WISDOM P4i Planar Magnetic Hybrid Loudspeaker Owner’s Manual
- June 6, 2024
- WISDOM
Table of Contents
P4i Planar Magnetic Hybrid Loudspeaker
Owner’s Manual
DOCUMENT CONVENTIONS
This document contains general safety, installation, and operation
instructions for the Wisdom Audio Insight Series P4i Loudspeaker. It is
important to read this document before attempting to use this product. Pay
particular attention to:
WARNING: Calls attention to a procedure, practice, condition or the like
that, if not correctly performed or adhered to, could result in injury or
death.
CAUTION: Calls attention to a procedure, practice, condition or the like
that, if not correctly performed or adhered to, could result in damage to or
destruction of part of or the entire product.
Note: Calls attention to information that aids in the installation or
operation of the product.
Introduction
Congratulations on purchasing your Wisdom Audio loudspeakers. They in-
corporate 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.
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 briefly review
this and your other manuals to better understand your system’s full
capabilities.
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.
Overview
Your Insight Series P4i 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.
Our planar magnetic drivers use an advanced, thin film membrane to move the
air. This film 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.
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 efficiently.
- Since heat does not build up in the voice coil (as it does in conventional dynamic drivers), the load seen by the amplifier does not change at high power levels.
When you become accustomed to the sound of your new Insight Series P4i
speakers, conventional speakers sound a bit bland and lifeless. You may also
discover yourself hearing details at even modest levels on the P4i that were
previously inaudible even at loud volumes on more conventional speakers.
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-
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.
Because the conductor of a planar magnetic driver is essentially a long, thin
wire, it presents a purely resistive load to the amplifier. This is comparable
to the simple test loads that amplifier companies use when measuring their
amplifiers to show how terrific they are. As such, you can be assured that
your amplifiers will sound and work their best.
Authoritative, deep bass requires that you move a lot of air. We have chosen
to use dynamic woofers for the bass because they can provide excellent
performance at lower frequencies.
To get comparable bass 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.
Of course, the dynamic woofers themselves must be rather extraordinary 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.
Specifically, we need highly dynamic, uncompressed bass (to keep up with the
planar magnetic drivers) that does not depend on a critical amount of
enclosure volume (since these speakers are mounted in your wall and use the
space inside the wall as their “enclosure”). These two design goals require
rather extraordinary attention to myriad details.
The motor and suspension system of these woofers therefore includes all the
critical damping required for optimal operation. (In most speakers, the
woofers depend on the air trapped inside their enclosures as an additional
“spring” to help them behave properly.) Technically, this approach is known as
an “infinite baffle” design. In practice, the volume of air behind the speaker
does not have to be infinite, of course. It just needs to be large enough to
not act like an acoustic “spring”. Recommended and minimum enclosure volumes
for the speaker are listed in the Specifications section and repeated on the
Dimensions page.
Many speakers include a mid-bass “bump” in their response to give the illusion
of going deeper in the bass than they actually do. Unfortunately, this “bump”
makes blending them seamlessly with a high-quality subwoofer almost
impossible.
All Insight Series speakers have been designed to optimally crossover at 80
Hz, which is the most common bass management transition used to integrate with
subwoofer(s).
Unpacking and Installing the P4i
Your new Wisdom Audio Insight Series P4i in-wall speaker is relative compact, but surprisingly massive compared to most in-wall speakers. Please exercise caution when unpacking your P4i to ensure that you do not strain yourself from its (perhaps unexpected) weight.
- Use the included cardboard template to trace the outline of the hole for the speaker and carefully cut to the line.
- Carefully remove the magnetic grille, tipping it off from one side to the other (not from one end to the other), to avoid damaging the grille. Set it aside, laying it at.
- Push any insulation in the wall to the side. If there is no insulation in the wall, loosely fill the stud bay with insulation to reduce cavity resonances and improve performance.
- Using assistance to hold the speaker away from the wall, connect the speaker cable to the + and – connectors on the rear of the speaker, paying attention to proper polarity.
- Make sure all the speaker clamps are retracted in their “ready-to- mount” position at the tops of the mount towers, tucked within the mounting opening’s border.
- Insert the speaker straight into the mounting opening. Tighten the speaker clamp screws on the front of the speaker baffle. The speaker clamps will automatically rotate into position and begin clamping the speaker.
- When you notice resistance on the screws the speaker has been clamped successfully. IMPORTANT: Always use low-torque settings. NEVER overtighten the clamp screws.
Your P4i and Subwoofers
All Insight Series loudspeakers are optimized for use with subwoofers, with a
crossover of 80 Hz. (This is the most common frequency below which subwoofers
are used.)
When properly installed in the wall, your P4i has inherently at response to 80
Hz, without the common “bass bump” that characterizes most in-wall speakers
and is placed there to yield the impression of “more bass” than there really
is. This makes it easy to blend seamlessly with a high-quality subwoofer such
as one of Wisdom Audio’s Regenerative Transmission Line™ (RTL™) subwoofers.
You should setup your surround processor speaker bass management to “Small”
and or with an 80 Hz crossover to maximize the speaker’s output. Doing so
ensures that all content below 80 Hz is directed to the subwoofer(s) for
reproduction.
Care and Maintenance
To remove dust from the front of your P4i, use a feather duster or a lint-free
soft cloth.
To remove stubborn dirt and fingerprints from the grille, we recommend
isopropyl alcohol and a soft cloth. Lightly dampen the cloth with alcohol
first and then clean the grille of the P4i with the cloth. Do not use
excessive amounts of alcohol – there is no need for the cloth to be wet;
merely damp is better.
