Rockport Avior 2 vs Wilson Sasha DAW


I’m consider one of these two speakers, the Rockport Avior 2 and the new Wilson Sasha DAW. My room is 19’ x 25’ with a 20’ ceiling, the room floor plan opens behind me into a kitchen and the rest of the house. I listen at low to moderate levels and usually have to supplement the bass with a sub because of the large space. I listen to jazz, folk, classical full orchestra some old classic rock on rare occasions. I’ve always like the detail of electrostatic speakers but they all have there limitations. Looking for a great all around speaker. I Enjoy both tube and solid gear, currently using solid state spectral. I Have several amp choices from Spectral and Rowland. Just wonder if anyone knows these speakers intimately and can give me some strengths of each and an opinion which you would choose and why. I’ve been researching many other speakers and have come down to these two. Thank you for your thoughts.
128x128Ag insider logo xs@2xcarey1110

Showing 1 response by nyev

@carey1110 I have a rather large room as well, and I auditioned the Sasha DAW's at my dealer (with my Gryphon Diablo 300 amp and my Nordost Valhalla 2 speaker cables and my Audioquest Dragon power cords). I liked the Sasha DAW's better than any other new speaker I auditioned (B&W 801 D4's, Audiovector Arette R6's, Magico A5's, Sonus Faber Amati's).

BUT - even in the dealer's room I found the Sasha DAW's to be too lean sounding on hard rock, which I occasionally listen to.  I remember the sales guy banging his head along to Pearl Jam and thinking no this sounds harsh...  With every other type of music I found the Sasha DAW's to be stunningly good.  And I couldn't get over how great I thought they looked in real-life, although I know Wilson's looks are polarizing.

That said, I want speakers that cater to all of my musical tastes, no exceptions.  After much effort I eventually found happiness by upgrading within my old B&W speaker's generation, D2, and upgrading to the 802's from the 803's.  This generation of B&W sounds far richer and more balanced to my ear than the later D3 and D4 generation, which I agree have better soundstage depth and detail, but don't sound as musical to my ear.

I would have LOVED to test out the Rockports which are said to pair well with Gryphon.  But I can't have speakers in the middle of my room and they have rear-firing bass ports, so probably a no-go.  I would have had to fly somewhere to hear them.