Warm, true and faithful are the essential qualities of our sound delivery. But the best way to understand Wrensilva sound (without actually hearing it) is by delving into one of the most critical development steps — collaboration with revered music creators. These listening sessions with music creators helped shape the Wrensilva Sound for our next generation record consoles.
Listening Sessions With Music Creators
Wrensilva co-founder and head of audio Scott Salyer walks us through his journey of creating the Wrensilva sound experience. For him, it’s really about celebrating the artwork in its purest form. We sat down with Scott at our San Diego workshop to get the story of his pursuit of Wrensilva Signature Sound.
Wrensilva Co-founder and head of audio Scott Salyer talks about Wrensilva Sound at our San Diego workshop.
Given Scott’s background as a guitarist, sound engineer, and producer, it makes sense that he would draw on those experiences when creating his own HiFi sound system. Now, instead of primarily creating music, Scott focuses on creating a sound system that delivers music the way it’s meant to be heard. It’s an art form in itself. From building components from the ground up to making tiny electronic tweaks to get the right tone, the process has clear parallels with mixing recorded music on a soundboard.
“The Wrensilva Sound — warm, true, faithful,” Scott began, sitting at his workshop station in San Diego. “Warm: room-filling, deep bass that you feel surrounding you. True: true to the instruments. The piano: does it sound like a real piano from the bottom to the top of the highest key? The acoustic guitar: do you hear the squeak of the string from the musician’s finger? All those things that make an instrument’s character. We need to reproduce that. We need to make it come through the speakers. And faithful, really, to the men and women who mix and record these records. Not just the musicians, but the people who are behind the speakers on the other side of the glass. We need to reproduce the sound that they hear in those speakers. That's the Wrensilva Sound.”
Manny Marroquin On Studio Quality
Mixer Manny Marroquin listens to the M1 console during our listening session at Larrabee Studios.
Renowned mixer Manny Marroquin invited us to Larrabee Studios to drop the needle on a few favorite records that he has worked on over the years. The Studio 3 lounge room resonated with deep bass and soaring vocals from the works of such artists as Rhianna, Kendrick Lamar, and Paramore. Dive into the full listening session where we discuss the technical and emotional aspects of studio-quality music experienced through Wrensilva Sound.
Manny Marroquin plays Alicia Keys’ ALICIA album on the Wrensilva M1 console.
Manny pulled out the record Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — Music From and Inspired By and dropped the needle on Rihanna’s song “Born Again.” “A key to this song,” Manny said, is Swedish composer “Ludwig Göransson’s amazing orchestration,” which progressively expands the song’s originally slow, ballad feel. The song then culminates into intense strings and melodic vocal delays. “It's the last song on the record and it summarizes the record — and it's powerful. This sounds like my studio. And that's a tough song because there's so much happening.”
Part of what’s happening in the song is a deep bass groove. Wrensilva speakers are specifically engineered and tuned to deliver all the bass you need, no matter what genre.
“Did you hear the sub when it went deeper?” Manny asked. “It went a whole octave deeper. I was wondering if it was going to react to that — and I felt it and heard it. On the creative side, I always think of the good and evil. The good is she's an angel. The evil, well, this song is a perfect representation of what that means.”
Don Was Expects An Honest Sound
President of Blue Note Records Don Was sits beside a Wrensilva console at our LA Listening Studio
For celebrated producer, bassist, and President of Blue Note Records, Don Was, great music experiences share a quality with some of his favorite artists — a readiness to tell the truth. We sat down with Don in our LA Listening Studio for a listening session with a stack of Blue Note records as we selected the albums for a special collaborative vinyl box set that now comes with every new Wrensilva.
“I really like the sound,” Don said. “It's not hyping any frequencies. It's very honest. It's got a very flat response across a very broad frequency range. I could trust this. If this was in my living room, I could go home and play the mixes from the studio and trust what I was hearing — which is a very big deal, because you can't always. So, I think they’re honest and fun. When I sat down in front of the speakers like that, I enjoyed listening to music. It's supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be an experience. It's not work. It's a magic carpet ride.”
Giles Martin Feels The Warmth
Giles martin Plays The beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band from Parlophone records on a Wrensilva console during an in-studio listening session.
Although critically acclaimed producer and mixer Giles Martin is full of technical music knowledge—exemplified by the advanced techniques he uses to remix legendary Beatles albums—he opts for the emotion of music to be the guiding light. Similarly, he gave us crucial feedback during our listening session at the famous Abbey Road Studios that made Wrensilva Sound feel just right.
“The lows are good,” Giles said. “The great thing about Wrensilva and the great thing about these units is that they sound really good. They sound, for someone like me who put on some of the mixes I've done (and I think most of the stuff I've done, I don't like. That's why I won't listen to it because you hear the mistakes you've done basically) but then you listen on a Wrensilva and you go, this sounds pretty good. Me and Manny are good friends, and he put a record on his Wrensilva system because what the system does is creates warmth — and warmth is complex. It's a very simplistic way of saying it.”
Joe Harley On Staying Faithful To Original Recordings
Blue Note Records Producer Joe Chats Tone Poet records with us during our listening session at our San Diego workshop
Nicknamed the Tone Poet, Blue Note Records Producer Joe Harley understands the art of creating audiophile records like few others. His storied background of working with cutting-edge technology and many of the most talented contemporary artists motivated Don Was to personally ask Joe to join Blue Note Records to create audiophile presses of their legendary master tapes. Joe’s rare perceptiveness now guides Wrensilva Signature Sound towards a delivery that is also faithful to original recordings. Check out Joe’s full listening session at our San Diego workshop.
“I think you got the balance spot on. I really do,” Joe said. “I noticed, and I'm sure you noticed, everyone sounds like themselves. Guys that have a softer tone, have a softer tone. Guys that have a harder tone, have a harder tone. Where HiFi gets boring is when it all sounds the same to you. You might like chocolate, but you don't want chocolate on your steak, right? Then it gets not so good. So, you don't have one coloration poured over everything — which is how it should be.”
Music Was Meant To Be Heard Like This
Wrensilva Sound starts with proprietary electronic and acoustic design and elite audio components, but it’s the essential step of collaborating with music creators that really makes our sound signature. They help us ensure our consoles deliver music the way it’s meant to be heard. That’s how we get the proper feeling — and that warm, true, and faithful sound.
The pursuit of Wrensilva’s sound never truly ends. We’re always listening for new sounds, tinkering with new technologies, and collaborating with creators from all backgrounds. As a result, every Wrensilva console delivers a sound quality that can be passed down for generations. It’s really about slowing down, creating memories, and cherishing music in its purest form.
