Wilson Alexia - what's the competition

The Vandersteen 7 is lower distortion, therefore much purer sounding. Lower grain, less "spit", less coarseness in the mids, clearer bass.

That's without mentioning infinitely more room tunable due to the very adjustable bass EQ. One of the greatest speakers ever made.

Disclosure: though I have had pretty extensive experience with them I am not a dealer, do not own them, and have no financial connection. I owned several state of the art speakers already before I heard what the 7s could do.

Either the Vandersteen 7s are way underpriced or all the $100k+ speakers are overpriced.

I would certainly listen to the Tidal Piano Diacera speakers or if you have a little more $ the Contriva Diacera -se Tidal speakers. IMO they are much better then the Wilson's..

Would love to demo the Vandy7 + Alexia.

I'm not a huge Wilson fan, but I heard the Alexia at the NYC show a month ago and I was very impressed -- moreso than with any other Wilson demo I've heard. I actually preferred the sound in that room to the MAXX3s, but they were in different rooms with different equipment so fwiw.

That said, at their $48k asking price I'd make damn sure to hear several other contenders -- even if I had to fly somewhere to do it -- as there are a ton of great speakers in that price range. Specifically, for almost $20k less(!!!) I'd give the Joseph Audio Pearl 3s (also sounded great at the show) and Rockport Aviors a serious listen. I also got to hear the Vivid G3 which was another best of show contender for me, and that clocks in around $8k less than the Alexias if you can handle their looks (which I found to be pretty cool in person, and I'm usually pretty conservative). And for $10k less the Magico Q3 would be on my list as well. Closer to the Alexia's price range the Vandy 7s would be a must hear for me, and I'd give the Raidho 3.1s a shot too (the 2.1s also sounded great at the show, again one of the best for me).

Man, going through all these great options made me wish I was in your position (sigh). Have fun and best of luck, and I'd really like to hear what you find along your journey.

I also agree that Vandy 7's, Vivid G3's, Rockport Aviors all deserve a listen.