Like Father Like Son... | Michael Fremer Tours Wilson Audio
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- čas přidán 10. 07. 2024
- Wilson Audio CEO Daryl Wilson gives Michael Fremer the tour of their factory, the people behind it, and the story of how it all came to be.
0:00-01:19 Introduction & Daryl's Office
01:19-04:00 The Wilson Story
4:00-09:10 CNC Machine and X Material Fabrication
09:10-10:52 Clamping, Gluing & Sanding
10:52-12:06 Gel-Coating & More Sanding
12:06-13:45 Painting & Polishing
13:45-15:03 Quality Control
15:03-20:08 Assembly & Crossover
20:08-24:45 Capacitor Creation
24:45-26:36 Creating Art & Grill Cloths
26:36-32:23 The Wilson Gallery
32:23-34:40 Final Thoughts
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And that sirs is why you buy Wilson’s. The paint work done in house is superb. They make their own caps. The craftsman sign their parts. So much institutional knowledge. Many wonderful speakers out there. Nothing quite like a Wilson.
I agree, It's just like buying a Alpina car from BMW with the builders signature!
Tuned by ear...😉
Yet the acoustic design is pretty standard, nothing special. So what you pay for is prestige and outdated engineering and manufacturing just for bragging rights. They are far from the most accurate or clean speakers out there, but among the most expensive.
@@martinvegas1327 You can get that for under 500 $ these days, maybe two to four times that if you want the premium-option. However I wouldn't even say the Wilsons are small or did I misinterpret what you wrote?
@@martinvegas1327 Care to elaborate then?
Love their speakers. Maybe I can get a pair.....in my next life.
The best part of the Wilson family is their 'customer service'! If I have any question's about anything I will get a very quick reply and precise answer from Jerron (manager of sales) Try that with any other audio Co. This is why I've been a W/A devotee for over 27yrs. I met Dave Wilson years ago at Overture Audio in De. and was very impressed with him and THE SOUND... I still am today with our Sasha DAW's... Pure sound from a beautiful piece of handmade magic!
Doing his dad proud. Cool
It is remarkable how Daryl has picked right up where his legendary Dad left off and has even pushed things further.
Thanks Mikey, thanks Daryl and all at WAS! Can't wait for my new Sasha DAW to arrive as upgrade from the wonderful Sabrina X... Keep rolling!
Just fascinating. Fremer is a great tour guide. Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks for watching :)
@@TheTASmagazine I wish AS would do a video on streamer/servers in the $5k - $10k price range. I own a Rose 150, and there are so many thing wrong with it that the nonqualified CZcams "reviewers" never mentioned.
Absolutely superb. What a company!!
Good Day Sir Wilson, Sir Fremer, this documentry about your brand how it is done,was highly interesting, knowing as well it was very touching how deep the accuracy preciseness of the whole process of making your products goes. And how passionate the staff is doing this. Thanks to you,letting Sir Fremer into your premises and give him this tour. Bye Ray
Dave Wilson was a one-of-a-kind guy. So glad to see Wilson Audio continuing on in his son's capable hands!
What a great video. Good job to all involved . What a major accomplishment. Dave would sure be very proud of Daryl and the Wilson team! It is nice to see a team of people working together to create the finest quality product. Great to hear how Dave started and then the big move and where it is at now!
Thanks Chad. That means a lot coming from you. I have enjoyed your videos as well!
Nice speakers and nice people but their speakers are extremely overpriced.
@@anthonymartino9917 No! It's just we can't afford it! But there right in line!
I have a set of refurbished WP6 in White that I love. Saving up for a set of DAW`s 😊
As a automotive painter , I would have loved to work at a place like this. When I was younger:)
Great vid. You have missed two important parts of the factory tho - the listening room (at the factory and the famous room in David Wilson's house) and the spare parts dept, where they keep all the spare drivers, even to WAMM models (B139 drivers for example).
We have some footage of the vast parts inventory so that may show up later in the Director's Cut. ;).
A great video about a fantastic loudspeaker manufacturer. Thank you 🙏🏼 Maestro Wilson for bringing joy to a lot of people around the world 🌎 Your ancient fan from Tehran Iran.🫵✨💎🌺
I give you best wishes from California.
Thank you for the effort of making this video and to Wilson for for the time. I really enjoy seeing the love and work that goes into these speakers by everyone in the company. Maybe some day they will be within my means... Cheers!
I've subscribed to both The Absolute Sound and Stereophile and I wondered what became of Michael Fremer. Now I know. Nice tour. Amazing craftsmanship.
Awesome video Michael!
