500/Wilson vs Chord/Wilson Benesch in Chicago

Hi,

I haven't posted in a while, but I thought my recent weekend in chicago might be of interest to some on the forum. The systems I heard were a) the new Wilson Benesch Chimeras with Chord amplification and either a Metronome Technologies CD player or a Nottingham TT (Symphony Sound) and b) CDS2/52/500 all FRAIMED with Wilson Audio Sofias (Pro Musica).

At home I have a CDS2/52/250 all on WB triptych/aside with WB ACT 2 speakers. Soon to upgrade to a 500.

a) The first system I heard was at Symphony sound near the U of Chicago. The chimeras are strikingly elegant speakers with a two box design (trebble and mid in an upper unit and two isobarik tactics on the lower unit all aranged to look seemelessly like a single unit from even very close) The bass is not ported as in the ACT 2. At first we heard the Metronome CD player. While the system impressed with its control and depth with seemless driver systems and ability to play loud without any trace of distortion, there was a very dry and even bleached high end. This was more evident on a Sonic Youth CD than on the Dead Can Dance CD. So I asked dealer to switch to a nottingham TT they had set up. What a revelation! The TT embarassed the 12 K USD CD player. The sounds were seemless, dynamic, and liquid, with no sense of there being speakers there at all, but none of the fakeness normally associated with speakers that try to "create the live experience" by too much attention to imaging and not enough attention to timing. The system sounded "bigger" and less forced than my system at home and I just wanted to listen all day. Yet I did note at times that the music seemed almost too clean as though harmonics were cut out to give an impression of greater precision (is this the Chord effect?), My system at home seemed more organic and real while also lacking the bottom end control and absolute bass extention. Also, these speakers had no sweet spot and wherever I went in the room they sounded just as good.

b) At pro musica the main room was being renovated so we had to substitute sofias for the more expensive system 6. Here we listened to a few tracks on Tracey Chapman's debut CD. My first impression was that the bass was muddy and the trebble raspy without there being any sense of live music at all. It sounded like a big boom box with instruments not occupying any part of the soundstage but being smeared all over the place. My girl friend noticed this too. But as the songs progressed there was a sense of great warmth and drive and groove that I normally associate with naim. I wanted to sit and listen all day just on the emotion of the music. It made me forget the obvious shortcoming sof the 12 K white elephants the naim gear had a misfortune of being be hooked up to.

So I would rate the Metronome Tech CD based system a complete rip off, the Naim system the second best (I think the speakers just weren't for me) and the Nottingham/Chord/Chimera system the best, but lacking the final element of fleshiness and drama of the 500 system.

So I left with the sense that the Chimera IS a better speaker than the ACT 2, but only in terms of shear weight and scale, and that I like naim electronics more than Chord and that If somone were to demo a CDS2/52/500 Chimera I would be in seventh heaven. But my soon to be CDS2/52/500 Act 2 won't be too far off...

dave«