Owner’s Manual
Sage P48, P38m, P38i
Biamplied
Planar Magnetic Hybrid
Loudspeakers
Table of Contents
Introduction ....................................................................................................4
About this manual ..................................................................................................4
Please register your system ....................................................................................4
Description .....................................................................................................5
Planar magnetic panels ..........................................................................................5
Free from compression....................................................................................5
More reliable ..................................................................................................5
Easy on ampliers ...........................................................................................6
Dynamic woofers...................................................................................................6
Big bass in small boxes? ..................................................................................6
Extraordinary drivers .......................................................................................6
Designed for biamplication ..................................................................................7
SC-1 System Controller ....................................................................................7
Unpacking & Setting Up the P48.....................................................................8
Attaching the bases ................................................................................................8
When to install spikes ............................................................................................8
Remote Setup via Modem ......................................................................................8
Making the P48 Connections ........................................................................10
Unpacking & Installing the P38m ..................................................................11
Mounting the P38m on the wall ..........................................................................11
Unpacking & Installing the P38i ....................................................................13
Installing the P38i in the wall ..............................................................................13
Room Acoustics & Placement ........................................................................15
Start With the Room ............................................................................................15
Rigid Walls ....................................................................................................15
Speaker Placement ...............................................................................................16
Left & Right Speakers ....................................................................................16
Center Channel .............................................................................................16
Surround Speakers ........................................................................................17
Subwoofer Placement ..........................................................................................17
Room Treatment ..................................................................................................18
Professional Acoustic Design ...............................................................................18
References ...........................................................................................................19
Optimizing the System ..................................................................................20
Care & Maintenance .....................................................................................21
North American Warranty ............................................................................22
Twenty Year Warranty ..........................................................................................22
Obtaining Service .........................................................................................23
Specications ................................................................................................24
P48 Dimensions ............................................................................................25
P38m Dimensions .........................................................................................26
P38i Dimensions ...........................................................................................27
Notes .............................................................................................................28
Introduction
Congratulations on purchasing your Wisdom Audio system. It incorporates 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.
Our unique driver designs and our emphasis on achieving real-world performance account for the “system” approach taken. These are not speakers that
are simply connected to speaker wires and promptly forgotten. We recognize
that setting up a Wisdom Audio system is a bit more involved than connecting
a common set of loudspeakers, which is why we insist that our dealers perform
the installation and calibration of the systems. We know that the extra effort
(particularly as regards setting up the SC-1 System Controller) yields vastly improved results.
About this manual This manual focuses on the loudspeakers themselves. In order to fully under-
stand the system, we recommend you also review the manual for the SC-1
System Controller, without which these speakers will not perform correctly.
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 the other manuals (SC-1, SA-series ampliers) to understand the system’s full
capabilities.
Your Sage P48 loudspeakers are specically designed to avoid the compromises
inherent in conventional speaker designs. The active crossover and room cor-
rection circuitry in the SC-1 is essential to the speakers’ proper operation. In addition, the SA-series ampliers are specically designed to meet the needs of the
unique bass system of your Sage speakers. It is truly a “system” design, and not
merely a collection of loudspeaker drivers in a box.
Please register your system To register your warranty, please complete the form at the following address on
the internet:
http://www.wisdomaudio.com/registration/
Doing so will ensure that there will be no delays should you ever require warranty service. If accessing the internet is inconvenient, you can send a copy of
the sales receipt (showing your name, address and the products purchased) to
the address shown in the North American Warranty section of this manual.
Wisdom Audio does not and will not ever share its mailing list with other companies. Nor do we expect to contact you frequently, since you are buying a
product that should last a lifetime. However, we would like to be in a position to
contact you should a software update become available for the system controller (as an example).
Lastly, please keep your sales receipt in a safe and easily found place. If you do
not register your purchase with the company, it is your only proof of warranty.
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Description
Your Sage 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 most 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 panels Our planar magnetic drivers use an advanced, thin lm membrane
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 neodymium 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 enormous ones.
