Meet Wisdom Audio, Master of Planar Magnetic Speaker Technology

Meet Wisdom Audio, Master of Planar Magnetic Speaker Technology

HTA Resource Content

A recent review of the thousands of companies offering loudspeaker systems exposed that virtually all share the same basic technologies. Although design implementation and details may differ, after a century of loudspeaker development, most consumer and professional systems are based on designs fundamentally unchanged for more than 50 years.

What lead Wisdom Audio on a different path was the quest for a superior experience, providing better sound clarity, speed and dynamics to transmit emotions through audio. For over 25 years Wisdom Audio has been designing, manufacturing, and perfecting the next generation of ultra-discreet High-Performance Transducers*. Today our speaker systems achieve the ultimate in precision and performance for music and film sound reproduction making Wisdom Audio the perfect choice for private screening rooms, home cinemas, media rooms, music aficionados and anywhere great sound matters.

How it Works and Why it Matters 

Planar Magnetic Drivers (PMD) are made of an aluminium conductor trace bonded to a Polyimide film. Because of their lightweight, they perfectly follow transient sounds with no envelope change or distortion and can stop without the inertia of a traditional dynamic driver (woofers and dome tweeters). This allows Wisdom Audio to deliver extraordinary speed, ultra-low distortion and dynamic sound quality.

Having the ability to manufacture PMD’s in various shapes and sizes allows us to keep the DNA links that are vital to human sound recognition. By increasing the surface area of the thin film, we can reproduce a wider range of the audible spectrum retaining the necessary connection between a sounds fundamental note and its harmonics. 

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Loudspeakers require a device called a “crossover” in their speaker designs to divide the incoming sound to the individual speaker drivers capable of reproducing those frequencies. Unfortunately, most loudspeaker manufacturers are forced to implement the crossover point right in the frequency spectrum where our ears are most sensitive (around 2000Hz). The result is that fundamentals are being reproduced by woofers (paper, plastic; with a given weight and speed) while harmonics are being reproduced by a high frequency motor structure with a very different material weight and speed. As you might imagine, this will negatively affect sound quality. (AMT / compressions drivers and dome tweeters). 

All Wisdom Audio loudspeakers are built using Planar Magnetics Drivers to achieve ultimate clarity. The Insight and Sage Series PMD’s covers up to six octaves, while the Wisdom Series cover eight octaves keeping all upper harmonics together. The benefit? The crossover point is moved out of the ear’s most sensitive area. Every musical instrument’s fundamental, harmonics, upper harmonics and overtones are all reproduced by the same transducers’ motor structure. 

Do I Need Hearing Superpowers to Notice the Difference?

Your brain has the ability to connect various elements of the audible spectrum to determine if they are real, what they are, and where they are. Harmonics’ signatures are a key parameter in enhancing our ability to recognize and identify sounds. It’s what enables us to recognize a specific voice from thousands of other voices. 

The next challenge is linked to the listening environment itself and more precisely, how loudspeakers and rooms interact. 

Most loudspeakers are what are known as “Point Sources”; meaning they blast energy in all directions. What reaches your ears is typically made of 40% direct sound (from the loudspeaker) and 60% reflected energy (sound bouncing of the walls, floor and ceiling.)

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Line Array speakers, which use multiple drivers aligned vertically, offer a better power consistency over distance than Point Source speakers, but they still send energy to the floor and ceiling. This interaction between the multiple drivers causes Comb Filtering which is the cancellation or addition of energy at specific frequencies which can degrade the overall sound quality and listening experience.

Line Source speakers are much more room friendly and on average can reduce 50% of the reflected energy by lowering or eliminating floor and ceiling reflections. Hearing more of the direct loudspeaker sound and less of the room’s reflected sound results in additional intelligibility, lower distortion, and improved sound clarity. The difference in sound quality is easy to hear.

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Wisdom Audio manufactures both Point Source and Line Source speakers which are complemented with RTL Subwoofers and dedicated electronics. 

Wisdom Audio’s Regenerative Transmission Line (RTL)® subwoofers use smaller speaker drivers to achieve faster transient response time that match the speed of Planar Magnetic Drivers. Additionally, our latest generation of Power Amplifiers includes on-board Digital Signal Processing to ensure the most accurate implementation of our loudspeakers within any listening space.

Finally, we offer design services and on-site calibration by factory trained experts (who actually do have hearing superpowers) which ensures the commissioning of every Wisdom Audio system is the absolute best it can be.

Designed Without Compromise to Create The Sound of Modern Living 

In the last two and a half decades we have designed 100s of products for the Residential Custom Integration market focusing on the upper tiers, often referred to as High Performance / Luxury Audio.

Most Wisdom Audio products are meant to fit in walls or ceilings. They can be made small enough to match lighting fixtures as well as other architectural elements or tall and shallow to easily disappear behind fabrics and screens. We offer custom length, colours and finishes on many products which are built in our Carson City, Nevada factory.
Providing superior service and unmatched sound quality one project at a time is how we have built an impeccable reputation. We are privileged to work with leading custom integrators, architects, interior designers and engineers from around the world on some of the most challenging projects within beautiful, luxurious homes and super yachts across to deliver a truly unforgettable entertainment experience to you. 

Want to find out what ultimate clarity sounds like? Reach out to Wisdom Audio today at the contact information on this page. Wisdom Audio’s HTA profile may be seen by clicking here.

* these are the speaker driver units within a speaker. A loudspeaker typically uses two or more speaker drivers per speaker.