Напольная акустика — Wilson Audio WAMM Master Chronosonic

The WAMM Master Chronosonic is a loudspeaker from Wilson Audio of Provo, Utah, described by the company as the magnum opus of its founder David Wilson. Nearly five years of research and development went into it. Unlike the original WAMM, which needed a subwoofer for the bottom octaves, it is a full-range design.

Key specs that matter

Eight drivers go into each speaker. Two woofers of 10.5 inch (26.67 cm) and 12.5 inch (31.75 cm) share a cabinet, two 7 inch (17.78 cm) units cover the lower midrange and two 4 inch (10.16 cm) units the upper midrange, while a 1 inch (2.54 cm) silk dome main tweeter is joined by a second 1 inch silk dome firing to the rear. Sensitivity is 93.5 dB at 1 W, 1 m and 1 kHz. Nominal impedance is 3 ohm, with a minimum of 1.77 ohm at 310 Hz, and at least 100 W per channel is required. Excluding spikes, a speaker is 214.31 cm high, 53.34 cm wide and 94.93 cm deep, and it weighs 408.23 kg. Total shipping weight for the system is about 1,188 kg.

Engineering and use context

The two woofers of different diameters were designed from the ground up to work together in one enclosure, which vents through an XLF port that can fire to the rear or to the front. The midrange enclosures are bottom vented, built from X-Material with an S-Material baffle, and the tweeter enclosure is sealed X-Material. The modules sit in a gantry of aerospace aluminum with a W-Material module interface and X-Material damping. The midrange and tweeter drivers are arranged in MTM configurations with time-domain adjustability, and the design brief targeted time-domain accuracy, low distortion and controlled enclosure resonance across the whole audible band. The open architecture gantry introduced here later reappeared on both the Chronosonic XVX and Alexx V. Wilson offers an optional WAMM Master Subsonic subwoofer with three 12 inch dual-spider woofers in a front ported enclosure. It is rated at 10 to 150 Hz within plus 0 and minus 3 dB as a room average response, at 4 ohm and 87 dB, and weighs 233.6 kg. It reaches below 10 Hz while blending with the main speaker in the lower mid-bass.

Pairing

A load that falls below 2 ohm means only amplifiers that remain stable into very low impedance are suitable, and generous power is needed.

Alternatives

Within Wilson Audio's current floorstanding range, the Chronosonic XVX is the other Chronosonic model with an open gantry.