The WVL field coil supplies use in-house, state of the art constant current sources. The range depends on the specific driver, but typically varies between 1 and 3 amps.
Wolf von Langa (WVL) Chicago Speakers - Dream Speakers
- Thread starter Moladiego
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WVL Chicago: Further Updates!
As I continue to seek the "ceiling" or apex of performance from the WVL Chicago's in my room I continue to simply find new heights of sound-staging, imaging, dynamics and the ephemeral "You are there" that is at the heart of what I most fundamentally seek in music reproduction.
All efforts feature the Scheu Das Laufwerk II, True Glider Arm, Hana Umami cart, VIVA Little Fono, and Cinnamon Galle DAC with Transparent Reference IC's and speaker wires seeing primary duty.
BACCH4Mac is also utilized, including the amazing ORC software suite.
First Effort: ARC LS 28SE preamp and VTL Deluxe 120 monos: Wall to wall laterally and NO WALL front to back. REMARKABLE depth. Tonally on the warm side, but oh-so-beautiful. Schubert's Winterreise leaves me in tears, literally.
Second Effort: ARC LS28SE/VTL Deluxe 140's (mids and tweets)/PS Audio Stellar M1200 (bottom): Very similar to the first set up, but FASTER. Required adjustments of the field coil energy to better control the top and "release" the bass (high damping factor of the M1200's?) Ultimately I felt there was a lack of complete continuity, and as an electrostatic and ribbon planar devotee, this I value greatly.
Third Effort: New Audio Frontiers Stradivari preamp and Stradivari 211 SE amplifier. Oh, so right! EVEN BIGGER SOUNDSTAGE Tonally, to die for. Female vocalists are IN THE ROOM with me. The image density is among the best I've ever heard, hard stop! It bumps up against my good friend @steindm McGary/NAF mono/Alysvox Tintoretto set up in that department. BUT a hum arose and I was not able (after 48 years in the hobby) to rid the system of it.
Fourth Effort: Classe CAM 600 monos. So, so fast. ENORMOUS. Layers and layers upon layers. Details arose from the mix. But alas, no "You are there magic".
Fifth Effort: VTL Deluxe 140's/CAM 600 monos. More naturally tonally, but the Chicago tells you there are too amps in front of it. That nagging lack of continuity, despite all the ever-so-good things it was doing.
Sixth Effort: ????? SW1X monos, Wagyu sub??
@gestalt
As I continue to seek the "ceiling" or apex of performance from the WVL Chicago's in my room I continue to simply find new heights of sound-staging, imaging, dynamics and the ephemeral "You are there" that is at the heart of what I most fundamentally seek in music reproduction.
All efforts feature the Scheu Das Laufwerk II, True Glider Arm, Hana Umami cart, VIVA Little Fono, and Cinnamon Galle DAC with Transparent Reference IC's and speaker wires seeing primary duty.
BACCH4Mac is also utilized, including the amazing ORC software suite.
First Effort: ARC LS 28SE preamp and VTL Deluxe 120 monos: Wall to wall laterally and NO WALL front to back. REMARKABLE depth. Tonally on the warm side, but oh-so-beautiful. Schubert's Winterreise leaves me in tears, literally.
Second Effort: ARC LS28SE/VTL Deluxe 140's (mids and tweets)/PS Audio Stellar M1200 (bottom): Very similar to the first set up, but FASTER. Required adjustments of the field coil energy to better control the top and "release" the bass (high damping factor of the M1200's?) Ultimately I felt there was a lack of complete continuity, and as an electrostatic and ribbon planar devotee, this I value greatly.
Third Effort: New Audio Frontiers Stradivari preamp and Stradivari 211 SE amplifier. Oh, so right! EVEN BIGGER SOUNDSTAGE Tonally, to die for. Female vocalists are IN THE ROOM with me. The image density is among the best I've ever heard, hard stop! It bumps up against my good friend @steindm McGary/NAF mono/Alysvox Tintoretto set up in that department. BUT a hum arose and I was not able (after 48 years in the hobby) to rid the system of it.
Fourth Effort: Classe CAM 600 monos. So, so fast. ENORMOUS. Layers and layers upon layers. Details arose from the mix. But alas, no "You are there magic".
Fifth Effort: VTL Deluxe 140's/CAM 600 monos. More naturally tonally, but the Chicago tells you there are too amps in front of it. That nagging lack of continuity, despite all the ever-so-good things it was doing.
Sixth Effort: ????? SW1X monos, Wagyu sub??
@gestalt
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Well, just when you think the WVL Chicago couldn't possibly reach greater heights.....it does! 
