This review page is supported in part by the sponsor whose ad is displayed above
Passive vs. active
Active outperforms passive drive on multiple levels. The expected and most obvious advantage of course is the tonal balance flexibility of the active adjustment options. Since preferences here are personal, final settings are irrelevant. But even leaving the knobs in their default position, active wins. That's because of what happens when the crossover is relocated from behind the amplifiers to ahead of them. Technically, this direct-couples the amp outputs to the voice coils to produce two related advances. One is audibly better control top to bottom. It translates as better articulation, more directness and speed plus higher dynamic acceleration. The sound cleans and tightens up to shed degrees of sluggishness and indecision that weren't necessarily apparent until banished. Just as noticeably, dynamics improve.


Related merits derive from the aforementioned bandwidth limiting which restricts the response of the output devices to the range they are best suited for. A direct-heated 45 triode's superior treble for example won't be modulated or 'pulled down' by its compromised reaction to punishing bass transients. Even though passive mode won't ask for audible bass from the treble amp, the amp doesn't know that. It processes a full-range signal regardless and presents it at the speaker binding posts. Portions of that signal simply hit a dead end within the speaker's passive network. Still, the amp produced the full signal to affect those qualities you wish to harness the most. By removing, before it even tries to handle them, the frequency bands over which a given amp is compromised relative to its very best qualities is beneficial. Unlike negative feedback, this avoids an error before it happens. It's also easily demonstrable.


To take advantage of a unique learning opportunity, I connected one tweeter module to my Yamamoto passively, the other actively. The 10-inchers were muted or disconnected. Clearly, the actively powered tweeter produced more, clearer and dynamically more liberated output than the passive feed which 'lost energy and details' on its way through the passive filter components. Naturally, how exactly direct-coupling and bandwidth-limiting share responsibilities for outperforming passive drive is purely academic. The combined results speak for themselves. The relevant thing is that amplifier and speakers used in active drive sound cleaner and more powerful. That's especially true for the weaker tweeter amp though the mid/bass amp can benefit enormously if active drive extends to outboard subwoofing and low bass is crossed out. As we enter the lands of load-invariant amps, these observations fade more and more. The mighty 450-watt Coda-Continuum CX monos in for review for example could have cared less. These are exceptionally refined muscle amps with an equally refined price tag of $10,000/pr and a monstrous 3kVA power transformer each.

On one hand, the Grand Viola fully active is a poster child for the smart -- and thus superior -- application of tube amps. 800-20,000Hz is handled by a suave tweeter amp, 80-800Hz by a midrange champ, all bad bass business pinned on proper muscle. On the other hand, crossing the Grand Viola over to a subwoofer wastes its second woofer entirely and throws away money. Driving the Grand Viola full-range active (no subwoofer) eliminates the complete optimization of the midrange amp which now must handle the low bass as well. This will want push-pull drive in most cases and likely not of the direct-heated persuasion.

Lest you write off transistors however, let me assure you that the unusual Power JFET amp from Nelson Pass above worked phenomenally well on the SuperPACs to run an essentially dead heat against my 45 direct-heated SET. I was far less smitten with transistors on the 10-inchers. The 330wpc stereo and 450-watt mono Coda amps sounded too dry, possibly overdamping the Eminence units which sport high self-damping properties.
Then there's the percentile performance delta between passive and active drive to consider (as far as such figures can even be generated by ear). Let's say they can. With an expensive load-invariant amp of Coda's caliber (including their new top-line C-Series integrated) or tubed equivalents, I'd estimate 10% as a function of eliminating the passive filter components (more with a subwoofer but that's due to the speaker, not the amp). With specialty single-ended rather than mainstream high-power push/pull amps, up to 30%, more again if you go offboard to a superior subwoofer. Load-invariant transistor amps clearly enjoy an advantage. They benefit less from the more costly conversion to active mode. The flip side is, how expensive will such an amp have to be to match, across the board, the particular charms of direct-heated triode amps when those are cleverly
employed -- i.e. strategically -- to maximize their strengths while minimizing or eliminating their shortfalls?


