Wilson Audio • Chronosonic XVX Loudspeakers and Subsonic Subwoofers

by Marc Mickelson | January 4, 2021

© www.theaudiobeat.com

In The Wilson Way, his exhaustively researched and well-written history of Wilson Audio, author John Giolas described the first meeting between Dave and Sheryl Lee Wilson in the fall of 1965, while the two were students at Brigham Young University. Sheryl Lee needed an LP recorded to reel-to-reel tape and her cousin suggested asking for help from one of his roommates, "D.A.," who was an advanced audio tinkerer. Yes, Dave Wilson was that tinkerer, and Sheryl Lee, expecting "something more conventional" than his elaborate stereo system, quickly realized that he was definitely out there, especially when it came to his speakers. Giolas describes a near other-worldly sight, Dave Wilson's loudspeakers looking "like a science project gone awry." He "had mounted each of the individual drivers into separate modules. . . . The modules weren't fixed, which allowed [Dave] to move them in relation to each other. He wasn't sure why yet, but in specific geometric configurations, his loudspeakers sounded better."

It would be over fifty years before that "science project" would reach its fullest expression, but the principle behind it, the precise alignment of each driver's output in time, became the theoretical backbone for the speaker company that would bear Dave and Sheryl Lee's name and become their lives' professional work. Through the intervening years, Dave Wilson would refine the alignment of the drivers in relation to each other and the listener, first using machined-aluminum blocks with defined steps that allowed for repeatable results, then adding more steps to allow more precise time alignment, and culminating in the complex mechanism used for his magnum opus, the WAMM Master Chronosonic, which allows infinite adjustment of each speaker's multiple upper modules relative to each other and the fixed bass module. It is this same type of mechanism, which Wilson Audio has named the Micrometer, some parts of which look more like the inner workings of a clock than pieces of a loudspeaker, that Daryl Wilson, Dave and Sheryl Lee's youngest son, has used for his current masterpiece, the Chronosonic XVX. Whereas other Wilson Audio speakers, including those that Daryl designed previously, rely on the company's earlier technology for driver alignment, the massive XVX allows for adjustments down to fractions of centimeters and 2ms in time. The XVX's support structure, called the Gantry, is itself a technical achievement, both aligning the driver modules and holding the workings of the Micrometer. Nothing like it exists in high-end audio -- except in the WAMM Master Chronosonic. Even if you consider yourself an advanced audio tinkerer, you have to admit that creating something like the XVX's Micrometer and Gantry, with their dozens of precision-machined parts, is obsessive-compulsive.

But the story of the Chronosonic XVX doesn't begin or end here. With this speaker, Wilson Audio proclaims the introduction of more technology, features, and manufacturing processes than for any speaker in the company's long, storied and market-establishing history in the super-speaker segment. These include the use of more disparate materials than for any previous Wilson speaker. Dave Wilson pioneered the use of high-tech cabinet materials, each chosen for sonic reasons, and for the Chronosonic XVX Daryl Wilson took nothing for granted. "I love the concept of open possibilities," he told me, and that shows in the Chronosonic XVX, as he reconsidered the company's accumulated wisdom regarding the best use of each material. Much of the Chronosonic XVX's cabinet is Wilson Audio's harder-than-steel X-Material, which has traditionally been used for all external panels, including woofer and tweeter baffles. Wilson's S-Material and new V-Material ("V" for XVX) are used where their resonant signatures are advantageous to that of X-Material. These include midrange baffles and under some spike plates for S-Material, and between the woofer top plate and the bottom of the XVX's Gantry and under the Micrometer platforms for V-Material. Also used are the machined aluminum and stainless steel of the Gantry and its module-support plates, and carbon fiber for the resistor mounting plate and crossover housing.

These materials are definitely not for show; their placement within the structure of the XVX means they are mostly or completely hidden from view. What's visible and eye-catching is the driver lineup, which features multiple tweeters, midrange drivers and woofers. It takes no great knowledge to understand that more drivers means more difficulty in designing and implementing the crossover that brings their output together, but that's also taken a step further with the Chronosonic XVX. There are actually two different midrange drivers and woofers, along with a second tweeter mounted on the upward face of the topmost module. Wilson Audio has always guarded its crossovers more than any other of the company's technology, and it's easy to understand why when you consider the Chronosonic XVX and its formidable driver array.

