by
Keijo Tanskanen
Ilkka’s audio enthusiasm began at the end of 60’s when he bought his first vinyl player, a stereo amp and some speakers. His enthusiasm began to get more serious when he visited TL-Audio first time approximately ten years ago. That listening experience “forced” him to look for better audio equipment. Two years ago Ilkka and his wife decided to move into a new house in Hämeenlinna. This decision combined with lkka’s sound preferences made them finally buy just the kind of audio equipment they wanted. Also, Ilkka’s and his wife’s aims to have more sophisticated equipment usability and visual effect affected their audio equipment choices. After listening and having a look at the equipment I can only congratulate them on their great choices which surely also fulfill the visual requirements of the majority of other audio enthusiasts!
After a little discussion Ilkka told me that for him the most important thing in the high-end “hobby” is that he can come home after a day at work and listen to some relaxing music without any serious disturbances in the listening room or in the quality of the sound. Also, he explained that the music and sound must be touching, just like in a good live concert. Of course this means very grainless and spacious sound reproduction combined to very high dynamics. The best listening kicks will be achieved when you can have a concert-like feeling: you are there with the band!
Although the setup is quite new he has found that the sound quality is close to what he expected it to be. “Listening feelings have been very high nowadays”, he said, and added immediately that he is extremely satisfied with his Wilson Duette speakers! Naturally Ilkka admitted that there is still space for slight improvements, but, he thought, they will cost very much! He also mentioned that this setup will be a long time system for him. Only some changes in cablings and power cords may be done in the near future.
When I asked Ilkka to share thoughts about the high-end hobby, he began to be a bit absent. He assumes that serious high-end enthusiasm still has quite a small field of interest in Finland, but in his opinion things can be changed especially when people have more and more free time and time for their hobbies and passions. He also mentioned that there are some signs of audio enthusiasts getting more and more demanding and that they use more money for their equipment than some time before.
Then it was time to ask for musical favorites. Ilkka said that his music taste is quite broad although he does not listen to classical music often. After several Jazz samples Ilkka mentioned that good Jazz may well be the music he listens most often. Ilkka is also very critical to the sound quality of CDs and vinyls. He said that bad recordings are terrible to listen to even though the music would be ok. Although there is so called high resolution discs available he has not had enough interest to try them with suitable equipment. So, vinyls and CDs are enough, he clarified!
CD player: Burmester 052
Amplifier: Burmester 051
Speakers: Wilson Duette
Power Conditioner: Burmester 038
Interconnects: Transparent Ultra (MM)
Speaker cables: Crystal Cable
Power cords: Standard power cords
Ilkka has also a vinyl player!
I’ve been a great fan of the sound of Wilson Watt/Puppy 7’s since I bought them. I’ve loved their sound all the time, although they can not deliver perfection either! So it was no surprise that I greatly enjoyed the sound of this setup as well. Actually I think Duettes may be even slightly better than W/P7s in the region of coherency and vertical soundstaging! But, W/P7 is still a bit better in resolution, bass extension, dynamics and control. The tweeter of W/P7’s can offer better metallic colors of cymbals as well. But Duette’s tweeter is still an excellent one and can always deliver very enjoyable results!?
Nevertheless the direct comparison to W/P7 was definitely not the purpose of the visit. Wilson Duette is a marvelous speaker! Its bass and soundstaging features are unique in its size class. The sound had only very slight flaws, like the last bit of authenticity, focus and resolution. Those very slight weaknesses may well exist because of the “budget class” Burmester front end, and/or even more likely because of the cabling. I must also praise the 051 Burmester amp. It clearly gives enough power for quite demanding speakers as well. Although the Duettes do not present a very demanding load, the sound quality of dynamic bass tracks proved that there were no difficulties at all in current supply!
I must say that Wilson Duette is, by a wide margin, the best two-way speaker I’ve heard so far! Duette costs a lot but still the speaker is well worth of and it can even beat numerous excellent floorstanders in its price class! As a conclusion I can only assure that the overall sound of this visit truly represented an audio milestone of this year for me, especially when taking account the price of the system! Grrreeaaat!!!