Additionally, there's the extra cost for System Control IV or V to weigh. Even so, the convertible WLM concept allows for a strategic climb up Mount No-Compromise in time-delayed stages. In the end and all things considered, active drive is rather more expensive and complex because it relies on two stereo or four mono amps (plus the external crossover) whereas passive drive works fine off a single stereo amp of sufficient power.
First Watt's F3 Power JFET demonstrated something interesting with regard to the Harmonic Wave Control on Sys 5. That operates above 1kHz. From 0º, it can be set to 22.5º or 45º. Higher values increase output which can be offset again with the gain control above it. But something else changes as well. Higher values alter phase behavior. With the F3, the results were rather different than with tube amps. This suggests that Harmonic Wave corrects something tube amps might be guiltier of than transistors - phase shift in the upper frequencies. Mind you, that's merely an assumption to explain an unusual observation. Hannes Fritz, in his domestic setup, uses 0º, Martin Schützenauer 45º on his. In general, absorptive rooms are said to benefit from Wave Control fully engaged whereas lively rooms won't need it. For my space, it was a mostly redundant feature.
59oz. magnet, 40Hz - 9kHz bandwidth, Fs 45Hz, BL 13.8 T-M, efficiency 97dB


Overall assessment
While clearly superior to the particular Eminence tweeter of the Diva range, when it comes to speed, delicacy and chasing harmonic decay trails, the SuperPAC still isn't in the same 'out there' league as the proprietary double ribbon Volent for example employs. Needless to say, planting a ribbon atop the Grand Viola's main drivers would invite textural discontinuity. That's why Volent crosses their ribbon over to a Titanium sandwich 7-incher. WLM's choice of tweeter material and size is perfectly appropriate for the overall concept and indeed 'of a piece'. Still, for ultimate resolution, a superior ribbon goes yet farther. With that come assets and liabilities. WLM's tweeter is more tolerant of lesser recordings (of which true music lovers will own many since their libraries were assembled on the merits of performance and musical mojo, not mastering excellence). Even the worst pressings won't get the Austrian paper drivers to ring. Whitish transients won't sizzle and fry. Volent's ribbon tweeter is more merciless in showing up recorded insufficiencies. How acceptable that is versus the advances it offers on superior mastering jobs becomes a very personal decision.


As a 2.5-way run passively, the Grand Viola's lower mid/upper bass range has a bit of excess girth where both drivers overlap. Here the Diva's simple two-way arrangement enjoys a clear advantage of resolution, drive and kick. Augmenting it passively with the Diva Control equalizer makes for a more linear progression to 30Hz. Yes, the Grand Viola moves more air and is denser but the monitor's single driver has the better reflexes and its smaller cabinet the higher back pressure. This gets us to the heart of the matter. I can appreciate that for listeners unwilling to embrace the extra expense and complexity of active drive, WLM needed a full-range flagship speaker. Dealers must have been clamoring for it, critical ears must have realized that prior to adding the second woofer, the original Grand Viola was far too close to the Grand Viola Monitor. The revised flagship thus makes perfect sense for WLM and its dealers. I'm extremely doubtful however that the passive Grand Viola can justify its additional €4000 over the passive Lyra Signature MkII. No matter what, the Grand Viola is expensive for what it is, a 2.5-way speaker with four modestly priced drive units each.

For 'active' listeners', a monitor/sub arrangement is ultimately more dynamic and offers superior -- and in the case of WLM's own subwoofers, sealed -- bass. This leaves the Grand Viola Signature MkII in a vulnerable spot where marketing and conceptual needs battle it out against actual implementation and fierce competition from the same stable. In passive mode, I could never fully forget the mild degree of thickening and its concomitant veiling action in the power zone of the upper 2nd and 3rd octaves where greased reflexes and punch are nearly exclusively responsible for the final sense of musical excitement.