New for the XVX is the QuadraMag midrange, which was Dave Wilson's final design project before he passed away in 2017. While Wilson Audio speakers are so often praised for their bass power and depth, the company's midrange drivers and tweeters have been vitally important to the speakers achieving their foundational sonic character -- the ability to resolve and bring to life the dynamic contrasts of recorded music. This has required a deep dive into driver design, as the treble and midrange drivers of Wilson speakers have to cover inordinately wide swaths of the frequency range and meet each other just so, leaving no remnants of a sonic "seam" the ear will detect. While other makers were chasing the latest and supposedly greatest cone materials, Dave Wilson, Daryl Wilson and Vern Credille, who together designed the QuadraMag midrange, were exploring materials and driver magnetics in search of that "just so" combination. The QuadraMag uses a composite cone of cellulose and paper pulp and Alnico (aluminum, nickel, cobalt) magnets in "an entirely re-imagined geometry" to increase the driver's magnetic field, which is what converts the electrical energy of the signal to acoustic output. The QuadraMag is a large midrange driver -- 7", larger than some woofers used in other speakers -- and this puts unique stresses on the driver and also presents unique advantages. At its upper end, the driver has to reach the bottom range of the tweeter, while at the same time go low enough to blend with the woofers. Wilson Audio achieves this, also incorporating the 4" midrange first used in the WAMM, all while maintaining coherence throughout the range in which the ear is most sensitive.

Wilson Audio's Convergent Synergy Mk 5 silk-dome tweeter, designed for the WAMM, completes the upper half of the XVX's midrange-tweeter-midrange-midrange (MTMM) array, although the driver arrangement is technically TMTMM, because there's a second Convergent Synergy Mk 5 tweeter mounted on top of the speaker, to handle the very uppermost frequencies. A trim control tailors this driver's output, whereas for the other drivers, a rear-mounted carbon-fiber plate with truncated binding posts allows swapping resistors to trim each driver's output.

The volume of the massive and very heavy bass cabinet is optimized for the 10 1/2" and 12 1/2" woofers, both of which were designed for the WAMM. As with other Wilson floorstanding speakers, the use of different-sized bass drivers is by design, allowing for acoustic blending of their outputs and coverage of a wider frequency range with no reduction in detail, dynamics or speed. The cabinet's most unusual feature is the Cross-Load port, which debuted in the Alexandria XLF. This allows output to the front or rear. You most often see the speakers with a machined-aluminum plate underneath the woofers and near the bottom of the speakers. This closes off the direction of the port that is not used, most often the front, although in some rooms, where the speakers have to be placed near the wall behind them, the plate is moved to the rear.

For a few years now, Wilson Audio has been steadily bringing the manufacture of various parts used for its speakers either into its Provo, Utah, factory, or acquiring companies that will do the manufacturing externally. This proceeded a couple of years ago when Wilson acquired Reliable Capacitor, Rel Cap for short, bringing the manufacturing of the capacitors used for its speakers under the company's control. This is no small feat. The capacitors used in the crossover of any speaker have a great effect on the sound produced, and this is probably even more true for Wilson Audio speakers, given all of the disparate drivers used. Capacitor manufacturing is as much art as science, and having the ability to specify and create capacitors in-house, in a few hours instead of days or weeks, gives Daryl Wilson and his design team an incredible advantage. The Chronosonic XVX’s crossover features the all-new AudioCapX-WA, an application-specific, proprietary version of Wilson's AudioCapX, which the company says is the best capacitor for loudspeaker crossovers available today.

When you consider everything that has gone into this speaker, including the Micrometer and Gantry, the huge bass cabinet and multiple driver modules, it's easy to imagine something visually unwieldy, even grotesque -- akin to Dave Wilson's early experiments in time alignment. On the contrary, the Chronosonic XVX looks high-tech and elegant, all of its parts and surfaces working in visual harmony. Since he took over at Wilson Audio, Daryl Wilson has shown an uncanny eye for not only refining the outward look of his company's speakers but also finishing them off with peripheral parts that only add to their unified look and luxe character. For instance, while the surfaces of the Chronosonic XVX's bass cabinet could be unadorned, instead they have subtle swoops and contours on the sides and edges, which integrate visually with the curves of the Gantry and upper modules. Around back, the connection point for the upper modules is visually arresting, like the dashboard of a luxury car, as is the resistor plate below it. To aid in setting up and fine-tuning the speakers, the Gantry features built-in bubble levels with alignment crosshairs, and there is even an onboard rechargeable lighting system that was designed in cooperation with Coolfall. Daryl Wilson realized at some point that lighting would be useful in setting up the XVX, so he decided to include it. It also doubles as accent lighting.