Impressive and Incredible, thanks for the great tour/video Michael, cheers.
Beautiful job, nice to see people loving their work. Happy to own a pair of WA speakers.
Great video Michael!!! I love your factory tours!!! Get back to your pre-COVID-19 levels!!! My favorite Audio industry videos!!! 😊😎
Excellent video, thank you Michael!!!
Amazing! Seriously. Loved the capacitor testing. Having built and designed products using potting agent, I totally get their need to get it right. Once you pot, it's done. Gotta be right!
This video demonstrates how a family owned business has their priority on making quality product as apposed to those companies that have sold out to the wall street private equity firms subjecting themselves to bean counters that prioritize profit at the expense of quality. Daryl do not sell out!
Except Wilson Audio is hardly a benchmark for sonic quality, unless you go by the price tag and marketing.
@@iSkyline1 ses you
@@analoguecity3454 Me and anyone who knows enough about audio engineering.
I heard the Sabrina X. Beautiful sounding speaker.
Well done, a good interview.
Bravo!
Amazing!
They're all just really likeable people who know what they're doing. This has value in the pride of ownership and technical/aesthetic excellence of products like these. (And no I can't afford them lol).......
Great video! Proud to be a (new) owner.
Congrats!
@ 21:25 lmao ❤ oh man the watt puppy’s so sweet.
Now I understand why their products are very expensive. I wish I can own a Wilson speakers someday.
I really love the dedication to superb design and craftmanship. Stay family owned please, don't fall in the hands of the corporate vampires that are sucking the life out of many historical hi end companies.
Your father would really be proud.
❤❤❤❤❤
Can’t believe how Corian has evolved. Countertop material speakers. Lol
Wow
Nice to see good parts quality , MultiComp RTX 0.01uf must have went for tweeter bypass 😉
It also shows parts quality of 80K USD speakers , nice caps , drivers , crossover components may cost 1500usd for speaker , cabinet is a tour deforce design and does cost a lot of time and skill to fabricate .
Wonder what power these need to do them justice ?
Micheal, why didn't you show them installing the drivers into their cabinets! The same with the x-overs and connections in between!
Does Peter McGrath still work for them? He pretty much introduced me to high fi when he owned Sound Components in Miami.
Quite frankly, I have never seen this level of obsequiousness in replies on an audio review. See I'm not the lone dissenter. I guess I've just been around too long. Working for Monster Cable in '81 as the Symmetry Audio sales mgr (if I managed to make a sale, I could keep the crappy job and Noel wouldn't fire me) one day I was back-dooring an X-over , the sole product of Symmetry (it was designed by the great John Curl) and no dealer in SF and the buyer remarked to me about the then brand new Wilson WAMM , he said this "Wasted All My Money." I did agree, I forget the ridiculous price it was trying, with emphasis on trying to be sold for. Ahh me nothing like hype, marketing, exclusivity
Question: does Wilson no longer use Transparent as internal cabling?
Daryl said something about „in-house cabling was installed“… thx
Transparent cables still used. They do the twisting “in house” for each speaker model and application.
I thought they used Chubby Checker cables?!
@@BerndtNorten …that was done only by the former bike brand ‚Checker Pig‘
I owned the first Puppie s 5, after Grand Slamm X1...
Sponge covers, and suspensions of woofers desintegrated slowly in few years of use
Also notice slower and slower bass because magnets not alnico
Too expensive for components not reliable...but marketing mark points...
Impressive workshop. However, the most important question - who does the acoustical and the electrical engineering, design and testing?🤷♂️
Good video but NOTHING about the drivers. Why?
Mostly due to time being limited but it may show up in our upcoming Alexia V production video.
secret crossover completely sealed
Over a half hour video about speaker manufacturing and more than half of that time was all about the cabinet.
I get it, the enclosure is an important part of the speaker. However based off of what this video conveys, there is little about the crossover component, little about the wiring, and very little to none about the drivers used. This makes those things seem less important, if important at all.
Speaker Breakdown:
80% cost of the speaker is the enclosure.
10% cost goes to the fine people and hard workers of the company.
4% cost goes into the crossover.
4% cost goes into the wiring.
1% cost goes into the drivers.
1% cost goes into the Box and Manual.
100% Expensive Speakers
=
100% Awesome!
Steve, we will have more to say on the drivers but check out Wilson Audio's website to see commentary on the drivers used in the Alexia V and other speakers. Exact details on the crossover and driver technology are understandably trade secrets. I am fairly certain the cost breakdown is off. ;)
@@realleescoggins Observations are observations.
Facts may be something altogether different.