• The fact that heat does not build up in the voice coil (as it does
in conventional dynamic drivers) means that the load seen by the
amplier does not change at high power levels.
• The pleating of the diaphragm allows greater excursions than are
otherwise available to small planar magnetic devices, further enhancing the driver’s ability to respond to dynamic program material.
When you become accustomed to the sound of your new Sage P48 speakers,
conventional speakers sound a bit bland and lifeless.
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 favorably 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
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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 is essentially a long, thin wire, it presents a purely resis-
tive 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.
For more detailed information on the loudspeaker drivers in general, and planar
magnetic drivers in particular, please refer to the Planar Magnetic Technology
white paper that can be found on the Wisdom Audio web site, at
www.wisdomaudio.com.
Dynamic woofers Authoritative, deep bass requires that you move a lot of air. We have chosen
to use dynamic woofers for the bass because they still provide the best performance at low frequencies as compared to any alternative technology.
In order to get comparable performance from a planar magnetic design, you
would need to have a huge speaker that would be impractical in most domestic
living spaces. It simply makes more sense to use the best transducer technology
in each area of the reproduced spectrum. One of Wisdom Audio’s strengths is
in seamlessly blending these technologies — particularly important given the
high standards set by our planar magnetic drivers.
Big bass in small boxes? There is an old truism in loudspeaker design that goes something like this: “deep
bass, small enclosure, or high sensitivity — pick two out of the three.” No one
can cheat the laws of physics. If you want deep bass from a small box, you will
need to make up for the small size with equalization and extra power.
Fortunately, our system design comes to the rescue.
The system design includes both the SC-1 System Controller (which serves as an
active crossover, a system-specic equalizer, and a room correction system) and
the matching SA-series ampliers. By dedicating high power ampliers we can
give people what they want: great bass without huge, ugly boxes that are dif-
cult to place.
Extraordinary drivers Of course, the woofers themselves must be rather extraordinary in order to both
handle the power we deliver to them, and to “keep up” with the planar magnetic drivers right up to the crossover frequency.
Our woofers are different because they must be in order to do their job. Specically, we need highly dynamic, uncompressed bass (to keep up with the planar
magnetic drivers) from an unusually small enclosure (so it will t in the wall, or
on the wall, or in a tall, slim freestanding speaker). These two design goals require rather extraordinary attention to myriad details.
The magnetic structures employed in the Sage Series woofers are signicantly
stronger than is commonly available — more than twice as powerful as typical
woofers, in fact. In addition, our voice coils are larger and capable of handling
more power than would be expected for a driver of similar size. Even the sur-
rounds that attach the diaphragm to the woofer’s basket (the metal frame) have
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to be unusually rugged. Everything about the woofers has been optimized for
their intended application, which involves reproducing powerful, dynamic bass
from an extremely small enclosure.
Designed for biamplication People who have wanted to extract the highest performance from their systems
have known for a long time that driving each section of the speaker directly and
separately yields the nest results. Of course, this requires having a dedicated,
active crossover to divide the frequency range appropriately before the power
ampliers, so that they can then drive the speakers directly. It also requires two
sets of speaker wires for each loudspeaker.
Biamplication makes use of two channels of amplication to drive different
portions of the audio spectrum. The most common instance of “bi-amping”
today is in home theater applications, wherein a dedicated subwoofer handles
the deepest bass, while the remaining audible range is handled by the various
front and surround speakers. But you can also biamplify a full range loudspeaker, driving the woofer separately from the drivers that handle the midrange and
treble frequencies. Your Sage P48 is such a speaker, designed to use separate
ampliers for the woofer and the planar sections of each loudspeaker.
Since each channel of the amplier is delivering current into its load only over
a limited range of frequencies, several forms of distortion are reduced as compared to each channel handling the full range of musical information. Moreover,
since each amplier is “direct-connected” to the driver for which it is responsible, there are no passive component losses and the amplier can control the
motion of its assigned transducer with far greater nesse and precision.
But perhaps most importantly, biamplication allows us to dedicate the amount
of high quality power required to deliver outsized bass from small enclosures. It
would not be practical or even possible to obtain bass performance on this level
without a dedicated amplier driving the woofers solely and directly.