I also have to mention the evolution of Wilson Audio's in-house paint shop, including a new wrinkle for the Chronosonic XVX. The meticulous, multi-step painted finish of Wilson speakers continues to set industry standards, but the options have expanded. The color palette has always been exceptionally wide, but a matte option was added a couple of years ago, and a new pearlescent finish debuts for the Chronosonic XVX. This requires additional processes during painting, but the finished product has an added luster and gleam that you have to see to appreciate. The review system came in Olympia Pearl -- ostensibly an off-white shade but one around which light seems to dance (appropriate for a loudspeaker, no?). As has been the case for a while, buyers can choose black or "clear" (silver) hardware, which greatly enhances the overall look. I generally dislike the comparison of a loudspeaker to a sports car, but it fits more with the Chronosonic XVX than any previous Wilson Audio speaker, including the WAMM. I'm glad I didn't have to make a color choice (although Olympia Pearl is ideal for the off-white walls of my listening room), because the possible combinations would have been anxiety-causing.

As has happened for every Wilson speaker I've reviewed over the years, John Giolas set up the Chronosonic XVXes and Subsonics in my listening room, this time with help from Joe Bills, a production supervisor at Wilson Audio. The extra help was necessary, because the speakers and subs arrived in eight large crates, which meant hours of unpacking, lugging, assembling, positioning and fine-tuning. John was able to shave time off all of this work because he's familiar with my listening room, but the entire process still took more than a full day, my listening room being a profusion of activity for much of that time. Luckily, there are no steps up to the front door of my house, which opens directly into the listening room. This clear path has always proved to be a time- and back-saving convenience, but never more so than with the XVXes and Subsonics, which all together approach a ton and a half of total weight.

The Subsonic subwoofers were real work to get out of their crates and into the house. They are nearly as tall as refrigerators but only about two-thirds as wide. After we wheeled them behind the XVXes and near the corners of the room, John set about dialing in the ActivXO controller. He used a test CD that comes with it, and as I stood in the kitchen, which is adjacent to my listening room, I could hear pictures hanging on the walls nearby rattling. That's expected from such large cabinets, made entirely of Wilson's X-Material but sporting thick aluminum front plates to further stiffen the baffle against the output of the trio of 12" woofers with thick surrounds. Yes, subwoofers are about bass, but when they are correctly set up they can bring something to the presentation that no speakers can alone -- more on this below. With the Subsonics, the XVXes were run full-range, the subs filling in mostly from about 40Hz on down -- a range the XVXes themselves have no problem reaching.

About the fine-tuning. As with other Wilson speakers, a step in the setup of the XVXes is measurement of the listening position, both in distance from the speakers as well as the floor. This is done to determine the correct settings for the various modules, in order to achieve exact time alignment at the listening position. But there's also an important procedure that tailors the speakers to the amplifier with which they will be used. While previous Wilson models other than the WAMM used predetermined steps for time alignment of the drivers, the Gantry and Micrometer of the XVX allow infinite small incremental adjustments to correct not just for listening position but also the unique time smear of the partnering amplifier. Wilson Audio determines this through measurement of the amplifier, and those data are provided to the person setting up the speakers. Daryl Wilson admits that there are some similarities among the amplifiers he has measured, especially ones with similar topologies, but, as he put it, "Every manufacturer has its secret sauce."

Luckily, my Lamm M1.2s, which are not exactly a price match for the XVXes, are amps for which Wilson Audio had data; another amp that showed up during my listening, and proved to be an even better sonic match, required a trip to the Wilson factory for measurement and then slight adjustment of one module thereafter. Wilson Audio has measured over a dozen different amplifiers so far, and their database of information will surely grow with time, but potential owners of the XVXes should keep in mind that achieving the precise time alignment of which the speakers are capable may require measurement of their amps.

Every writer who covers audio equipment with serious intent does so from a highly personal perspective. This informs and moulds each writer's unique way of discussing equipment, its capabilities and significance, which in turn reveals how he or she hears recorded music. We all come to each review with expectations for what we may hear from any piece of equipment, no matter its type or technology, and managing those expectations is vital to the reviewing process. As much as we reviewers might try to be robots with ears, we're not. Describing the sound of an audio component is difficult under the best circumstances, but it is nearly impossible to achieve with any accuracy when you aren't considering, or aren't even aware of, the preconceived notions that can infect the process in various ways -- often via the product's technology, its maker, its price, or all three.

