Large, high-end floorstanding speakers and subwoofers have become a speciality for American Wilson Audio Specialties Inc, founded by the late David A. Wilson in 1974. Now the speaker company is back on the scene with a brand new subwoofer aptly named Submerge.
Wilson Audio does not deal much in small and inexpensive compact speakers. The American manufacturer hasn’t launched its own headphones yet either. Probably very fitting, because if they did, they would probably be some heavy, boxing helmet-like headphones, with a serious weight load on the head and neck muscles!
Wilson Submerge subwoofer
The new subwoofer is aimed at bass-loving hi-fi and home cinema enthusiasts with deep pockets. Submerge is physically a big brother to ” small” Loke, with a slightly larger cabinet and woofer (12 inches / 305 mm). At the same time, the amplifier power has increased from 500 to 1,600 watts!
The name “Submerge” is appropriate in this case, because the Wilson subwoofer really dives into the bass frequencies. It is designed to help discerning hi-fi speakers in the 20-100 Hertz range.
The subwoofer has a preset DSP that is carefully calibrated to the cabinet and woofer, but also has analogue controls for Gain, Phase and crossover frequency. When using external processors, the DSP can also be turned off (bypass setting) and connectivity options include analogue RCA and XLR inputs and outputs, which also allow for multiple subwoofers to be connected.
The cabinet measures 77 x 46 x 63 cm (H x W x D) and is made from Wilson’s ‘X-material’ and ‘S-material’, while the woofers AND amplifier are mounted on aluminium panels. The wild bass weighs just over 115 kilos and stands on solid spikes.
The subwoofer is available in a range of highly polished colours, which will of course appeal to Wilson fans, as well as different colours for the speaker grill. The standard colours are light grey, dark grey and black, but Submerge is also available in special colours at an additional cost – for example, the vibrant orange Bergamot Pearl or the bright red Ruby Red.
Price and availability
Wilson Audio Submerge is available to order now in March. In addition to digging deep into the bass frequencies, this subwoofer also makes a serious dent in your finances. The starting price in Europe is set at 36,000 euros What’s it going to be? New car or new sub?
PS! To complete a Wilson surround setup, the manufacturer has also recently launched the Alida CSC wall-mounted rear speakers and the WASAE centre speaker.