Wisdom Sage C38i User manual

Owner’s Manual
Sage C38i
Bi-amplified In-Wall
Two-way Planar Magnetic Loudspeaker

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Table of Contents
Introduction | 3
Overview | 3
Unpacking and Installing the C38i | 5
Making the Connections |8
Care & Maintenance | 9
North American Warranty | 9
Obtaining Service | 10
Specifications | 12
Dimensions | 13
DOCUMENT CONVENTIONS
This document contains general safety, installation, and operation instructions for the Wisdom Sage
C38i 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.

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Introduction
Congratulations on purchasing your Wisdom Audio system. It incorporates many design
features engineered 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 “Overview” 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 can be a bit more involved than connecting a common set of
loudspeakers, which is why we recommend that our systems be engineered and
calibrated by Factory Personnel.
Your Sage Series C38i loudspeaker is specifically designed to avoid the compromises
inherent in conventional speaker designs. There are no passive crossover components
inside the speaker. Instead, there are direct connections from the amplifiers to their
respective High-Pass and Low-Pass drivers and an external active crossover is used, such
as the ones inside of our Wisdom SA-DSP (Digital Signal Processing) Amplifiers. It is truly
a “system” design, and not merely a collection of loudspeaker drivers in a box. Please
contact us to learn which products/amplifiers/ surround processors outside of our DSP
Amplifiers will work with our speakers and subwoofers. [email protected]
Overview
Your Sage C38i 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.

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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 Sage C38i speakers,
conventional speakers sound a bit bland and lifeless. You may also discover yourself
hearing details at even modest levels on the Sage C38i 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

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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 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.
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 Sage Series speakers have been designed to optimally crossover at
80 Hz, which is the most-common crossover frequency used with subwoofers.
Unpacking and Installing the C38i
The Wisdom Audio Sage C38i in-wall speaker is a substantial piece of equipment. Please
exercise caution when unpacking your C38i to ensure that you do not strain yourself
from its (perhaps unexpected) weight.
CAUTION: Do not attempt to lift your C38i modules while bending or twisting from the
waist. Use your legs for lifting, not your back. Always stand as straight as possible and
keep the C38i close to your body to reduce strain on your back.
The speaker is shipped in a “telescoping” box (two five-sided boxes, one of which fits
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 floor 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).

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There are two major pieces involved in a single C38i loudspeaker:
•the Uni-Grip™in-wall mounting system
•the speaker module itself
After unpacking your C38i, keep all packing materials for future transport. If you need
to ship your speaker, only the original, purpose-designed shipping carton is acceptable.
Any other method of shipping this product runs a significant risk of damage to the
speaker – 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.)
Framing in for the C38i – The horizontal configuration of the C38i spans the normal
space between studs in traditional American construction. Therefore, like larger in-wall
center channel speakers, you need to plan and frame in a space to accommodate the
C38i.
Your installer will be familiar with local building codes for such an opening. If the wall is
load bearing, the opening should generally be framed in a way like the way windows are
framed in prior to their installation. The one significant difference is that the drywall
needs to overhang the edges of the framing, to give the Uni-Grip™ system and edge to
clamp.
Framing Opening –We recommend that the framing opening described above be at
least three inches (3") larger in both horizontal and vertical dimensions than the largest
dimensions shown on the C38i Dimensions page at the end of this manual. Having this
extra room allows both for making the speaker wire connections and for the Uni-Grip
flange along the long edge of the speaker.
Having a bit more room than suggested here is fine. But having less room requires
extreme precision when cutting the drywall opening (since the Uni-Grip flange extends
outward from that opening to clamp the wall and cannot run into the framing).