I had some serious expectations to manage before the Chronosonic XVXes and Subsonic subs arrived, not for any of the reasons just mentioned, not even due to the many Wilson Audio speakers I've heard in my listening room, but rather because of one speaker I haven't heard there. Back in late 2016, I made a trip to Provo, Utah, to hear the WAMM Master Chronosonics, which are the direct progenitors to the Chronosonic XVXes. No demonstration Dave Wilson's was a mere listening session, and he was in top form that day, running through all of the technical and musical details of what was then a one-of-a-kind speaker. Unfortunately, it would be the last time I visited with Dave, as he passed away a year and a half later, but I still vividly remember listening to him talk about drivers, crossovers and especially time alignment before we settled in for some music in his huge, purpose-built listening room.

It was easy to appreciate the wide-ranging performance of the WAMMs -- their massive resolving, dynamic and spatial abilities; and just the sight of them made quite an impression -- seven feet tall, with huge bass cabinets, but also an artistic fluidity that I likened to the sultry curves of an Henri Rousseau jungle scene. But what lodged in my mind that day, and has stayed there ever since, was the sense of sonic wonder the speakers created. This was difficult to express, and I distinctly remember sitting there after each cut and thinking, What did I just hear? It was something, perhaps many things, that I had not heard before; my perspective, after more than two decades of writing about audio equipment, was obscured, my expectations forged by a sound that was literally new to me. During his visit to Provo, which happened before mine, Roy Gregory had a similar experience -- the sense that he was hearing something new. He boiled it down to "the balance between direct and reflected energy," which "alters exactly as it does in the concert hall." He concluded with "I’ve never heard a speaker system do that."

With all of that firmly in mind, I started listening to the Chronosonic XVXes and Subsonics. From the beginning, it was as though I was listening to the WAMMs in Dave Wilson's room all over again. What the XVX/Subsonic system did far better than any speakers I've heard at length, including the various Wilson Alexandria models, is convey the physical scale, dynamic range, volume and sheer force of the music, whether it was made by a symphony orchestra, rock band or jazz ensemble. Or perhaps it was what Roy observed about the WAMMs: it all boils down to the total resolution of the direct and reflected energy. Whatever it may be, while I normally go through a number of well-known cuts that I have mentioned in other reviews, with the XVXes and Subsonics, I was playing music big on, well, bigness -- not just classical music but also large-ensemble jazz that provided endless thrills and delight, along with some sonic re-education.

Telarc LPs may be derived from digital sources, and early digital at that, but their sound is of absolute reference quality, even approaching forty years after their creation. I'm always happy to find one in a pile of records at a thrift store, my latest being one of the most valuable: the Omnidisc [Telarc DG-10073/74], which I bought for 25 cents. This two-record set is one of the most complex setup records ever created (it comes with a 12-page booklet), but two of its four sides have musical selections that either test tracking ability or aid in the setup of the entire audio system. Some are well-known demo tracks, like the part of Telarc's 1812 Overture with the five difficult-to-track cannon shots, but I turned immediately to the opening of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring for its stunning stereo spread and sense of acoustic space. I played it from the actual LP [Telarc DG-10054], which cost me all of a dollar, because, as I discovered, the Omnidisc's tracking cuts are repeated at progressively higher levels and not meant for pleasure listening. The big Wilson speakers and subs were effective at turning the end of my large listening room into a facsimile of a concert hall, the mass of musicians playing within a huge, well-focused space, but even more impressive was the specificity with which the system delineated the various parts of the orchestra. In the booklet for the Omnidisc, Telarc included a graphic of the layout of the Cleveland Orchestra, and it was no work at all, with eyes closed, to hear the placement of each section. They were shown in the sound with equal realism.

I am not one for listening to sound, as opposed to enjoying music, but with this music, with this speaker system, it was the sound that was initially most compelling. It was a kind of enigma, utterly new and perplexing. So as a further test, I pulled out the SACD of The Rite of Spring [Telarc SACD-60563], and while the instrumental trails were a touch more blunt, it was perhaps even easier to mentally "see" the soundscape. This was the same recording, sounding very much the same as the LP, but with some small differences, all laid bare by the speakers while re-creating a sense of musicians occupying a large physical space as I've never heard in my listening room before. I thought again about the WAMM demo in Provo, wondered again, What did I just hear? This was more than simply a broad, deep soundstage populated with musicians; there was a kind of precision and an impression of complete resolution that were new -- a flesh-and-blood vividness that was fascinating for its novelty and moving for the insight it brought to the music.

