Having gone through various stages of audio equipment ownership, I have now reached a phase where simplicity and elegance are of paramount importance. I was looking for reasonably small speakers with best in class sound to replace my pair of B&W 804s. Having considered Sonus Faber (Cremona M), Leedh, Focal, PMC (Fact.8), Pioneer and to a lesser extend Magico, I did finally settle for a pair of Wilson Benesch Vectors.

Other components in the system include a Devialet D-Premier mostly fed by high res files.

The Vectors have received surprisingly little press coverage. Yet, I hear that there is a growing base of happy owners spreading the word away from the commercial channels.

I am personally very impressed by these speakers. I believe that I have found my own sonic nirvana in a very compact form factor using the latest technologies. My room is currently of a strange asymmetric shape with an average size of 4.5m x 6m x 2.5m. I have positioned the speakers about 0.3 m from the back wall with a slight toe in of approximately 10 degrees.

ADVANTAGES
- Amazingly transparent and fast, yet non fatiguing (the piano of Keith Jarrett has never sounded so cristal clear). Does therefore perform extremely well at low volumes also thanks to this excellent signal to noise ratio (there is real bass at low volumes also!),
- Lack of harshness enables them to perform reasonably well with non optimally recorded CDs also (could be related to the soft dome tweeter),
- Breathtaking dynamics, bass can be surprisingly powerful with well recorded CDs yet remains very well defined (Musica Nuda, Hadouk Trio, some of Tricky's recent releases for example), the Devialet is for sure partially responsible for this remarkable performance,
- Smooth transition across the drivers, could be mistaken for electrostatics,
- Pretty bluffing 3D like soundstage when listened to from the sweet spot, but this sweet spot is of modest width I found,
- Easy load with high sensitivity, a given sound output volume requires 4 or 5 dB less power from the amplifier compared to the 804s.
- Rare combination of discretion and high end looks, well suited for urban apartments,
- Manageable weight, easy on those moving around a lot,
- Real spikes are great for stability on speaker boards but require care when moving the speakers,

DOWNSIDES
- Price is a bit high in absolute terms considering the situation these days but value is excellent compared to most other top end brands (Magico, Focal, B&W,...), you get a lot more per pound/kg and probably in absolute terms also,
- I would not call them cold, but they are mostly neutral speakers and some might prefer warmer presentations (I don't belong to that group),
- The sound appears to be affected significantly by the speaker links connecting the lower and upper speakers connectors. I found the WB ones to produce a very well defined but slightly harsh sound in the highs, which was mostly solved by the Viard Audio HD20 links I tried next... at the expense of slightly less defined bass. Still investigating this one with yet another pair of links due in in a few days. I will have to do another comparison a bit later when the speakers settles further,
- Some might not find them large or physically impressive enough to justify the price, but what about the Magico bookshelves then. :-)
- Requires a long break-in (70 to 100 hours). I must be at 120-130 hours or so and did notice a very clear improvement, but many of these hours were devoted to pretty low volume listening so my pair might not have reached full break-in yet. I am not sure how it could become much better though,
- The boxes do protect the speaker very well but are a little bit bulky, I need to check whether they can be reversibly dismantled,
- The top black surface is great looking, but is prone to catching up dust and could be used by guests as a table for drink during social events (note to myself: need to find a way to prevent that),
- The Serial number appears to be available only below the speaker, it is better to write it down first before positioning them.

Kind regards,
A very happy owner!