My next speakers were Maxx3's which you can see under "Community" Maxx Installation" and "Maxx Spiking" and the Maxx3 relationship to my A-Frame walls and ceiling. The sound was excellent and a much smoother midrange and treble.

Under Member Systems Forum: Charles System you can see the Alexx but for some reason not its relationship to the ceiling. This relationship can bee seen in the last two pics of my recent post in "Show us you your Mac System" in the Mac Forum. Although the same Wilson sound in many ways, the Alexx perfectly differentiated the "old" from the "new" sound with the new better tweeter and better timing. The sound was very good. I was extremely satisfied. If I had a criticism it was that to get the really low 20 Hz and below I had to have a little bit more Thor woofer than I wanted but this is an extremely minor "fault". The Alexx had superb bass in my room.

Although the XVX looks close to the ceiling, the rear tweeter actually has plenty of breathing room and I have actually turned it up to 0 dB. As far as the imaging, focus, sound stage, smoothness of mid and treble, my sound is very good. The resolution and detail is superb. The XVX sounds like an Alexx on steroids. I wouldn't say it was better than the Alexx in one area. It is better than the Alexx top to bottom. It lets a lot more information through and is more authoritative in the bass. The XVX is musical. It is forgiving and very smooth. It has tremendous pace and power. Even when the mid and tweeter was completely out of focus initially, this property hit me in the face. Different from any other speaker.

I have my Thor turned down by at least 33%. Now I don't have to hear the Thor on regular music to get that 20 Hz and below or the massive weight on movies sound tracks like Aquaman. Put another way the Mac needles/meters of the Thor and XVX move much more independently (though not entirely) on heavy bass with the XVX than with the Maxx3 or Alexx. But even when the needles/meters move in tandem except on the very lowest notes of heavy organ tracks, it is the XVX woofer I hear.

As far as measurements, the XVX is so complex in shape, I wouldn't know where to take it from. I have not moved my sofa. IMO the real key to achieving the Wilson sound is true on axis listening where the tweeters are aimed exactly at your ears. This is achieved if you can sit (the toe in) so that you can just see the inside walls of the speaker. The goal was to achieve the same tweeter separation as with the Alexx, and this ideal speaker toe in. It was achieved. The tweeter separation is right at 9 feet and I sit exactly at 11 feet.

A-Frames are strange animals. The sound bounces around so much because of all the angles it is impossible to know what kind of sound you can achieve. Definitely, the room being 40 feet long and the XVX being a slim very deep speaker worked in my favor to achieve what I have achieved.

Lastly,

I apologize to all about the barrage of pics. To my knowledge I have never posted my system under the Mac Forum and I have never had a decent camera. So when I knew the XVX was definitely coming I bought a Samsung Note 10. It has the best camera on the market, its only competitor being the I-Phone 11. It has all kinds of features and even tells you how to take the best pic. Ivan has been so very helpful, I can't thank him enough. Finally, XVXes don't come along everyday in one's life, so I appreciate everyone's patience.

Charles