Returning to my Diva Monitors for a reality check, I preferred them run off the Diva Control and Duo 12 - SuperPAC excepted, mind you. Could I have swiped that top-mounted module from the Grand Violas, I'd have done so in a heartbeat. Damningly for value hunters, this juxtaposition was driving the floorstanders actively, the monitor with a passive network off a single amp (albeit with a modest amount of active compensation added above the subwoofer low-pass). Hence my personal WLM hot picks will have to be the Signature versions of the Aura or Grand Viola monitors. Extrapolating from the passive to active conversion of the floorstander to what a monitor actively driven from SETs will add over the passive Diva; and extrapolating from the Diva's smaller box volume and its main driver's audibly tauter rear loading to how the other monitors must likewise improve over the floorstander's bigger cabinet - I suspect that it's in the small speakers where like-minded listeners will find the honey in the WLM range.


The Grand Viola Signature MkII gives the most bang for the buck when run passively and full-range. At €13,100/pr, its obvious competitor is the Zu Audio Definition MkII - and the just launched Zu Presence with its triangular cross section, selling for less than half of the WLM. Over Zu's trademark widebander/tweeter Druid array, the Presence adds dual front-firing 10-inchers that are actively powered from a built-in plate amp which may be bypassed. The GV's crossover point at 800Hz is significantly lower than Zu's customary 12kHz transition even though the latter is a very shallow 1st-order. Still, using a superior tweeter array brought in lower gives the GV MkII the advantage in resolution, inner detail and air over the Definition (the upgraded Presence crossover could gain points). The Definition's quadruple rear-firing woofers retaliate for victory in the bass and the sealed loading of its main driver improves the transient response, group delay and thus timing of the upper bass. Starting with a similar sonic ideal, both speakers diverge in implementation and voicing. Zu is biased toward dynamics and bass, hence ultimate scale, WLM more on the vocal band, treble and air. Listeners who favor this type of coherent, warmish yet very muscular and robust, highly dynamic sound, must consider the flagships of either company side by side. The possible trump card in this particular deck of choices is the just-launched $6,000 Zu Presence. It promises Definition-type performance with improved crossover components and a more sophisticated cabinet, i.e. possibly superior performance of somewhat reduced scale.

The strong suits and key attractions of the Grand Viola Signature MkII are soundstaging, tone, focus, dynamics and huge scale, all genetic causes from the 'analog bloodline' of Hannes Frick [with wife Huberta to right] whose aural aesthetic is informed by analog exclusively, then handed over to Martin Schützenauer to be realized in the engineering domain. This speaker will also play very loud without betraying the faintest of breakups anywhere and is thus ideal for symphonic mayhem and rave-level techno alike. Figure on at least 50 watts for the big drivers though if you don't run a subwoofer below 80Hz. Despite the quoted 98dB sensitivity, the Grand Viola really wants to see just a bit more go juice to fly than the specs suggest on paper.


A somewhat limiting factor to achieve the fully developed, very corporeal headphone-reminiscent soundstage bubble between the speakers is the idealized 1.5:1 geometry. It favors the long-wall orientation while otherwise mandating to pull either the speakers or listening chair deep into the room. Most domestic situations will react to this with the strongest of objections.

Another limiting factor is the complexity of active conversion. Consider the above shot. Everything on the floor fronting the Grand Prix Audio Monaco racks is amplification only - tweeter amp, midrange amp, subwoofer amp, active crossover. That's a pile of hardware. The saving grace in this proposition is that these amps needn't cost silly money. Think bandwidth-limiting, again. You're not shopping for much power nor full 20-20 perfection per amp. You're shopping for tailor-made power and sonic perfection over very specific bands. This opens the doors to affordable amps which might otherwise be unsuitable when asked to handle full-range playback.


