An Icon Revised: Wilson Audio's New Sasha V

by The Audio Beat | June 28, 2023

hile the Wilson Audio WATT and its companion Puppy weren't conceived together, David Wilson's idea of mating the two turned out to be one of his greatest innovations, creating a two-piece loudspeaker system that has withstood the test of time -- nearly four decades -- and several thousand pairs sold. With the new Sasha V ($48,900 per pair in standard finishes), Daryl Wilson has further refined his dad's design work, creating another two-piece speaker system that capitalizes on Wilson Audio's many years of R&D in the areas of cabinet construction and materials, driver integration, crossovers, and overall design aesthetic.

Wilson Audio introduced the Convergent Synergy Carbon (CSC) tweeter with the Alexx V, and the same tweeter is used for the Sasha V. The CSC rear-wave chamber allowed for an extended high-frequency range, smooth linearity, and high-frequency harmonic expression. Wilson's R&D team successfully mated the CSC tweeter to the 7" AlNiCo (Aluminum Nickel Cobalt) QuadraMag midrange driver "celebrated," according to the company, "for its superb settling and effortlessly revealing greater soundstage dimensionality in the frequency band that the human ear is most sensitive to." Previously this driver was only available in the Chronosonic XVX, Alexx V, and the Alexia V but is "now a critical part of Sasha V."

In terms of its cabinet materials, Sasha V uses "strategically nested" V-Material in the interface between the upper module and the woofer cabinet. "Novel in its properties, this material provides uncommon vibration control and upper module isolation, similar to the design philosophy found in the prestigious Alexx V and Alexia V." The side walls of the woofer enclosure are made from solid X-Material and are 25% thicker than those of the Sasha DAW. The upper-array baffle uses Wilson Audio's proprietary S-Material to "form a highly stable and low-resonance coupling surface for the midrange driver, thus allowing the natural sonic beauty found in the QuadraMag to bloom."

The Sasha V also features a range of hardware upgrades, including the Wilson Audio multi-connector binding posts with modified knurling. Installation choices are wider with the choice of either spade- or banana-terminated speaker cables. The Sasha V's custom capacitors are "wound and completed at Wilson Audio's in-house capacitor manufacturing department (Reliable Capacitors)." "Wilson Audio has heavily invested in highly sophisticated winding machines that have been solely crafted in Switzerland and the United States for Reliable Capacitors."