Never attempt to clean the drivers themselves.
CAUTION!
Do not touch the surface of the planar magnetic drivers, under any
circumstances. The thin film has been carefully pre-tensioned at the factory;
any subsequent contact can only damage it.
North American Warranty
Standard Warranty
When purchased from and installed by an authorized Wisdom Audio dealer, Wisdom
Audio loudspeakers are warranted to be free from defects in material and
workmanship under normal use for a period of 5 years from the original date of
purchase.
Furthermore, the transducers (“drivers”) in your Wisdom Audio speakers are
warranted to be free from defects in material and workmanship under normal use
for a period of 10 years from the original date of purchase.
Harsh Conditions Use
Wisdom Audio loudspeakers are designed for installation and operation in
environmentally controlled conditions, such as are found in normal residential
environments. When used in harsh conditions such as outdoors or in marine
applications, the warranty is three years from the original date of purchase.
During the warranty period, any Wisdom Audio products exhibiting defects in
materials and/or workmanship will be repaired or replaced, at our option,
without charge for either parts or labor, at our factory. The warranty will
not apply to any Wisdom Audio products that has been misused, abused, altered,
or installed and calibrated by anyone other than an authorized Wisdom Audio
dealer.
Any Wisdom Audio product not performing satisfactorily may be returned to the
factory for evaluation. Return authorization must first be obtained by either
calling or writing the factory prior to shipping the component. The factory
will pay for return shipping charges only if the component is found to be
defective as mentioned above. There are other stipulations that may apply to
shipping charges.
There is no other express warranty on Wisdom Audio products. Neither this
warranty nor any other warranty, express or implied, including any implied
warranties of merchantability or fitness, shall extend beyond the warranty
period. No responsibility is assumed for any incidental or consequential
damages. Some states do not allow limitations on how long an implied warranty
lasts and other states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental
or consequential damages, so the above limitation or exclusion may not apply
to you.
This warranty gives you specific legal rights, and you may also have other
rights, which vary from state to state. This warranty is applicable in the
United States and Canada only. Outside of the U.S. and Canada, please contact
your local, authorized Wisdom Audio distributor for warranty and service
information.
Obtaining Service
We take great pride in our dealers. Experience, dedication, and integrity make
these professionals ideally suited to assist with our customers’ service
needs.
If your Wisdom Audio loudspeaker must be serviced, please contact your dealer.
Your dealer will then decide whether the problem can be remedied locally, or
whether to contact Wisdom Audio for further service information or parts, or
to obtain a Return Authorization. The Wisdom Audio Service Department works
closely with your dealer to solve your service needs expediently.
IMPORTANT: Return authorization must be obtained from Wisdom Audio’s
Service Department BEFORE a unit is shipped for service.
It is extremely important that information about a problem be explicit and
complete. A specific, comprehensive description of the problem helps your
dealer and the Wisdom Audio Service Department locate and repair the
difficulty as quickly as possible.
A copy of the original bill of sale will serve to verify warranty status.
Please include it with the unit when it is brought in for warranty service.
WARNING: All returned units must be packaged in their original packaging,
and the proper return authorization numbers must be marked on the outer carton
for identification. Shipping the unit in improper packaging may void the
warranty, as Wisdom Audio cannot be responsible for the resulting shipping
damage.
Your dealer can order a new set of shipping materials for you if you need to
ship your loudspeaker and no longer have the original materials. There will be
a charge for this service. We strongly recommend saving all packing materials
in case you need to ship your unit someday.
If the packaging to protect the unit is, in our opinion or that of our dealer,
inadequate to protect the unit, we reserve the right to repackage it for
return shipment at the owner’s expense. Neither Wisdom Audio nor your dealer
can be responsible for shipping damage due to improper (that is, non-original)
packaging.
Specifications
All specifications are subject to change at any time to improve the product.
- Frequency response: 80Hz – 20 kHz ± 2dB relative to the target curve
- Crossover frequency: 650 Hz
- Nominal Impedance: 6Ω
- Sensitivity: 86 dB/2.83V/1m
- Power handling, peak: 280w
- Maximum SPL: 109 dB @ 1m
- Dimensions: See appropriate dimensions drawings on next page
- Recommended Enclosure Volume: 1.24 cubic feet (35.2 liters) or more
- Minimum Enclosure Volume: 0.66 cubic feet (18.7 liters)
- Shipping weight, each: 23 lbs. (10.5 kg)
For more information, see your Wisdom Audio dealer or contact:
Wisdom Audio
1572 College Parkway, Suite 164
Carson City, NV 89706
wisdomaudio.com
information@wisdomaudio.com
775-887-8850
P4i Dimensions
| WALL CUTOUT DIMENSIONS 4.64″ x 30.88″ +/-0.09″ [11.80cm x
78.43cm +/-0.23cmJ
RECOMMENDED VOLUME FOR P41 ENCLOSURE CUBIC FEET – 1.24 LITERS – 35.19
MINIMUM VOLUME FOR P4i ENCLOSURE CUBIC FEET – 0.66 LITERS – 18.7 ENCLOSURE
VOLUMES LARGER THAN RECOMMENDED CAN ALSO BE USED
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Wisdom Audio1572 College Parkway, Suite 164
Carson City, Nevada 89706 USA
TEL 775-887-8850
FAX 775-887-8820
wisdomaudio.com
Insight Series P4i OM © 11/2021 Wisdom Audio, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A.