But that definitely isn’t something that this particular video dictated. And as I also stated I’m a firm believer that the enclosure is an integral part of the overall performance of a speakers sound quality.
This is something that I experienced firsthand with the KEF LS50. That enclosure has more heft and technology between the curved front baffle elongated flexible port, extensive internal bracing and so on. And compare that to a simple 5 1/4 inch UniQ driver.
I’m a believer that the reason the KEF LS50 sounds as good as it does is because of the enclosure. The enclosure probably cost more than the driver/s.
If that wasn’t the case the Q Series utilizing very similar drivers, would sound almost as good, but they don’t.
So back to what I stated above, the video was longer than a half an hour and more of the time was discussed about the enclosures than anything else.
That’s not to say I don’t enjoy watching how speakers are manufactured.
@@Connectronix
The LS50 platform, what it represents.
It's textbook execution of a mature, fully iterated ... state of the art coax, in an ideally inert, low diffraction baffle.
It thrives on power.
It does what it does extremely well.
@@Connectronix It appears that there is more to discuss and present about the enclosures than the x-overs. Simple. They spent some time talking about the x-overs and it was made clear that there are considerations of proprietary technology/techniques that preclude recording. This should not be surprising.
Where are the drivers???
I spy with my little eye a scan speak box! I knew those drivers looked familiar. Do they modify them? Maybe scan speak makes them to their specs? Probably that.
Yeah, if you watch some videos here the sales rep. at audio demos talks about how they design their drivers in cooperation with Scandinavian and US driver manufacturers, and then do some small mods in house after delivery to the factory. So yeah, probably Scan Speak.
See, it CAN be done IN America BY Americans!! 🇺🇸💪👂
Would a mike for him really be cost prohibitive, Mikey?
Can i get a pair of factor seconds for my second hand container home? Born and raised in Provo but i escaped. Zoobies, know what i'm sayin? ;)
Michael is working for both Stereophile and The Absolute Sound? Or he is a freelancer?
Michael just went back from Stereophile to TheAbsoluteSound...
We acquired Michael months ago in an all cash offer. ;)
People can afford 20 grand + a pair high end statement speakers.. "Oh, we want it cheaper". Huh?
I don't see any Klippel NFS .... 🤔
Absolute Sound and Stereophile. There used to be Audio Critic I guess. Sensible Sound. My past subscription to Audio Magazine and Stereo Review beside High Fidelity. Wonderful..
Why does the audio sound fucked up and half of the shots?
I will be placing an order as soon as a millionairess agrees to marry me.
Maybe you will find true love with a "thousandaire" and buy some older WATT/Puppies!
@@realleescoggins I have decided to stay with my beloved Klipsch Belles.
@@artyfhartie2269 Klipsch makes a very fine speaker.
@@realleescoggins Without sounding patriotic or zenophobic, I only love the vintage and the now renamed heritage line, made in the USA, Klipsch. The made in China are made for a price and for more profits. Their industrial line are great too. That's me and I am sticking with it.
Don’t get the high prices 🙄
At Wilson audio they can't solder (19:48).
68K a Pair..................and that is not even the flagship speakers.
In their price range, I’d buy VSA Von Schweikert Audio spkrs. B&W are worth their price, because of the engineering, materials & testing they incorporate. Too much time & money is involved in the cabinetry & paint. The crossover networks are encapsulated in epoxy & are non-serviceable, that’s stupid, planned obsolescence. If 1 cap goes, the entire network has to be replaced, & it ain’t cheap. Overall I wasn’t impressed with this factory tour.
People that waste that kind of money in a speaker aren't very concern with replacing parts at whatever cost.
"B&W are worth their price, because of the engineering,..." What? They're bog standard woofer/tweeter-designs with fancy parts, just like Wilson Audio but with a bit more R&D.
Surprised how modest the showroom was. Paint dept was great. Operation still slightly hillbilly
Laughably overpriced hideous monstrosities.
GR Research DIY speakers are far better for 1/10th of the price. Meh...
Still cheap foam and carpet material used
Michael Frommer at his age must have no hearing over 8000
Exceeding a capacitors design voltage rating is not a smart thing to do. Speakers run absolute max at little more than 40Volts AC for goodness sakes! I admire Wilson speaker quality but a LOT of extraordinary cause/effect claims were made which to an audio engineer were very questionable indeed.
this factory was not so high-tech ! such price , B&W has better R&D
A fool and his dinero...:)
Why would anyone want to listen to his opinion?
Overpriced because some rich will buy it anyway.
Average sound actually.
Great factory, what a nice group to watch work. I'd like to know what kind of an employee discount they get!