No matter the medium, as the familiar spare opening built to a cacophony, I thought how challenging this recording was to reproduce in this way -- at once spare and nuanced, then thundering and aggressive. The Chronosonic XVXes and subs had no trouble with the dynamic swings, resolving detail down to individual draws of the bow, down to the noise floor. The resolving power -- in all realms -- of the XVXes was absolute, and was even greater, by no small margin, than that of the various Wilson speakers I've written about, including the Alexx. Big Wilson speakers have always been very sensitive for dynamic designs, and the XVX retains this, leaving no detail about the recording's or system's own noise unheard. These are highly revealing speakers for sure, but not aggressive in the way the music flows from them -- with absolute dynamic, spatial and tonally honesty. It's always the equipment, no matter how good, that can't keep up with the demands of the very best recordings, but with the XVXes and Subsonics, the speakers were removed from that equation.

Recent-vintage Wilson Audio speakers have excelled at portraying height information -- provided it's captured on the recording, of course. While the Sasha DAW and Alexia 2 were particularly dramatic in this way, because they are shorter and yet still able to cast life-sized images, the XVX is even better. The soundstage begins big and swells with vocal recordings like Suzanne Vega's Close-Up Series six-CD set [Amanuensis 2507]. However, a different kind of orchestral music demonstrated this even better, though with horns instead of voices. On Bug Music [Nonesuch 79438-2], clarinetist Don Byron leads a 15-piece jazz band through selections that include some incidental music from Warner Brothers cartoons. I've talked about "Powerhouse" in the past, but "Cotton Club Stomp" is equally pulse-pounding, and the XVXes arrayed the musicians in as much space as my room could support, right to left and floor to ceiling. Interestingly, this effect was even greater when I stood eight feet behind my listening seat, although the imaging was less specific and the bass boomier, the music taking on more of a wall-of-sound quality, heavy on brass that swelled in intensity from beginning, the recording reaching near-live listening levels as I leaned on the volume. With the speakers fine-tuned for my listening seat, sitting back down returned the overall precision, as though a pair of lenses were once again adjusted to work together. This has always been the case with Wilson speakers, and their acute time alignment, but never so stark as with the Chronosonic XVXes.

On the other end of the spatial and dynamic scales, the XVXes and Subsonics were just as impressive, again due to their ability to present everything a recording had to offer. While we reviewers like to toss out accolades that imply, or even state, that a particular recording sounds just like live music, it's never the case, and for one simple reason: a recording is not live music. But there is one type of recorded music that can come very close to sounding live -- solo acoustic guitar. An unamplified acoustic guitar is capable of startling transients and on-the-dime dynamic swings, if good microphones are able to capture them. And, to state the obvious, a solo guitar is just one instrument, so not nearly as challenging to record as a small band, for instance.

An old friend of mine, John Hasbrouck, is a fingerpicking wonder. I've heard him play live many, many times, though not in a very long time. He made a couple of albums, and Ice Cream [Ruthless Rabbit Records RRR1961], has cuts he recorded himself on a portable DAT deck. Those tracks, more than others on the CD, sound stunningly real, especially his idiosyncratic arrangement of "As Time Goes By," famous from Casablanca. It's a cover that does what a cover should ideally do: sound familiar and new at the same time. The big Wilson speaker system dramatically brought it to life -- just John sitting there between the speakers, his playing at once flowing and then shooting out of the drivers like lightning. This was on the opposite end of the recorded-music scale from The Rite of Spring but even more convincing: a guitarist displaying all of his chops in sound that belied the simple way the music was recorded.

And this is how the listening went: I played a recording and the speaker system morphed into whatever that recording was -- big and blustery or small and intimate, and every point in between. But one of the challenges of reviewing a product like the Chronosonic XVXes and Subsonics is the attention it draws. Like Jupiter, whose gravity is so great that it pulls other nearby objects into its orbit, this speaker system brings all manner of offers of other equipment to use with it. "You have those? You should hear our . . ." happened a few times after the speakers and subs arrived, and in two cases, I relented, because the products were ones we wanted to cover.

The first of these suggestions were the Convergent Audio Technology (CAT) SL1 Legend Extreme preamp and JL5 Limited Edition stereo amplifier. The preamp and one amp came directly to me, and a second amp went to Wilson Audio, where Daryl Wilson measured it, to determine in what ways it deviated from the time signature of the standard. After the measurements, Daryl let me know which of the XVX's modules needed to be readjusted and exactly how to do that, but I couldn't resist doing some listening beforehand, just to note any differences. I also had to readjust the controller for the subwoofers, because of the different gain levels of the CAT amps and the Lamm and Krell amps I was using.

