Rockport Avior 2 vs Wilson Sasha DAW

I love the suggestion, "go wherever you have to go for an audition."

I brought home a pair of Sasha DAWs a few weeks ago.  I have made some cable upgrades and put IsoAcoustic Titan footers on them because they were vibrating my hardwood suspended floor.  They sound magnificent.  Better sounding than I have ever heard in a store.  Set up takes a lot of effort.  I was using powered subs with my previous speakers but not with these Wilson’s.  Subs not needed for 2 channel set up. Sure the lowest bass is not as strong as with powered subs and yes, the Alexia 2s go deeper and stronger but I’m loving the crisp clear bass of the Sasha DAWs.  The 3 dimensionality of the sound stage, the instruments and voices is very impressive. 
‘I’ve wanted a pair of Wilson speakers for years and am thrilled to finally have a pair. I believe the Sasha DAW is the best bang for the buck in the Wilson lineup and fits perfectly in my 17x28 foot room. 

I love the wilson rooms at axpona

@carey1110 I have a rather large room as well, and I auditioned the Sasha DAW's at my dealer (with my Gryphon Diablo 300 amp and my Nordost Valhalla 2 speaker cables and my Audioquest Dragon power cords). I liked the Sasha DAW's better than any other new speaker I auditioned (B&W 801 D4's, Audiovector Arette R6's, Magico A5's, Sonus Faber Amati's).

BUT - even in the dealer's room I found the Sasha DAW's to be too lean sounding on hard rock, which I occasionally listen to.  I remember the sales guy banging his head along to Pearl Jam and thinking no this sounds harsh...  With every other type of music I found the Sasha DAW's to be stunningly good.  And I couldn't get over how great I thought they looked in real-life, although I know Wilson's looks are polarizing.

That said, I want speakers that cater to all of my musical tastes, no exceptions.  After much effort I eventually found happiness by upgrading within my old B&W speaker's generation, D2, and upgrading to the 802's from the 803's.  This generation of B&W sounds far richer and more balanced to my ear than the later D3 and D4 generation, which I agree have better soundstage depth and detail, but don't sound as musical to my ear.

I would have LOVED to test out the Rockports which are said to pair well with Gryphon.  But I can't have speakers in the middle of my room and they have rear-firing bass ports, so probably a no-go.  I would have had to fly somewhere to hear them.

I have had my Sasha DAWs for just over a month now.  I continued to work on placement of the speakers in the room over the past few weeks.  These speakers are less than a year old but since I bought them second hand I did not have the privilege of the professional Wilson set-up in my room.  But I did get very helpful guidance from Wilson Audio on how to do the set up myself.  I worked, I think about 12 hours over a few days finding the right position for the speakers.  Yes, some people see that as a drawback to Wilson speakers but what I learned is that they can sound excellent in various positions in the room but really pop when in that one special spot.  For example, now I can move around the room and the stereo image and bass response does not change. I'm sitting at my desk right now in line with the left speaker, 16.5 ft away and the stereo image is still in the center of the room.  The tonal characteristics from the highs to the bass sound the same as in my listening chair.  Its amazing to me.  The closest I have ever experienced that is the DCS Time Windows speakers in the 1980s.

I learned that the Wilson speakers want to be close to the walls.  Once I moved my listening chair back to 1.25 times the distance between the tweeters, the sound stage expanded to wall to wall and floor to ceiling.  So I am mystified when I see so many U tube videos showing Wilson speakers standing far out into the room.  That's not where they want to be.

Right now, from the outside front corner my speakers sit 50" from the front wall and 32.5" from the side walls.  They are right at the outer boundary line of the zone of neutrality.  I don't want to get any closer to the front wall because my speaker cables are thick and stiff and difficult to manipulate.  Any closer and the speaker cables will be pressed against the front wall.  The back of the speakers are just 30" from the wall.

The clarity and presence of bass is very satisfying.  If I seem fixated on the bass it is because I have never experienced this level of fidelity in the bass before.  And do not think the rest of the sound is lacking in any way.  The whole tonal balance and clarity is fantastic.  Detail and resolution without the fatigue which I know is a cliche.  I'm living it and loving it.

Setting them up yourself with no training requires a lot of patience and perseverance.  The payoff made it worth it to me.  But for sure, It might have taken me a year or more to position them if I were still working.