Wilson Audio speakers were never cheap. The first time I heard a pair of Watt/Puppies in 1996, I was smitten. As bad as I wanted a pair they were out of reach for me back then. I bought a pair of Thiels which I felt came close but still wasn’t quite the same. Wilson speakers use all top notch components inside and out. Everything on the inside is just as top level as what you can see on the outside. That includes especially the crossover components. That stuff adds up quickly.
Watch some of Danny’s videos where he tears down popular speakers. Most look hifi on the outside but contain the cheapest components on the inside. My cousin rebuilds speakers and crossovers. Even my Thiel speakers which had all roll film caps in the crossovers were the some of the cheapest film capacitors you could buy, he told me.
Wilson speakers aren’t for everyone. And I have learned first hand that these speakers are just the starting point. It takes a commitment to get them the best electronics and cabling you can afford. The payoff is a rewarding concert like sound in my listening room that can captivate me for hours. It took a lot of effort and $$$$ to get the digital sound up to par. What I found is that as the digital got better, I could play the music louder. On the analog side, the limit was the noise floor- groove noise, tape hiss in the recording, pops etc. The noise floor raised up with the volume. But with digital the noise floor is inaudible. The volume used to be limited by the amount of grain or digital glare. That’s gone. Now I have to make an effort to turn the volume down. It is like an addiction. The sound is so good I crank it up to increase my pleasure. Used to I did not like listening to live music. The Wilsons make live music really jam.