The time adjustments made noticeable difference in terms of overall clarity and immediacy, but the CAT electronics lifted the speakers and subs to a new performance level, increasing the physical weight of the presentation and the sense of ambience retrieved from every recording. The midrange improved as well, taking on a electrostatic-like transparency and coherence that not only belied the speakers' many drivers but improved on the coherence that other Wilson Audio speakers have achieved. The increased bass dynamics, heft and slam were immediately apparent as well, as was the unforced resolution throughout the entire audible range. With the CAT electronics, the music was awash with space, presence and natural power; strain was nonexistent, no matter the volume level.

After I had listened for a month and a half, Ken Stevens of CAT traveled to where I live, ostensibly to hear his electronics in my system, but I suspect that the Wilson speaker system was the real draw. We spent the better part of three days listening, and to be hospitable, I let Ken decide on the playlist. He bought along a few discs, and after we exhausted them, I suggested something that fascinated Ken: a comparison of all of the dCS Rossini DAC's many mappers and filters, each possible combination, one after another. With separate sets of PCM and DSD filters, in addition to the four different mappers, to evaluate, Ken sat dutifully in the listening seat (the guy listens to capacitors and resistors for fun) as I played a portion of a cut from Ryan Adams over and over and over again. This took most of a Saturday afternoon, but Ken was riveted, deciding on his individual favorites and then his preferred combination for overall listening.

Since that day, Ken and I have talked a few times about his visit, and his assessment of the speaker system, which he had not heard before, mirrored my own, though in different words. The speaker system told him not only everything about his electronics but also about the partnering equipment, including those filters and mappers. He summed up with a terse phrase: "laboratory grade." Coming from an audiophile, this phrase might seem to damn with faint praise, but coming from a maker of electronics, and Ken Stevens in particular, one of high-end audio's few trained electrical engineers, it is the highest form of praise. The speakers were bare and direct conduits for his electronics, exposing their sound with uncompromising fidelity. Electronics manufacturers need speaker manufacturers in order to realize the potential of their creations, and from his time with the XVXes and Subsonics, it seemed that Ken found the speakers that did this better than any he has heard.

The second system change was one that dovetailed with the CAT preamp and its phono stage. A few weeks after the preamp and amps arrived, UPS delivered a Grand Prix Audio Parabolica turntable. This is the little brother to the Monaco 2.0, which is a favorite of Roy Gregory. I've not heard that 'table in my system, but I have heard the Monaco 1.5, and it sounded largely like the Parabolica -- that is, like no turntable at all. I will have more to say about this, of course, but analog's unforced resolution, tonal purity and spooky imaging capabilities were better served by this turntable, and the XVXes and Subsonics, than by any system I've heard. I still have various tonearms and cartridges to pair with the Parabolica, and I expect that each will reveal new facets of the turntable's performance, but I know that the speaker system will in turn tell me exactly what each change offers -- including any missteps in installation.

But so what? What does all of this parsing of hardware matter unless it produces a musical whole? Ultimately if you are (or I am) considering a purchase at the price level of the Chronosonic XVXes and Subsonics, the money must buy an engaging and engrossing musical presentation. Listening to it should be an event, something you think about beforehand and haunts you afterward. And that's what made the XVX/Subsonic system so significant: its ability to reveal everything upstream, including the technology of the electronics and the format of the recordings, was consummate and vital, an end point itself, but one woven into the fabric of the musical performance. While I greatly preferred the CAT electronics with the speaker system, because the two were a matter of like reinforcing like, not one making up for the faults of the other, no combination of hardware used and recordings played was anything less than enthralling. Wilson speakers have always made the most of inexpensive electronics, and I'm sure the XVXes would continue this, though no buyers will pair these speakers and subs with anything less than the very best according to their ears.

Finally, I need to say something about the Subsonic subwoofers -- this was a review of a speaker system, after all. Over the past couple of years, a few reviews of Wilson Audio speakers have included the company's subwoofers -- Roy Gregory wrote two of them for The Audio Beat. I'm not sure if those reviews represented a new marketing emphasis for the company -- selling speakers and subs is certainly better for the bottom line than selling speakers alone -- or if it represents Wilson merely reminding audiophiles that the subwoofers exist. I actually think the reasoning is firmly rooted in performance: properly mated with the main speakers, great subwoofers do so much more than extend bass. The Subsonics surely extended bass -- their huge cabinets and trio of long-excursion woofers ensured that -- but even with the XVXes, what they were able to add to the overall sonic presentation was not subtle or, after experiencing it, optional, I would argue. The added sense of space and ambience, the greater left-to-right and front-to-back spread of the soundstage, were immediately obvious. But it wasn't so much a matter of a trumpeter, for instance, being a foot or two farther right, but rather an enhanced sense of soundfield atmosphere, air and verisimilitude that worked even greater wonders with the speakers' own resolving powers. Any listener could hear the difference, and it was consistent with every recording, even older mono LPs that surely didn't have much energy below about 100Hz.