With the Hum Demons now dispatched and the New Audio Frontiers Stradivari preamp paired with the Stradivari 211 SE stereo amp, enter the Cinnamon Galle II DAC, displacing its older brother, the Galle, on the digital throne of my system. With the Galle II in place there is an (and please know, I don't say this lightly) organicity, realism, and visceral presence to all of the individual images which are themselves layered in distinct space and yet in a completely natural way mesh to create an enormous soundscape. The likes of this I have exclusively historically experienced only with (the very best) analogue.
Yes, I am smitten............And yes, the Galle II is a very, very special device.
With the Hum Demons now dispatched and the New Audio Frontiers Stradivari preamp paired with the Stradivari 211 SE stereo amp, enter the Cinnamon Galle II DAC, displacing its older brother, the Galle, on the digital throne of my system. With the Galle II in place there is an (and please know, I don't say this lightly) organicity, realism, and visceral presence to all of the individual images which are themselves layered in distinct space and yet in a completely natural way mesh to create an enormous soundscape. The likes of this I have exclusively historically experienced only with (the very best) analogue.
Yes, I am smitten............And yes, the Galle II is a very, very special device.
We're so happy to be part of your amazing journey. Thank you!Well, just when you think the WVL Chicago couldn't possibly reach greater heights.....it does!
With the Hum Demons now dispatched and the New Audio Frontiers Stradivari preamp paired with the Stradivari 211 SE stereo amp, enter the Cinnamon Galle II DAC, displacing its older brother, the Galle, on the digital throne of my system. With the Galle II in place there is an (and please know, I don't say this lightly) organicity, realism, and visceral presence to all of the individual images which are themselves layered in distinct space and yet in a completely natural way mesh to create an enormous soundscape. The likes of this I have exclusively historically experienced only with (the very best) analogue.
Yes, I am smitten............And yes, the Galle II is a very, very special device.
Update on the WVL Chicago Journey:
As one full week has now passed since I installed the Cinnamon Galle II DAC, each moment has found me eager to return at day's end to my "Listening Lair" (as my lovely and every-so-patient wife, Amy, calls it! ) to find what new magic the Cinnamon Galle II will reveal in these resolving, yet unfailingly musical, Wolf von Langa Chicago speakers.
Haunted by the uncannily natural sound from a particular pair of absolutely stunning vocal performances heard on the system while bi-amping with the VTL 140/Classe CAM 600 mono amps, I returned to this pairing, using my trusty ARC LS28SE as the preamp and Galle II as source. (See attached photos and listen for yourself! ) But on this occasion I took more even more than my usual ample time and careful efforts to fine tune the FC energy to "free" the woofer appropriately from the "Iron Grip" of the CAM 600 wpc SS amps while tuning the VTL/midrange tandem in kind. I can't state strongly enough just how important this is to elevating the performance of the WVL Chicago to its best and highest. I'll leave it to those more technically accomplished (Heir Von Langa?) to explain the "whys and hows", but for now simply suffice it to say it is paramount the FC energy be optimized to the amp/amps being utilized for the very best results to materialize.
With the FC's properly adjusted on all three drivers, the strike, richness of timbre, and perfectly sustained decay of the piano at the outset of the "The Last Recital: In Memoriam Maria Callas (Live) grabs the mind and ear in a way few recordings can, and the female vocalist's passion is present as if in the far righ and rear recesses of a concert hall magically materializing outside any boundary of the speakers or the confines of my 22.24.9.5 room. Schubert's "Winterreise" is even more emotionally moving as Peter Schreirer summons "Gute Nacht" in a way that evokes joy and melancholy in a single moment.
I will continue to update my travels with the WVL Chicago (part of the fun for me and I'm STILL not sure I've found the absolute ceiling!) but I can say with confidence that if you are in the market for true "Super Speakers", the WVL Chicagos deserve a serious listen. I am a passionate hobbyist with 48 years in this wonderful, often wacky, pursuit, In my room now are Pipedreams, Sound Lab U1 PX's with Consummate bi-amp backplates, Leonard 8's (Daniele Cohen's predecessors to the Alsyvox Botticelli) and Sonus Faber Guanieri Homage monitors. The WVL are right at home in this rarified air and company. They are made to the very highest standards mechanically, with proprietary drivers and crossovers, beautifully finished, relatively diminutive and unobtrusive, easy to position, and 95db efficient (allowing for their use with the most pure, musical, low power 300B, 211, and 845 triode amps). And most importantly, paired with both analog and digital sources, and the Cinnamon Galle II DAC in particular, they make music come alive in a way few speakers ever accomplish. Is that not the point?
