New Speakers under consideration - but I’m afraid

@ritter06 - excellent plan.  Always best to try a component in one's own system if one can afford to do so.  I'm assuming you already have proper sonic room treatments?

@ritter06 - no easy solutions.

1. We cannot tell you what you’ll subjectively like
2. We cannot predict if it’ll work synergistically your other components and/or room

We all have to try/risk for ourselves.

One could try to mitigate the risk by purchasing known synergistically matching amp+speaker combos like Harbeth+Hegel. Or if you find a Demo speaker you like, purchased the speaker and matching electronics. Or, by purchasing sonically neutral speakers transparent to the other audio chain components. And if buying used can resell at minimal cash loss.

In an ideal world, it would be great to have sonic guarantees considering the significant cash outlay and the trouble of changing components. Unfortunately, high-end audio doesn’t grant us this convenience- we all have to struggle our way towards sonic bliss.

Decisions become a lot harder if the budget is very limited or changing the components is very inconvenient. That’s the hobby we’re in

On the other hand, achieving sonic bliss is fantastic for an audiophile.

The question is: “Which is stronger, the Carrot or the Stick?”

@ritter06 - I suggest you bring CDs to test speakers.

When I demoed many speakers, I used a selection of CDs to test: familiar music, piano, violins, female and male voices, trumpet, orchestra… For acoustic instruments tests, I used a CD Test discs like the Sheffield Lab test cd. During demos, I was evaluating accuracy and involvement (whether the speaker resonated with me)

Best of luck in your hunt

@ritter06 - good job!  Nice assortment of speakers you’ve demoed which gave you a lot of input in deciding sonic preferences - X3s for great price/performance, Sonus Faber’s more musical presentation, and Wilson for accuracy excellence.

How different do the prior gen Wilsons sound to the latest iterations?

Very different- Wilson is at the cutting edge of high-end sonics so have been consistently designing and releasing new better transducers.  Their WP has also gone through a few upgrades before being dropped then subsequently reinstalled very recently back into Wilson’s product line. 

.... I’m wondering if used Sasha DAWs are sonically close enough to the new WWPs...

HifiNews here says the WWP-new and the Sasha V has the same drivers, so comparing Sasha DAWs vs Sasha V should give you your answer.