More interesting was the Subsonics' effect on the midrange, increasing you-are-there immediacy, even as their way with ambience brought the musicians and the space they occupied more vividly into the listening room. The subs were driven from a second set of outputs, the range they covered handled by the ActivXO controller and mostly limited to the very lowest frequencies. The speakers were full-range, with or without the subs in use. How all of this added up to improved midrange resolution and immediacy is beyond my comprehension, but listening to music on such a speaker system involves no comprehending, the difference with and without the subs being easy to hear. And, of course, the bass was awe-inspiring in its depth and power, and crushing in its weight.

If you are buying Chronosonic XVXes, you almost certainly have the extra money for Subsonics, the ActivXO, and the extra cables and amplifiers needed to drive everything. In an elementary sense, for strict augmentation of the bass, the Subsonics are not necessary, but I honestly can't think of a more worthy upgrade in sonic terms, the speaker system being greater than its various parts. The Subsonics are very large, however, and while the speakers are adjustable for virtually every combination of listening distance and height, as well as for use near the wall behind them, placing the Subsonics comes down to having space in the listening room for them. One of the very early reviews I wrote of a Wilson Audio product, now pushing twenty years ago, was of the powered WATCH Dog subwoofer, and a single one of those was a revelation to me then. While Wilson no longer offers the powered version of the WATCH Dog, the company does make a passive version, and I immediately wondered if a space-deprived audiophile might find a pair, or even one, of these subs a worthwhile addition to an XVX-based system. Again, the XVXes don't need subwoofers, but once you've heard these speakers with the Subsonics, you can't unhear it.

Reviewing audio equipment is usually a straightforward process. You add the product to your existing system, play recordings you know well and have preferably heard on many different systems, note the differences, and repeat until you can turn what you've heard into words. Regardless of what other writers might consider their goals, our guiding light at The Audio Beat is describing what we hear -- answering the question, What does it sound like? Subjective impressions -- what I may or may not like -- don't have relevance from reader to reader, but simply describing what I hear with a product in my system does. The best bit of feedback a reviewer can get, in my opinion at least, is, "That's exactly how the product sounds."

What I describe above is the process I followed with the Wilson Chronosonic XVXes and Subsonics, but the products themselves were so far-reaching in their performance, and so new to my ears because of it, that simply describing what I heard became an exercise in incongruity -- more difficult in one sense and easier in another. It was more difficult because this edge-of-the-art speaker system became whatever the recording and music wanted it to be. I ended up describing the recording when I attempted to pin down the sound. On the other hand, it was easier to describe what I was hearing because the differences from one recording to the next were distinct, the resolution of the speakers and their necessary subs unearthing previously unheard detail, and doing so with absolute fidelity.

As I try to sum up, a phrase from Daryl Wilson actually does the best job of capturing my thoughts: "open possibilities." He was referring to the clean-sheet design process he followed when he first imagined and then began designing the Chronosonic XVX, but it also effectively captures the sound of this magnificent speaker system: a full sonic accounting, a complete sonic picture, is what you get after you push Play or drop the stylus onto the record. This isn't to say that the XVXes and subs don't have a sound, but rather that it's defined by the recording, not some dominating flavor the speaker system imparts. It's defined by potential -- the extreme bandwidth, coherence, dynamic alacrity, spatial resolution, and low-end power that are possible if your electronics and recordings can bring it out. If I had to say where this comes from, I would point to the precise adjustability of the speakers in the time domain, although Daryl Wilson may be quick to remind me of the mixed materials, the new midrange, the new capacitors, and so on. I'm still not sure I have the full measure of this speaker system's capabilities. I probably need to hear the XVXes and Subsonics with more sources and especially amplifiers, and in each case I would expect that any system change would likely add to the list of sonic virtues.

But you don't have to take my word for it, because the Chronosonic XVXes are super speakers that you can actually hear. Part of the rollout was getting them out to the public, and over a dozen Wilson Audio dealers in the US have them, and perhaps the subwoofers, set up and ready to play. There are also dealers and distributors in Europe and Asia with XVXes. Bring your music and be open to the possibilities.

WASP in flight

Dave Wilson's innovations in the design and manufacture of loudspeakers, most of which were devised decades ago, are central to the speakers Wilson Audio makes today. But perhaps the widest-reaching of these applies to speakers made by any company and that audiophiles can use for themselves, no purchase necessary. It also makes perfect sense if you believe that the room in which any loudspeakers are placed has great influence on the sound produced.

