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I just heard the Wilson Alexandria XLF's Wednesday

My local high end audio shop hosted its annual "Music Matters" open house where reps from their prime product lines demonstrate their latest wares. In the past I've been introduced to many products that were either just reaching the market or still in prototype stage (e.g., the Magnepan Mini's).

In one room we had Peter McGrath of Wilson, Dan D'Agostino with his new $50K/pair monoblock amps, a Meridian rep with a Sooloos front end, and John Atkinson of Stereophile, who had some great 24/96 music files he'd recorded himself.

Two demos were of music Atkinson had recorded with minimal miking--a small orchestra and pianist playing Rhapsody in Blue and a 9-person vocal group with organ accompaniment.

This setup produced the most realistic reproduction of music I've personally heard. I am a subscriber to the Seattle Symphony and attend live concerts there monthly. It's obvious to me that these live performances have--in addition to the music--a sense of room energy that's consistently lacking in audio reproduction. NOT THIS TIME! The Meridian/D'Agostino/Transparent (Opus)/Wilson signal chain produced a completely fleshed-out, live-feeling presentation. A sonic hologram if you will. The presentation was transparent and resonance-free, linear, extended, but most of all, live-sounding.

In fact, the very next demo I went to was of Audio Research pushing the new Wisdom Audio $95K flagship panels+sub system, and it sounded artificial by comparison. On its own I'm sure the Wisdom is an excellent speaker, but following the twice-as-expensive Alexandria XLF it was a complete letdown.

Anyone who has an opportunity to hear the Alexandria XLFs should give them a listen just to see what can be done. For me it completely re-defined what can be done with musical reproduction and makes me regret not setting out to become a millionaire when I was young so I could afford a pair (plus the D'Agostino amps) today.

BTW, in all previous Wilson demo's I've heard (Sophia 2 & 3, Maxx 2 & 3, Alexandria X-2, Watt/Puppy 7, Sasha W/P 8), they always sounded decidedly better--more musical, liquid, resolving, real-sounding--with tube electronics. Not so this time. The D'Agostinos are so neutral and so good at driving the speakers that all you think about is the music and the holographic presentation.
johnnyb53
johnnyb53 OP
3,510 posts
 

06-04-12: Lloydelee21
I have spoken with people who compared the XLFs on ML latest Ref, D'Agostino monos and the Gryphon Mephisto and it seems those who were there preferred Mephisto significantly. My sense is that the Gryphon is more delicately nuanced while being a match or more than a match in sheer power.

I don't doubt that either. I've heard several amps with Wilsons, including VTL, ARC, and Ayre, as well as D'Agostino. But I certainly haven't heard every amp, and I've never heard the Gryphon Mephisto. The Mephisto monoblocks are also more than double the price of the D'Agostinos. They must be really something. Class A with zero global feedback? Hell yeah!

Still, for $50K the D'Agostinos ain't too shabby. :)
peterayer
1,382 posts
 
Wilson speakers also sound great with the large Pass Labs class A amps.
lloydelee21
1,202 posts
 
Hi Johnnyb53...no kidding! Not shabby at all!!! ;)

Peterayer - yes, i have heard that too. I run my old Wilsons with Class A, and love it.
french_fries
815 posts
 
In regards to Siddh's very astute observations listening to high-definition recordings by P.McGrath, i also have had similar exposure to Peter's tapes made on a Nagra-D reel-to-reel of local classical music concerts. needless to say, it sounded like the musicians were trapped inside the speakers struggling to get out... the Wilson
speakers in this case were X-1 Grand Slamms. I am sure the XLF's are very very good having heard the Alexandria X-2.1's which left me thinking about what i had heard for days afterwards (being immersed in sound coming from everywhere). but with the right sources you can expect a lot of systems to open up and reach new heights of sonority. Just how these recording compare to "HD-tracks" i do not know...
johnnyb53 OP
3,510 posts
 
^^^

Yes, there's nothing like the best recorded source with the fewest generations of copies and mixdowns between the event and the playback medium. The first time I heard a Sheffield D2D was on a portable Zenith record player. In 1975 the stereo shop I worked at hosted a Marantz clinic for measuring and plotting amps and receivers for frequency response, power output, and distortion. The engineer was Reice Hamel, who had recorded several great live albums including Time Jones Live at Caesar's Palace and Buddy Rich's Keep the Customer Satisfied. After the shop closed he took the store staff out to his mobile van for a demo of his traveling gear. Mostly he had a bank of 8" full range JBL speakers powered by little Crown D-75 amps. The source was a 4-track stereo Aiwa reel-to-reel--not a Tandberg, Tascam, or Revox. The sound was a direct mix off the multi-track master and it simply blew us away.

So I know all about that. I've been going to the Wilson demo at this open house every year since 2006. They always play a mix of recordings, sometimes including vinyl, but almost always John Atkinson is there with a 24/96 or even 24/192 recording or two that he's done with minimal miking. So I heard these Alexandria XLFs with a variety of material including 1st-gen copies of meticulously recorded material, and all played over state-of-the-art electronics and cables.

Taking all that into consideration, that XLF rig is the best reproduced sound I have ever heard, period. True, I haven't heard Focal Grand Utopias, top line Magico, or YG. But of everything I've heard, and allowing for a wide variety of source material quality, the XLF is a stunning speaker by any measure.
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