As one full week has now passed since I installed the Cinnamon Galle II DAC, each moment has found me eager to return at day's end to my "Listening Lair" (as my lovely and every-so-patient wife, Amy, calls it!
) to find what new magic the Cinnamon Galle II will reveal in these resolving, yet unfailingly musical, Wolf von Langa Chicago speakers.Haunted by the uncannily natural sound from a particular pair of absolutely stunning vocal performances heard on the system while bi-amping with the VTL 140/Classe CAM 600 mono amps, I returned to this pairing, using my trusty ARC LS28SE as the preamp and Galle II as source. (See attached photos and listen for yourself!
) But on this occasion I took more even more than my usual ample time and careful efforts to fine tune the FC energy to "free" the woofer appropriately from the "Iron Grip" of the CAM 600 wpc SS amps while tuning the VTL/midrange tandem in kind. I can't state strongly enough just how important this is to elevating the performance of the WVL Chicago to its best and highest. I'll leave it to those more technically accomplished (Heir Von Langa?) to explain the "whys and hows", but for now simply suffice it to say it is paramount the FC energy be optimized to the amp/amps being utilized for the very best results to materialize.With the FC's properly adjusted on all three drivers, the strike, richness of timbre, and perfectly sustained decay of the piano at the outset of the "The Last Recital: In Memoriam Maria Callas (Live) grabs the mind and ear in a way few recordings can, and the female vocalist's passion is present as if in the far righ and rear recesses of a concert hall magically materializing outside any boundary of the speakers or the confines of my 22.24.9.5 room. Schubert's "Winterreise" is even more emotionally moving as Peter Schreirer summons "Gute Nacht" in a way that evokes joy and melancholy in a single moment.
I will continue to update my travels with the WVL Chicago (part of the fun for me and I'm STILL not sure I've found the absolute ceiling!) but I can say with confidence that if you are in the market for true "Super Speakers", the WVL Chicagos deserve a serious listen. I am a passionate hobbyist with 48 years in this wonderful, often wacky, pursuit, In my room now are Pipedreams, Sound Lab U1 PX's with Consummate bi-amp backplates, Leonard 8's (Daniele Cohen's predecessors to the Alsyvox Botticelli) and Sonus Faber Guanieri Homage monitors. The WVL are right at home in this rarified air and company. They are made to the very highest standards mechanically, with proprietary drivers and crossovers, beautifully finished, relatively diminutive and unobtrusive, easy to position, and 95db efficient (allowing for their use with the most pure, musical, low power 300B, 211, and 845 triode amps). And most importantly, paired with both analog and digital sources, and the Cinnamon Galle II DAC in particular, they make music come alive in a way few speakers ever accomplish. Is that not the point?
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Hello everyone,
I'm new to the forum and really happy to have found a space where people can share and learn from each other’s experiences.
I recently acquired the WVL Chicago speakers and have been absolutely amazed by the performance of my system. So far, I’ve paired the speakers with just three amplifiers, 5 turntables, and around 10 different DACs. Among all the combinations, the Wadia S7i paired with the EAR V20 has proven to be an outstanding match — truly musical and emotionally engaging.
That said, I'm curious to explore other amplifier pairings with these speakers, as I'd love to see just how far they can go in terms of performance.
If you have experience with WVL speakers, I’d greatly appreciate it if you could share which amplifiers you've used with them and which ones you would recommend. I'm open to both tube and solid-state suggestions.
Looking forward to your insights!
I'm new to the forum and really happy to have found a space where people can share and learn from each other’s experiences.
I recently acquired the WVL Chicago speakers and have been absolutely amazed by the performance of my system. So far, I’ve paired the speakers with just three amplifiers, 5 turntables, and around 10 different DACs. Among all the combinations, the Wadia S7i paired with the EAR V20 has proven to be an outstanding match — truly musical and emotionally engaging.
That said, I'm curious to explore other amplifier pairings with these speakers, as I'd love to see just how far they can go in terms of performance.
If you have experience with WVL speakers, I’d greatly appreciate it if you could share which amplifiers you've used with them and which ones you would recommend. I'm open to both tube and solid-state suggestions.
Looking forward to your insights!
Perfect sense Audio
Dealer - Perfect Sense Audio
Congratulations to a pair of wonderful speakers first and foremost.
We've had great results with Aries Cerat (Protos) and Phasemation (300B) here where we've been able to try quite a few potential candidates this year.
/ Marcus, www.perfect-sense.se
We have exhibited with the SW1X Titan V 300B integrated with great results. You can hear them at Axpona with SW1X mono amps with Gestalt Audio.
