As the speaker discussed here is unattainable to the vast majority of hobbyists, truly a 1% product when the entirety of the system is considered, I offer an alternative for those in a different socioeconomic strata. Feel free to read my review of the Aspen Acoustics Lagrange L5 MkII at dagogo.com in order to familiarize yourself with this new genre (imo) of speaker.
That is not the one I am suggesting here. I suggest serious audiophiles who wish for a grand experience at $100K less check out the Aspen Acoustics Lagrange L1, the prototype of which I own and is seen in my system pics. The production model is being readied for my review to appear at Dagogo.com in the new year. This is a formidable speaker and imo it is not out of line to consider it in several respects as prodigious as some of the larger floor standing speakers I have heard from JM Labs, Wilson, Sonus Faber, etc, but likely not their top of the line models. That may not make some people happy, but it is my seasoned opinion. Feel free to take it with a grain or two of salt, as I have not done direct comparison in my room. I have, however, heard many systems with these other products.
I just took delivery on a new pair of SabrinaX speakers. I have about 100 hrs on them, powered by a Pass Labs 250.8. In my small music room (11x11x11), they sound fantastic. Great bass, smooth minds and resolving highs without any harshness. And soundstage . . . Wide and locked in! Obviously, the Pass is no slouch in the power department, and it drives them with ease. And they get much louder at a given volume setting than my other two speakers, the Focal Diablo Utopia III's and Joseph Audio Pulsars. In fact, they seem easier to drive than either of those speakers, in my unscientific listening. Very happy with them so far! As my dealer said, they are made to deliver in a smaller room, so they are perfectly suited for my dedicated listening room. And despaired their somewhat robotic look, my wife loves the look of of them and the finish, so great sound and good WAF . . .!
At some point I will try them with my PrimaLuna Dialogue Premier HP and see what happens.
I’m of the opposite opinion. IMO the current batch of Wilson speakers are the best that I have heard, and I have heard most of them throughout the years. The new silk dome tweeter is a MAJOR improvement over the older Focal titanium tweeter of yore. Also, the newer cabinets and designs are much better in the imaging and resolution areas than previously. The Wilson pricing has always seemed very high to me, but they are well built and will probably last a lifetime. The new Sabrina X is a significant improvement over the old model, and IMO is a very fine speaker. Only issue is the nasty impedance curve and difficulty in driving it; but if one has a big ss amp with plenty of muscle, this would be a good speaker to consider at its price point. Seems like a lot of current high end speakers are just bears to drive, which I guess the manufacturers don’t care about, as they expect the buyer to spring for the new batch of ultra pricey mega watt ss gear that is now all the rage.
My take on Wilson's after owning several models over 30 years, as well as owning at present a set of Magico's as well as a pair of Joseph Audio's:
Wilson excels at cabinet design resulting in high output capability. They excel in dynamics, as well as imaging. Powered correctly they can play any genre of music well.
What they don't have is state of the art drivers. IMO that limits their ultimate resolution versus the best speakers using the best drivers.
Wilson attempts to circumvent this with crossover and cabinet design, which works to a point.
Also, the Wilson house sound has evolved over the last 4 decades. Starting with a very analytical and "clinical" sound in the 80's to a warm, soft sound in the current line up. Both, ultimately, colored.
My favorite Wilson's are those from about 8 - 10 years ago, towards the end of Dave's control and while they were still sourcing Focal drivers. The current models are all too expensive for what they offer, and better sound at lower prices is available.
I am a big fan of wilson but think they are way over priced. Their used prices are more inline with their sound quality imo. I really enjoy the coloration of wilson. A little heavy on the bass, forward mids etc but state of the art it is not imo. They sound more tuned by ear and a tuning I like pretty well.
@james633 I appreciate hearing your thoughts on the sound quality of good affordable speakers and good expensive speakers. As with any product, the marginal improvements with audio must also get smaller and smaller as you go up in price. My comments are really only based on my own listening preferences which are at pretty moderate listening volumes. Another possible factor is that my current room (300 sq. ft in a hexagonal shape) seems to sound pretty good with only minimal acoustic tuning and perhaps better than some listening rooms at audio stores.
