Wisdom Audio L8i User Manual
Owner’s Manual
Insight Series L8i
Planar Magnetic Hybrid
Loudspeaker
Table of Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................... 4
About this manual ..................................................................................................4
Registering your warranty.......................................................................................4
Description .....................................................................................................5
Planar magnetic drivers ..........................................................................................5
Free from compression....................................................................................5
More reliable ..................................................................................................5
Easy on ampliers ...........................................................................................6
Line source behavior .......................................................................................6
Dynamic woofers...................................................................................................7
Extraordinary drivers .......................................................................................7
Optimized for subwoofers...............................................................................8
Friendly to Room Correction ..................................................................................8
Unpacking & Installing the L8i ........................................................................ 9
Simple installation instructions ...............................................................................9
Maximum wall thickness .................................................................................9
Room Correction ..........................................................................................10
No room correction ............................................................................................. 10
Systems with room correction .............................................................................. 10
Your L8i and Subwoofers ..............................................................................12
Using with subs ...................................................................................................12
Using full range .................................................................................................... 12
Care & Maintenance .....................................................................................13
North American Warranty ............................................................................ 14
Standard Warranty ............................................................................................... 14
Harsh Conditions Use .......................................................................................... 14
Obtaining Service .........................................................................................15
Specications ................................................................................................16
L8i Dimensions ............................................................................................. 17
Introduction
Congratulations on purchasing your Wisdom Audio loudspeakers. They incorporate many design features designed to give you decades of pleasure and
performance. Many of these design choices are uncommon among loudspeaker
manufacturers, and bear some explanation. See the following section entitled
“Description” for more information.
About this manual While we expect your local Wisdom Audio dealer to take care of the setup and
calibration of the system, we still recommend that you at least briey review this
and your other manuals in order to better understand your system’s full capabilities.
Registering your warranty You do not have to do anything to register your warranty for your Wisdom
Audio products. (Isn’t that a pleasant surprise?)
In the unlikely event that your loudspeakers ever require service, please contact
the dealer from whom you purchased them. Between their records and ours,
you should be all set.
However, please keep your sales receipt in a safe and easily found place. Should
you move or lose touch with your original dealer, it will serve as your proof of
purchase for warranty purposes.
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Description
Your Insight Series L8i loudspeakers take advantage of several
critical technologies to deliver a level of performance that has
never been available in a loudspeaker that intruded so modestly
on your living space. In fact, this level of performance has rarely
been attained, regardless of the space and budget at one’s disposal.
Since several of these technologies cannot readily be found
elsewhere, we will take the time to describe them in more detail
than would be necessary for more conventional designs.
Planar magnetic drivers Our planar magnetic drivers use an advanced, thin lm mem-
brane to move the air. This lm can respond instantly to the
smallest detail in the signal. It has vastly less inertia than traditional “cone & dome” drivers, so the signal is never blurred in
any way.
The motive force is provided by a “voice coil” that is printed on
the lm, which is suspended
in a strong magnetic eld
provided by powerful magnets behind and in front of
the lm. The ratio of available force to the moving
mass is huge, which means
that the diaphragm does exactly what it is
told: nothing more, nothing less.
Free from compression One of the most remarkable things about the sound of well-designed planar
magnetic speakers is their lack of thermal or dynamic compression. There are
several reasons for this:
• The lightweight diaphragm responds quickly to even the smallest
signals, yet is robust enough to handle a great deal of power.
• The voice coil is laid out at and is exposed to the air on both
sides; the large resulting surface area dissipates heat extremely
quickly and efciently.
• Since heat does not build up in the voice coil (as it does in conventional dynamic drivers), the load seen by the amplier does
not change at high power levels.
When you become accustomed to the sound of your new Insight Series L8i
speakers, conventional speakers sound a bit bland and lifeless. You may also
discover yourself hearing details at even modest levels on the L8i that were previously inaudible even at loud volumes on more conventional speakers.
More reliable The “voice coil” in the planar magnetic driver is spread out over a large, at area
that is exposed to the open air. As such, when a huge transient comes along,
any heat that is generated is immediately dissipated. This compares quite favor-
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ably to other designs in which the voice coil is buried inside a massive piece of
metal, where the heat has effectively no place to go.
The excellent heat dissipation of these drivers makes them remarkably reliable.
Planar magnetic speakers can handle a great deal of power without undue stress
or audible strain. In fact, for a given size, they can handle many times the power
of a traditional dynamic driver.
Easy on ampliers Because the conductor of a planar magnetic driver is essentially a long, thin
wire, it presents a purely resistive load to the amplier. This is comparable to the
simple test loads that amplier companies use when measuring their ampliers
to show how terric they are. As such, you can be assured that your ampliers
will sound and work their best.
Line source behavior Almost all loudspeakers radiate sound into the room as imperfect “point
sources.” This means that most of the energy they put into the room expands as
an ever-enlarging sphere, as though emerging from a single point in space. This
results in a multitude of reections from the ceiling and oor that can degrade
sound qualit y.
By contrast, the Insight Series L8i speakers radiate sound as a “line source.” The
sound moves into the room as an expanding cylinder, rather than as an expanding sphere — as though from a vertical line drawn on your wall.
Line source speakers provide two signicant advantages:
• ceiling and oor reections are minimized, resulting in greatly re-
duced interference, letting you hear more of the speaker and less
of the room;
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