For my final comment, allow me to return to the times I've heard WLM at shows. Attending such events is an exercise in conspicuous consumption and sensory overload. That always heady combination quickly causes profound attention deficit. It's like a subliminal headache and an attendant, much heightened intolerance for the usual hifi sins. Anyone with experience of such shows will know the rare sound sanctuaries one returns to for respite. There one recalibrate one's hearing and enjoys music rather than suffer the audiophile spectacles and its peddlers of tricks elsewhere. What exactly those few exhibit rooms will be to which one returns time and again of course depends on the listener. For me, WLM has always figured prominently on my shortlist. WLM's biggest speaker is no exception. If I've been hard on it especially from a value perspective, that's because of the very steep competition from its own stable mates and the fact that these Austrians make some of the best -- and best-integrating -- subwoofers in the business. That naturally takes a rather huge bite out of the need for expensive full-range floorstanders. They become hard to justify and rationalize. But then, not everyone agrees on the superiority of three-piece systems. Accordingly, WLM  cannot position itself as an exclusive purveyor of monitors and subs. The Grand Viola Signature MkII is the very answer to that quandary then...


PS:
Many weeks passed between publication of the above, getting the loaners picked up and returned to Austria and hearing back from Hannes who was out of town on his annual family vacation. I knew that he and Martin disagreed with my criticisms of their speaker but it wasn't until both he and his Viennese electronics whiz heard the returned loaners that the circle closed.


"Sorry it's taken me a while to get back to you since the loaners returned - we had our hands full coming back from vacation. Needless to say, I jumped on the Grand Violas to see what the matter could have been. Well, you know they merely had a few hours in my studio before getting shipped off to the Munich show where they played in fully active mode for four days. Unfortunately I didn't revisit them in my studio afterwards before shipping them off to you.


"Listening to them now, I was aghast to hear how break-in had altered their voicing. During the show, the drivers were mostly virgin still and the bass behavior and fundamental reach a bit lean but ultra pressurized. I actually got better, faster and more controlled bass from the GV than from my control pair of Gallo 3.1s in the shop.


"After their stay in Cyprus, everything had shifted. The speaker played too fat and lazy, seemingly with its own foot on the brakes and tonally wrong, all necessary punch missing in action. I immediately rang up Martin and forwarded him the pair for a second set of ears. He measured them and reported that break-in had downshifted bass response by more than 15 cycles, meaning he now has to readjust the crossover network for the fully conditioned drivers. The GV is thus back on the bench and Martin will revisit the network values to account for this unexpected break-in drift." - Hannes Frick


Three sets of ears heard the same thing - except only two of the attached heads knew it wasn't supposed to be that way. Moral of the story? A/, break-in is very real with these Eminence pro-arena drivers; B/ my sonic descriptions won't match the final production speaker, a good thing in this instance; C/ it will be for another reviewer to size up the ultimate Grand Viola Signature MkIIs since a second visit to Cyprus isn't in the cards for them. - Ed.

Quality of packing: Very strong cardboard with 6-sided solid foam inserts and plastic liner.
Reusability of packing: Can be reused at least once.
Ease of unpacking/repacking: Very easy.
Condition of component received: Flawless.
Completeness of delivery: Includes snap-on grilles, spikes with counter nuts, owner's manual and warranty card.
Quality of owner's manual: Very good.
Website comments: Informative, with good photography and complete specs but no pricing info.
Warranty: 5 years on speakers, 2 years on electronics (Sys 4 or 5, Duo amp).
Global distribution: Company manufactures in Austria and has international distributors in most key countries.
Human interactions: Professional and courteous, very fast response times to questions.
Other: High-class veneering with multiple finish options, unusually comprehensive tuning features and upgrade path.
Pricing: On the far side of diminishing returns.
Application conditions: Designed to perform best when the speaker-to-speaker distance is 1.5 that of the speaker-to-listener distance. Discrete left and right units which are marked and shouldn't be reversed. Speaker must be biwired, can be run passive or active, with the latter requiring WLM's own external active crossover.
Final comments & suggestions: None. Company seems to have thought of everything.
Manufacturer's website