@asiurib - I have a Dartzeel nhb108 mk2 feeding my chicagos. Truly balanced across the frequency range. In my system with my signal chain, the aries cerat ianus essentia mono locks do not sound good - even after a week of settling in, there is a very subtle raw glare underpinning a honey sweetness of sound, a terribly odd contrast that doesn’t go away, even after the listening is over. Not a realistic combination at the very best. Incredibly, the kinki studio ex-m7 class a/b stereo power amplifier does amazingly well with the speakers, outperforming the Dartzeel in depth of the low frequencies, and only exceeded in relation to nuance of bass and the subtly more realistic midrange of the more refined Swiss amp. I’ve had a soulution, two airtights and an ongaku in my system that didn’t sound as balanced or realistic as the ex-m7. Shocking. At its ridiculous cost of usd3200, what more.
In friendship - kevin
In friendship - kevin
I have WvL Sons which I am smitten with, but at the same time still curious what Chicago can bring to the table. Very nice to read about all your experiences.
An audio friend says he keeps coming back to 2-way speakers because their integration is the best and he has heard very very many speakers in his setup including Son and Chicago. Chicago is probably harder to setup at first. I will be heading to Munich High End next week to get some impressions, hopefully also the Ultima.
An audio friend says he keeps coming back to 2-way speakers because their integration is the best and he has heard very very many speakers in his setup including Son and Chicago. Chicago is probably harder to setup at first. I will be heading to Munich High End next week to get some impressions, hopefully also the Ultima.
Me too,
I don't know why WVL do not have a speaker with their 15" bass and 1" compression driver, it is a pity...
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Yes, while my sons took ten minutes to sort out, the chicagos had me working close to a week and a half before I got them dialled in, but once there, the difference to sound quality was so worth the while ; ) - we might well meet in Munich!
On an aside, I’ve had single driver full range speakers in the Nenuphar, as well as two way speakers in proacs, and while they are so much easier to integrate, there is a reason why multi driver speakers are still so desired. Set up right, the Chicago straddles the different worlds so very well
In friendship - kevin
On an aside, I’ve had single driver full range speakers in the Nenuphar, as well as two way speakers in proacs, and while they are so much easier to integrate, there is a reason why multi driver speakers are still so desired. Set up right, the Chicago straddles the different worlds so very well
In friendship - kevin
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A new set of limited edition woods (and a few new LONDON/CHICAGO/BERLIN colors!) are now available:
I've received a pair of WVL Chicagos for a very generous home audition.
So far, I'm extremely impressed and following my previous experience in the Munich High End shows, surprised (in a good way).
They are extremely balanced, and present a very large and deep stage, mostly from the speakers plane and back, they do not have an in-your-face, horn-like presentation.
Mid-bass and bass are magnificent, tight, controlled and also rich in textures - sounding very live and life-like.
Mid and upper frequencies are very open, transparent, resolving and yet have those instrument raw-live feel and textures, like well-designed single drivers and horns.
Dynamics are real and on the extreme side, similar to horn speakers.
Anyone looking for an end-game speaker should definitely audition them.
In my medium sized room (~30sqm), they fit perfectly.
I'm also eyeing the London, but unfortunately, no demo unit is available. They should also be very special with the wide-band (field-coil) single-driver.
So far, I'm extremely impressed and following my previous experience in the Munich High End shows, surprised (in a good way).
They are extremely balanced, and present a very large and deep stage, mostly from the speakers plane and back, they do not have an in-your-face, horn-like presentation.
Mid-bass and bass are magnificent, tight, controlled and also rich in textures - sounding very live and life-like.
Mid and upper frequencies are very open, transparent, resolving and yet have those instrument raw-live feel and textures, like well-designed single drivers and horns.
Dynamics are real and on the extreme side, similar to horn speakers.
Anyone looking for an end-game speaker should definitely audition them.
In my medium sized room (~30sqm), they fit perfectly.
I'm also eyeing the London, but unfortunately, no demo unit is available. They should also be very special with the wide-band (field-coil) single-driver.
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The bass is a dipole, correct? How far do they need to be from the rear wall? That would be the limiting factor for me to consider something like this speaker, which has a lot of appealing ideas in it. In a fundamental way, it is like my Hornings. High sensitivity and dynamics without being horn loaded and easy for tubes to drive.
Right.
I've positioned them ~70/80cm from my record shelves, which are mounted against my backwall.
I believe they can work good when placed even closer to the backwall.
BTW, I'm using single-ended amplification to drive them, 300Bs and 211s both are sounding great.
Perfect sense Audio
Dealer - Perfect Sense Audio
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