SC-1 System Controller In order to realize these benets, an active crossover must accurately divide the
signal into the low and high ranges. The Wisdom SC-1 System Controller serves
that purpose, while also providing both system-specic equalization (to compensate for the unusually small woofer enclosures) and sophisticated room correction to minimize distortions introduced by the room itself. The goal is simple:
to achieve consistently excellent results in the real world of the owner’s home.
After all, that’s all that really matters.
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Unpacking & Setting Up the P48
The Wisdom Audio Sage P48 freestanding speaker is a substantial piece of
equipment. Please exercise caution when unpacking your P48 to ensure that
you do not strain yourself from its (perhaps unexpected) weight.
Caution! Do not attempt to lift your P48 by yourself. Unpacking these
speakers is easy for two people, but it is unwise for a single person to
attempt doing so.
Do not attempt to lift your P48 while bending or twisting from the
waist. Use your legs for lifting, not your back.
Always stand as straight as possible and keep the P48 close to your
body to reduce strain on your back.
Your P48 is packed for shipping in two distinct boxes.
The speaker itself is in a “telescoping” box (two ve-sided boxes, one of which
ts snugly inside the other). Gently roll the box over so that its bottom is facing
up. Then carefully cut the tape along the bottom of the box on all four sides.
Roll the box over again so the bottom is on the oor, and lift off the top. With
one person at each end, carefully lift the speaker out of the box and lay it on a
soft surface (carpet or similar).
Attaching the bases The bases for a pair of speakers are packed separately in a at box. Using the
supplied Allen wrench, attach them to the speaker using the four bolts found in
the riser at the bottom of the speaker tower. These bolts should be snug — do
not over-tighten. You will feel when rm, metal-to-metal contact is made. Do
not tighten more than 1⁄8 of a turn beyond the point of initial, snug metal-to-
metal contact.
We do not recommend removing the grille on your new loudspeakers. The
grille is an integral part of the design; moreover, the planar magnetic lm should
never be touched, as it is tensioned precisely at the factory. The grille plays an
important protective role as well as an aesthetic one.
After unpacking your P48, keep all packing materials for future transport. In
the event that you need to ship your P48, only the original, purpose-designed
shipping carton is acceptable. Any other method of shipping this product runs a
signicant risk of damage to the P48—damage that would not be covered by the
warranty. (If you lose your packaging and need to ship your speakers, replacement packaging can be purchased from Wisdom Audio.)
When to install spikes The oorstanding versions of the Wisdom Audio Sage Series speakers are sup-
plied with adjustable “spikes” for both leveling the speaker and securely cou-
pling it to the oor. The spikes are shipped with the blunt end exposed. We
recommend experimenting with room placement while the spikes are in this po-
sition. The pointed ends are quite sharp and may scratch the oor, or get caught
on the carpet.
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Wisdom Audio spikes are reversible for use on either hard or carpeted oors.
The sharp end of the spike is designed to penetrate the carpeting and couple
to the oor beneath, for excellent stability and improved sound. When on tile
or hardwood oors, however, use the blunt end of the spike instead to avoid
oor damage. In either case, you can adjust the height of the individual spikes
to compensate for slightly uneven oors. When this ne adjustment has been
made, tighten the large black nut snugly against the bottom of the base to prevent them from further movement.
Note: If you fail to tighten the black nuts that secure the spikes, they may
rattle a bit when playing music or movies. This rattling can sound
like speaker distortion. Fortunately, a quick tightening of the lock
nuts on the spikes will eliminate the problem.
After you have determined the nal locations of the P48 speakers, enlist the
assistance of a friend to safely tip the speaker to provide better access to the
adjustable spikes to maximize stability (even with uneven oors). Tilting it even
as little as 15°-20° provides access to the threaded holes for the spikes without
straining your helper. Reverse the spikes if you are on a carpeted oor. Once the
rst two spikes are securely in place, switch sides and repeat the process on the
other side. Fine-tune things until the speaker is both solidly stable and plumb.
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