Wilson Audio just announced the Duette Series-2, an audiophile-grade, no-compromise, stand-mount loudspeaker designed to be used in a wide variety of room configurations. The Duette Series-2’s tweeter performance is enhanced by the inclusion of the rear wave chamber from Wilson’s Convergent Synergy Tweeter. The rear tweeter baffle is borrowed from the Alexia version of Wilson’s CST design. The wave chamber substantially reduces chamber-born diffraction. Reducing these artifacts greatly lowers the noise floor, and results in higher treble resolution.
The Series-2 features an all new cabinet. The primary goal was to greatly enhance the time-domain performance of Duette. The front baffle is angled at approximately 10° to align the tweeter and the woofer. Additionally, the main body of the cabinet is now built entirely out of Wilson’s proprietary composite, X-material, including the internal bracing. The baffle is built from Wilson’s newest composite, S-material. This combination has proven to yield the best combination of resonance control and beautiful tonality.
Wilson Audio simplified the design in order to achieve substantially increased performance in the most commonly used applications. Duette is now fully optimized for vertical placement only, eschewing the need for the Magnepods imbedded in the enclosure. Instead, receptacles in the bottom of the Series-2 take a specially designed diode foot, and facilitate its attachment to the new dedicated stand.
The New Series-2 Dedicated Stand seamlessly integrates the separate Novel crossover, and provides captive dressing for the umbilical. Greater attention has been paid to the draining of resonances away from the Duette—the Duette Series-2 is bolted directly to the stand.
Price and Availability
The Wilson Audio Duette Series-2 loudspeakers are expected to be available August 1, 2013 for $17,750 a pair or $19,900 with stands.
Photo Credit: Wilson Audio (Prototype Shown: The design is subject to change.)
Specifications
- Nominal Impedance: 4 ohms / minimum 4.35 ohms @ 160 Hz
- Sensitivity: 92 dB @ 1W @ 1m @ 1k
- Frequency Response: 33 Hz – 21 kHz +/- 3 dB, Room Average Response [RAR] Minimum Amplification Power Recommended: 20 watts/channel
- Woofer: 8 inches (19.63 cm) Material: Hard Paper Pulp Tweeter: 1 inch, Dome (2.54 cm) Material: Doped Silk Fabric
- Duette Enclosure
- Height: 18 1/2 inches (46.99 cm) w/o spikes Width: 10 1/2 inches (26.66 cm)
- Depth: 16 1/16 inches (40.82 cm)
- Novel Crossover
- Height: 11 5/16 inches (28.73 cm) Width: 4 3/4 inches (12.07 cm) Depth: 9 5/32 inches (23.28 cm)
- Dedicated Stand with Built-in Crossover
- Height: 21 7/8 inches (55.56 cm) w/o spikes Width: 11 7/8 inches (30.16 cm)
- Depth: 18 3/4 inches (47.63 cm)
- Enclosure Type: Woofer (Rear Ported) / Tweeter (Sealed): Material: X-Material with S-Material Baffle
- Product Weight Weight Per Channel Uncrated:
- Duette 45 lbs (20.41 kg)
- Novel Crossover 24 lbs (10.89 kg) Stand 65 lbs (29.48 kg)