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Installing the C38i in the Wall
1. Determine the area for the speaker installation and locate the cutout guide using
pushpins to secure it in place. Ensure that the template is level using a bubble
level or similar. Note: Make certain that there are no studs, plumbing or
electrical conduit in the intended area behind the wall before you begin marking
and cutting!
2. Trace the outer perimeter of the cutout guide with a pencil or a utility knife.
3. Remove the traced section of sheet rock using a keyhole saw, and clear debris
from the edge of the hole.
4. Push any insulation to the side.
5. Disassemble bezel/Uni-Grip™ and place the supplied Allen head screws to the
side. Place the bezel in the wall cutout and insert the Uni-Grip clamping bar
through the opening at an angle, working on one side first. Reinstall the Allen
head screws with the supplied 3/32" drill bit, securing both pieces to each other
(sandwiching the wall between them), but do not tighten yet. Repeat on the
other side.
6. Using a level, adjust assembly in wall cutout to ensure that the assembly is
plumb. Tighten the Allen screws. Do not over torque or strip these screws. The
large clamping area of the Uni-Grip system does not require unusually high
torque on the screws to be secure.
7. Paint the bezel and grill as necessary, being careful not to plug up the holes in
the grille. Note that the speaker modules are not mounted in the bezel and grille
assembly at this time. They can be mounted later, after all the paint is dry.
8. Using assistance to hold the speaker modules away from the wall, connect both
high and low pass speaker cables to the two connectors at the end of the back
box, paying attention to assign the correct band-pass and polarity to their
respective speaker connectors.
9. Insert the speaker/back box assembly into the Uni-Grip frame and attach using
the supplied Allen head screws and 3/32" drill bit. Do not over torque or strip
these screws.

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Making the C38i Connections
As with any system, you should make changes to the connections only when the power
is turned off to avoid any chance of inadvertently causing a problem (such as a short-
circuit).
Two sets of speaker wires are required for each Sage C38i loudspeaker: one for the
woofer (low pass) section, and a separate one for the planar magnetic (high pass)
section that handles the midrange and treble.
We recommend using heavy-gauge speaker wire, the gauge will vary dependent on your
speaker run length. Please consult an authorized dealer to determine what gauge would
be best for your application.
For the purposes of this manual, we will assume that you have already connected the
approved DSP Amplifiers/Processor with Active Crossovers and PEQ as per the
instructions found in its manual. As such, you should have signal coming from your
source component(s) to a preamp/processor, and then on to the signal that is split into
low-pass and high-pass sections, with the low-pass section going to one or more
Wisdom Audio SA Series amplifiers, and the high-pass section going to additional SA
Series amplifiers, which will drive the planar magnetic panels.
Connect the outputs of your Wisdom Audio SA-series amplifier to the appropriate
woofer sections, taking care to get both the channel assignments and the polarity
correct. Connect the positive (+) terminals on the SA Series amplifier to the positive (+)
terminals for the woofer on the loudspeaker; likewise, connect the negative (–)
terminals on the amplifier and the speaker, respectively.
Next connect the outputs of your chosen amplifier for the midrange/treble to the Sage
C38i planar sections in a similar fashion, taking care with both channel assignments and
polarity.

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Care & Maintenance
To remove dust from the front of your C38i, use a feather duster or a lint-free soft cloth.
Never attempt to clean the drivers themselves.
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 10 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
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.

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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.

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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.

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Specifications
All specifications are subject to change at any time to improve the product.
•Number of required amplifier channels: 2
•Frequency response:40Hz – 20 kHz ± 2dB relative to the target curve
•Impedance, planar section:3Ω
•Impedance, woofer section: 3Ω
•Sensitivity, planar section: 90 dB/2.83V/1m
•Sensitivity, woofer section: 91 dB/2.83V/1m
•System impedance: 3Ω
•System sensitivity: 90 dB
•Power handling, continuous: 200w
•Dimensions: See appropriate dimensions drawings on next page
•Shipping weight, each: 37 lbs. (17 kg)
For more information, see your Wisdom Audio dealer or contact: 
Wisdom Audio
1572 College Parkway, Suite 164
Carson City, NV 89706
wisdomaudio.com
[email protected]
[phone]

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C38i Dimensions

Sage Series C38i OM © 11/2021 Wisdom Audio, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A.
WISDOM and the stylized W are registered trademarks of Wisdom Audio.
Wisdom Audio1572 College Parkway, Suite 164
Carson City, Nevada 89706 USA
TEL [phone]
FAX [phone]
wisdomaudio.com