My visit to Wilson Audio

[2fastdriving]

Yesterday I visited Wilson Audio in Provo with my dealer, Allen. I wanted to share my thoughts on the experience and post a few photos.

We were greeted by Jerron, the service manager, at the front door. Before the tour, we decided to get some great mexican food at a local restaurant, where we grilled Jerron on a lot of questions about WA and what it's like to work there. He was very gracious and described how he was acquired by David Wilson while working at an electronics store. You can hear about that here at around 1:00: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf1-5cGVs8g]B139 - YouTube[/ame]

Back at the shop, I got to meet Debby, who we all know here (kinda)! She was great, and we discussed our mutual appreciation for classic cars. She has a camaro similar to mine.

Allen and I were then treated to a discussion about the materials they use and why they use them. Jerron explained how important resonance is to their design philosophy, and that's why they use the different X and S materials for their enclosures and baffles.

At that point, Sheryl came in and introduced herself (along with her beautiful German Shepherd Sophie). I was quite surprised to meet her, but even more surprised when David Wilson himself stopped in and talked to me for about 20 minutes! I had no expectations of that happening, and was really happy that it did. We talked about why I was upgrading and my path to where I am at. We also discussed why he feels it's important to build here in the states and have complete control over quality. He was very gracious with his time and I feel lucky to have met a pioneer in audio...not just a quick greeting either, but having an actual conversation.

David had some reel-to-reel tapes of a recording he made in 1973 that he had just pulled out of his vault and showed them to us. He had all kinds of notes about the mixing board settings etc...it was astonishing to see how much attention to detail he paid when making a recording way back in 1973! That obsession obviously continues today.

David also confirmed something I had heard as a rumor: The Sasha was named after his dog. Sasha unfortunately passed away recently. But her legacy lives on!

Then we started the tour. We visited the loading dock where dozens of very nicely made wooden crates await their voyages. At the entrance to this area is a big plaque with all the pictures of every employee and their date of hire. This was a nice touch...they clearly value retaining quality employees and make a big deal out of tenure. I like this. Also in this area was their cabinet "references" - finished enclosures that are not painted or filled with drivers.

We then visited the milling room where huge sheets of composites were staged for milling on their huge CNC machine. They also glue the pieces together and clamp them there. Adjacent to that room is another temperature controlled room for curing the adhesives.

We then moved on and saw the area where all the sanding occurs. This is a VERY labor intensive process. We watched for several minutes as 4 guys sanded and sanded cabinets to perfection. I was surprised that the cabinets were so roughed in when then get to the sanding process and how much they actually shape the cabinet by hand. It would put any automotive body shop to shame.

Then we saw the gel-coat room where they prep and spray a marine grade gelcoat onto the enclosure. This seals it and keeps moisture from affecting the joints. It probably has other benefits but I forget now.

We saw the paint booth, which was super clean and organized. The entire facility was very clean and organized compared to most manufacturing companies I have seen.

There was a buffing room and a staging room for final assembly. There's a whole room for making crossovers as well. The crossover is their most "secretive" area, where they don't allow photos. But I did get to see the attention to detail and the manual soldering and matching of components to ensure specs are as close to exacting tolerances as possible. There is no practice of slapping a circuit board into an enclosure. No way. It's hand built and sealed in an epoxy. Transparent cabling is used internally, with different twist ratios for each driver.

I saw workers performing final assembly where they mask off the painted sections while they install hardware and drivers as to not mar the finish.

There is a room set up just for matching drivers also. They match the pair of speakers' mids to each other, tweeters to each other, and also the mid and tweeter combination. There is a test station where they can do this. Along the opposite wall is a burn-in station lined with Bryston amps. A relatively small room is adjacent which is completely lined with insulation with only a single mic on a stand in the center of the room. They wheel the completed speaker in this room and run it through a full range test and make sure it matches the other speaker in the pair you ordered.

One of the coolest rooms is the media room (not sure they call it that) where they have a huge backdrop in order to take pictures and create videos. All the history of Wilson products is represented in this room. You can see it in my pictures.

Finally I was treated to a brief (had to catch a plane) listening session, in which Jerron treated us to several hi-res tracks played through Alexias.

It was far too brief, and I wish I could have thought of more questions and stayed longer...especially in the listening room But my expectations were far exceeded. I always heard of the attention to detail in this company, and now I got to see it. One thing I didn't expect at all was the family feel there. And I felt welcome as part of the family. Now I just can't wait to get my Carmon red Sasha's!!!

[2fastdriving]

More pictures:

[Masterlu]

Marc... Great thread & pics, thanks for posting!

[2fastdriving]

Originally Posted by Masterlu

Marc... Great thread & pics, thanks for posting!

Thanks Ivan. More pics to come shortly...

[HiFiCrossFit]

Very cool, thank you for sharing.

Sent from my iPhone using A.Aficionado

[2fastdriving]

My Sashas...

[JiveTurkey]

Extremely cool! Great summary. I enjoyed the read and am now contemplating a visit.

[2fastdriving]

More pics...this is the burn-in and testing room.

[2fastdriving]

Wilson history...

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by 2fastdriving

My Sashas...

And you're the proud poppa!