First Sounds: Wilson Audio Alexia 2
mong the revelations in Vance Hiner’s blog on Audio Systems Optimized, Stirling Trayle’s system-setup service, is one that has nothing to do with Trayle’s rearrangement and optimization of Vance’s audio system. Instead, the venue for the system itself -- Vance’s well-appointed living room (below) -- made me admire the care he and his wife have taken to make music a part of their life, fitting the speakers, electronics and equipment racks into their chosen décor. We audiophiles too often close ourselves off in private listening lairs instead of inviting others to experience our carefully assembled audio systems -- especially, in too many cases, the people in our immediate orbits. Sometimes spouses and family simply aren’t interested, but music has a unique way of drawing people in, and it’s clear that for Vance and his wife, music is part of their life together.
But Vance’s living room also presents a challenge: what if he and his wife would like to have speakers that are larger than his chosen Wilson Audio Sasha W/P Series 2s? While his current system seems to fit well into his room, would that still be the case if Vance and his wife craved the added bandwidth and large-scale dynamic prowess of, say, Wilson’s Alexx? The pictures that accompany Vance’s text give the answer: there’s not enough floor space in this room for a speaker the width and depth of the Alexx if Vance and his wife want to preserve the aesthetics of their listening room.
There is an alternative for use in Vance’s room, however, one designed to inhabit the area of his Sasha 2s. One of the professed design goals of Wilson Audio’s Alexia was that it would be a nearly drop-in replacement for the Sasha W/P. The new Alexia Series 2 ($57,900/pair) keeps that goal at its heart, but it also incorporates so many improvements that it could conceivably be considered a wholly new speaker. Yes, the size, form and configuration are very similar to the original Alexia's, but in important ways the Series 2 is much closer to the Alexx and even the WAMM MC, Wilson Audio’s flagship speaker and Dave Wilson’s masterwork. These include an increase in cabinet volume and the use of Wilson’s W-Material, which is so named because of its relationship to the development of the WAMM MC, under the Alexia 2’s spike-support areas. The bracing structure of the woofer and midrange cabinets has been redesigned, and the inside faces of the cabinets have geometric patterns milled into them to reduce reflected energy. The hardware for wire management includes gas-tight fittings that reduce the number of solder joints internally, and new hardware on the rear improves the speaker’s looks to no small degree.
One of the most important aspects of the WAMM MC's development was the degree to which Wilson Audio has further (and further) refined time-domain performance. The complex mechanism for the WAMM MC was a direct influence on the structure for the Alexia 2, which has twice the number of increments and increases its time-domain accuracy accordingly. This, along with a slight angle to the woofer baffle, is responsible for Wilson Audio’s assertion that the Alexia 2 "is by a wide margin the most time-domain correct loudspeaker in its category." What "category" is that? Size or price, most likely, but it could just as easily be any speaker not named Alexx or WAMM MC.
No two setups of Wilson speakers are alike; Wilson’s regimen takes the specifics of the room, the listening seat and the listener into account. I’ve witnessed or helped with numerous setups of Wilson speakers, including a recent one of a pair of Alexia 2s, which replaced original Alexias. John Giolas, Wilson Audio’s marketing director, did the setup of both speakers, so Wilson’s voweling-in routine wasn’t necessary with the Alexia 2s: John already had a rough idea of where the speakers would go in the room. But he did add two new wrinkles. After all of the fine-tuning of the cabinet positions and alignment of the upper modules for listening distance and height, John fastidiously leveled the speakers right to left and front to back. This was difficult with some older Wilson speakers, because of the lack of truly flat surfaces on which to place the level, but not with the Alexia 2. Then, once everything seemed just right, he made one more adjustment, moving the tweeter modules ahead one increment -- 1/8” -- to assess the effect on retrieval of ambient information. Voila! The difference was easy to hear, and this is where the tweeter modules stayed. Given that this wasn’t my room or system (although
some of the electronics were ones I've used), I can’t offer too much in the way of
sonic specifics. One LP in particular, Musica Nuda [Bonsaï 041101], sounded
exceptional: airy, finely detailed and effortlessly dynamic, reminding me of some of the
Sheffield Labs direct-to-disc LPs. (Unfortunately, the music -- female vocals and double
bass -- also reminded me of those recordings.) A pair of Alexia 2s are coming my way,
along with John Giolas to set them up, so expect a full report in the new year. |