Once referred to as "voweling in," the Wilson Audio Setup Procedure, known now by its acronym, WASP, is a process for finding the precise locations within a room that affect the sound of speakers the least. It only stands to reason that these locations exist, but unlike other loudspeaker-setup procedures, WASP isn't based on the room's dimensions. Instead, it relies on the voice and experience of the person performing it, who listens -- not a novel concept when it comes to speakers -- and identifies where the speakers encounter the least influence from the room itself, the "zone of neutrality," as Dave Wilson named it, not by some predetermined mathematical formula.

John Giolas has set up so many speakers in my listening room that he knows roughly where each should go, using nothing more than his experience and notes he's taken over the years. So it has been a long time -- nearly twenty years, in fact -- since I've watched anyone perform WASP, that is until I saw Giolas do it in Chris Connaker's listening room, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Chris is the founder of the successful Computer Audiophile website, which has morphed into Audiophile Style. His listening room is an expertly converted attic with a work area and bathroom -- just the kind of private listening space that surely allows Chris to keep his audio system, and his work with it, separate from his domestic life.

WASP is a fascinating process to witness, both visually and especially aurally. John began in the corners of Chris's room, which were affected by a sloping roof line. Moving methodically, John spoke and listened, over and over again, identifying through trial and error, repetition and intuition, where the room's sonic fingerprint "released" the sound of his voice, instead of overlaying it with the room's inherent resonances. Once he identified the zones of neutrality, John illustrated the coloration that small movements right or left, forward or backward, had on the sound. They weren't subtle or, it stood to reason, minor in terms of the sound the speakers, a pair of Alexia 2s, would achieve. John taped off the areas, the speakers were moved in, and the fine-tuning, also important to the final sonic outcome, began.

No amount of description captures either WASP or its significance to the extent that witnessing and performing it do. Even if you perform it imperfectly, you will learn about your listening room's inherent character, and this will help you position your speakers, no matter their make and model, for the best sonic results. I suppose it can be considered giving away a trade secret, but Wilson Audio has posted a 20-minute video on WASP, which features Dave Wilson explaining and Daryl Wilson performing the process. As I watched, I wistfully remembered what a clear thinker and skilled communicator Dave Wilson was, especially where his own speakers were concerned.

-Marc Mickelson

Associated Equipment

Analog: TW-Acustic Raven AC turntable; Graham B-44 Phantom Series II Supreme and Tri-Planar Ultimate U2 SE tonearms; Grand Prix Audio Parabolica turntable with Tri-Planar Mk VII U2 tonearm; Denon DL-103R, Denon DL-305, Denon DL-S1 and Dynavector XV-1s Mono cartridges; Nordost Odin 2 phono cable; Lamm Industries LP2.1 phono stage.

Digital: Ayre Acoustics DX-5 DSD "A/V Engine"; CEC TL1 CD transport; Conrad-Johnson Premier 9 and Timbre Technology TT-1 digital-to-analog converters; dCS Rossini 2.0 Transport, DAC, and Clock; Genesis Digital Lens and Audio Alchemy DTI Pro 32 jitter attenuators; Meridian 562 analog-to-digital converter; Toshiba Satellite laptop.

Preamplifiers: Convergent Audio Technology SL1 Legend Extreme with phono, VTL TL-7.5 Series III Reference.

Amplifiers: Convergent Audio Technology JL5 Limited Edition stereo amps, Krell Showcase multichannel amp, Lamm M1.2 Reference monoblocks.

Interconnects: AudioQuest William E. Low Signature, Nordost Odin 2, Shunyata Research Zi-Tron Anaconda.

Speaker cables: AudioQuest William E. Low Signature, Nordost Odin 2, Shunyata Research Zi-Tron Anaconda.

Digital cables: AudioQuest Diamond USB cable; DH Labs D-750 S/PDIF and D-110 AES/EBU cables; Nordost Valhalla 2 S/PDIF and AES/EBU and cables.

Power products: Essential Sound Products The Essence Reference, Nordost Qkore grounding system, Shunyata Research Denali 6000/S V2 and Everest.

Power cords: Essential Sound Products The Essence Reference and MusicCord-Pro ES, Nordost Odin 2 and Valhalla 2, Shunyata Research Zi-Tron Anaconda.

Equipment rack and platforms: Silent Running Audio Craz³ 8 equipment rack and Virginia Class Reference platforms (under Lamm M1.2 amps), Harmonic Resolution Systems M3 isolation bases.

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