The Wilson Benesch Discovery Loudspeaker, is a truly unique design where the speaker is built around the stand and the two form one inseparable unit. Attached to the bottom of the cabinet is an Isobaric bass unit consisting of two opposing drivers bolted together face-to-face clam-shell style: one driver is visible while the is inside the cabinet. There are two separate chambers inside the cabinet each with a differently tuned port. One for the Isobaric bass unit, the other chamber houses a different Tactic bass/midrange driver that is mounted towards the top of the cabinet. The tweeter is mounted underneath the midrange driver in the lower internal chamber. Each chamber has its own differently tuned port that emerges underneath the cabinet behind the Isobaric bass drivers. With its four drivers, two chambers, two ports, integrated stand, slanted top, and curved sides, the Wilson Benesch Discovery Loudspeaker is a technical marvel.

Sonically the Wilson Benesch Discovery Loudspeaker is one of my "desert island" speakers. Vocals sound very natural - a perfect chest, throat and nasal combination with no smear, hangover, or raspiness. Bass is very fast and tight. Treble is clear and nicely resolved without drawing attention to itself. With 4 drivers in a compact cabinet they require an amplifier with good current capacity. Some will prefer the bass characteristics of the Curve loudspeaker, but a Wilson Benesch Discovery & Torus combination is very impressive indeed.

The Wilson Benesch Discovery Loudspeaker is a true linear phase design and this is another reason for its remarkable clarity and vitality. Wilson Benesch was one of the first manufactures to abandon complex cross-overs that introduce voltage/current phase anomalies with resulting distortion of the original audio signal. The cross-over characteristics are similar to the top of the range Chimera. The tweeter cross-over is at 5KHz, above the most critical mid-band frequencies, and is a minimal component second order type.

The quality of the materials and components that make up the Wilson Benesch Discovery Loudspeaker, are individually and in combination optimized for elimination of resonance giving low noise, high signal to ratio cabinets. Lab measurements are excellent for the cabinet size; a smooth frequency envelope (45Hz to 24kHz +- 2dB on axis, 42Hz -3dB) with high power handling and sound levels (200 watts peak unclipped programme, 110dB at 1 metre maximum spl). The sound is very 'out of the box', natural and well articulated with plenty of grip.

Wilson Benesch Discovery Loudspeakers is hand-built.

Price: $14,995 pair - cherry finish

Wilson Benesch is located in Sheffield England - the traditional home of steel engineering in the UK - and is the only U.K. audio company to have won substantial government funding for its innovative development work.