I did listen to 11 pairs of speakers including a set of last-gen Monitor Audio Gold 200 speakers that I missed out on before getting the Silver 300s so I do know that they must fit my listening preferences pretty well. I was just personally a bit surprised that the SabrinaXs were not clearly better sounding given the large price difference. I will say that I heard Wilson Watt/Puppies a long time ago and those sounded somewhat sterile to me in sound. Perhaps the Wilson sound is just not my cup of tea.
those monitor audios measure pretty good but I have never heard them. Anyway the differences I hear between good affordable speakers and good expensive speakers can be subtle if both are well engineered (this is the key). The monitor audio has a pretty noisy box compared to the Sabrina X. But at moderate listening volumes honestly you might not notice. My guess is if you really cranked both these speakers the wilsons would start to pull away. Assuming the room and gear were up to the task.
That's basically a set of ScanSpeak drivers that you can buy from Madisound for about $1K.
~~~~ Did not think you were allowed to make such posts...? Considering what folks have been through and all, this past year, DIY might gain interest. Budgets for audio hobby may have taken 2nd place in folks priorities. (for me its always #1,,,,)
The drivers in the Monitor Audio Silver 300 will not have the resolutions of the ones on the Wilson. Not only that, the Monitors drivers are aluminum and the Wilson are paper. That alone should make a huge difference in sound.
I have to say that I tend to read audio equipment reviews, especially those of expensive equipment, with a grain of salt.
I had a chance to hear the new SabrinaX speakers recently while I was auditioning DACs. The SabrinaXs were powered by a Simaudio Moon 700i integrated amp. I brought along my Pro-ject streamer and Qutest DAC for comparing to other DACs. The SabrinaXs certainly sounded good and probably were very good on ’audiophile’ attributes such as bass extension, imaging, placement of instruments and voices, etc. BUT, I continued listening to the same music after I got home through my Monitor Audio Silver 300 speakers and consciously had the surprising thought that I didn’t feel like I was missing anything listening at home versus listening via the SabrinaXs at the store. The MA Silver 300s are 1/9 of the price of the SabrinaXs. In fact, if you blindfolded me, I’m not entirely sure which of the two speakers I would prefer even if cost were not a consideration.
Don’t get me wrong. I have heard high priced speakers that I would LOVE to own if I had the money and the space in my home (i.e., a separate music listening wing of my house. Haha). The Martin-Logan CLSs (now the CLX) comes to mind as one memorable example.
I’ve been lucky enough to live in 4 major US cities on both East and West Coasts and have been able to hear a good amount of high priced audio equipment. Perhaps I’m a bit more jaded than others about how good high priced equipment is "supposed" to sound.
I heard the Sabrina X's a few weeks ago. It is a significant upgrade over the prior model. However, I think it will need an amp with some serious current capability upstream. The amp I heard with the pairing was an ok match, but I could tell that it really wasn't happy driving these babies. This amp was a good tube amp with about a 60 watt/ch output. These new Sabrina X's probably need at least 300 watts/ch..and perhaps even more! I suspect that the days of driving the Wilson speakers with amps that are bordering on flea output are now long gone.
I've just bought some SabrinaX's which I've paired with a Gryphon Diablo 300 amp. The combination seems to work really nicely for me. My dealer Janson from Audio Connection set it all up with pretty quick speaker positioning. I'm probably up to about 200 hours so far, so it's still bedding in
Hard to drive, needs good current, but still need that Class-A sound to keep the upper-mids and highs in check. Just made for Gryphon amplification, especially the Antillion/Mephisto/Diablo300/120, and Essence if you don’t want to go too loud.
As tested: The SabrinaX has an EPDR of less than 2 ohms between 65Hz and 275Hz, with a minimum value of 1.1 ohms at 90Hz, where music can have high energy. The partnering amplifier needs to be capable of driving 2 ohms without stress. https://www.stereophile.com/images/221Wilsonfig1.jpg
When you read his conclusion, it sounds like it's the usual Wilson sound, and he advises against amps that might have glare in the upper mids. It's a sound that is good, but not for all tastes.
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