NEW!!! Wilson Alexia MkII listening session
Had a chance last Wednesday to listen to Edgar Kramer's (reviewer for Sound Stage Australia, 6 Moons, Australian HiFi, Audio Esoterica) new Wilson Alexia MkII's, and came away very impressed with their sound compared to his old Alexia MkI.
System consisted of:
Source: Yamaha CD-S2100 Used as transport and very good never missed a beat.
Dac: R2R Mutibit Totaldac d1-core DAC with optional 2 x external power supplies, outstanding R2R dac from Europe (somewhere?)
Pream/s: Supratek DHT Reference or Lightspeed Attenuator LDR passive attenuator. Swapped between these a few times, but found the tubes in the Supratek too microphonic.
Poweramp: Gryphon Audio Antileon EVO. This is one hell of an amp, will drive anything anywhere any time! We used it in Class-A 50w with it's adjustable bias, then goes to 150 Class-b at 8ohm or 1200w Class-B 1ohm and a staggering 5000w Class-B peak into 1/2ohm
I 'd heard this same setup a couple of months earlier but with the Alexia MkI and thought yes this is very good, it still has to me that great Wilson signature sound, some like it some don't, can be a little confronting over long periods to some with it's dynamics.
But with these new Alexia MkII's there was a massive difference to me, they got far greater integration between the drivers, without that highlighted Wilson signature of certain things.
What they strive'd for with this new model, was a seamless sound integration between tweeter to mids to upper bass to lower bass which gave it a larger sound stage and a more disappearing act of the speakers, reminded me of my massive full range ESL's. This was all attained without loosing any detail or impact of dynamics from MkI's and the music itself, with less in your face dynamics, but still there in spades but with a big wash over you effect instead, rather than a shot at you from a cannon effect, for want of a better word, more relaxed to listen to even all day.
Great speaker, I believe will become a sought after Wilson Classic second hand if you can afford them, as new they are way way out of my reach.
Cheers George
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I like B&W too. I used to own the 802D. Lovely speaker. Although with a lot of people, it could be infamous rather than famous. But I won't get into that as a lot of words have been said about them in these threads. Mr. Kramer liked the speaker very much, but as I skimmed through the review, I didn't see any comparison to the Wilson's. Did I miss something? |
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Heard Alexia 2s at Innovative Audio in NYC tonight presented by Peter MGrath. They sounded superb in all respects. I will listen to Magico S7 and Rockport Cygnus---but---the new Alexias set a very high bar. Also, I was previously a skeptic of MQA having heard it only on MyTek Dacs and headphones. I could not hear a difference that mattered. On a Meridian, D'Agostino, Transparent, Wilson system, the change from a pre MQA file recorded by Peter himself and the MQA version of that file was quite large and easily noticed. I'm not sure that all MQA files will improve upon the original digital release to the extent that I heard tonight--but if 1 out of 5 files can be improved to this extent--I'm in. |
They are on my radar screen for January. Going up from Sasha 1s. I will also listen to Magico S7. I've heard a number of Magico products and always respected but did not love them. I hear this speaker may be a different kettle of fish. Will also listen to the newest Rockports as I've always liked them even though I always thought they were very slightly dark. But from reports from the field, the Alexia v2s are special. I will hear the Alexia v2s this week. |
Some massive 2" diameter gold things, that wouldn’t look out of place for fire engine water delivery hoses. You can just see them in the back ground of the first pic. http://www.soundstageaustralia.com/index.php/reviews/84-wilson-audio-specialties-alexia-series-2-loudspeakers Cheers George |
