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Wilson Sasha 2 or Alexia for small room 10' x 17'?

I went to audition the Wilson Sabrina at a local shop. I so wanted to love these speakers because of the reviews, price and compact size. Unfortunately, I could not (don't hate me  Sabrina owners). I did, however,  fall in love with the Sasha 2. It seemed to do everything and more that I was looking for and I am hoping this speaker will be a speaker I can live with for a very long time. After thinking about it, I wondered, is the difference between the Sabrina and Sasha 2 smaller or greater than the Sasha 2 and current Alexia? The room has  good acoustics, Mcintosh C50 pre, MC152 amp and as noted above, is very small. Would there be too much bass and overwhelm the room. I have not heard the Alexias and was wondering if any owners or listeners familiar to both can comment on the differences and similarities and give impressions as to how they might work in my small room. I currently own and like very much the  Sonus Faber Venere 3.0 but am looking for more. At this point, I am pretty sure I will go with the Sashas  but am looking for guidance from someone with experience especially since it is very hard to locate the Alexias and hear personally.  Thanks for your opinions
996cupracer
gpgr4blu
1,089 posts
 
The moderators have not stopped Audiotroy so I just chime in whenever he lays the sales pitch on a thread that I happen to come upon. I say this just so everybody knows. He usually comes back to tell everyone of his and his boss' years of expertise and how they believe the Personas are the best speakers for multiples of their cost in part because Paradigm uses drivers made from beryllium (which AT touts as the unquestioned best material for drivers---although not In Dave Wilson's mind who test listened to beryllium, diamond coated beryllium, the superb Scanspeak Revelator tweeter and countless others before he settled on the silk dome used in the Sasha 2, Alexia and others), how because Paradigm has lots of money for R&D (true as do countless others), or how they have heard them against other expensive speakers that the Paradigm "blows away" and all that other B.S. that any biased speaker manufacturer or sales rep can say to, in their mind, "objectively" defend themselves. What a bore. What a drag. What a shame. Anyway-----
Good luck with the Sashas. I hope that when you install them in your home, they will far exceed your expectations as they did and still do for me.
kuppe38's avatar
kuppe38
30 posts
 
Boy do you Gpgr4blu  believe the sales pitch from Wilson. Wilson uses inexpensive drivers. Do you actually believe that because Wilson says that they have tested  exotic  drivers and prefer their much less expensive drivers that that is a fact, or is it Wilson's marketing?

Looks at Scanspeaks Reed driver and you will see the same driver used in many Wilson speakers and it is a http://www.seas.no/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=92:h1456-08-er18rnx&cati...

https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/seas-woofers-6-7/seas-prestige-er18rnx-h1456-7-reed-paper-cone...

Please notice it is a $90 driver! Paradigm uses proprietary drivers you can not buy them at any price. Does that mean they are better, it does not but it does show the power of engineering, as well as showing how determined they are at making a world class loudspeaker. 

I have heard the Personas and they are amazing, and I have also  visited the Audio Doctor showroom, Dave and Troy are two fantastic people who know their stuff, why don't you go hear the speakers for your self, not at an audio show, but at a dealers show room before you make such claims, as well as your personal vendetta to discredit a bunch of people that you met at a show. 

I think I read one of your previous posts that you were pissed off at Dave extolling the virtues of the Usher brand, well I checked and the Usher speakers were very highly rated. I remember the BE 718 getting rave reviews by many different publications including Soundstage, Stereophile, Six Moons and others. 

So if Dave was saying the Usher speakers were excellent, gee, I found numerous reviews agreeing with him.

 I have head the Personas and they are quite amazing sounding and I have also listened to the Wilson's at shows. I like Wilson speakers, I will say that the Personas have greater resolution, more speed, and are more holographic. I head the Alexia in the Innovative room a few years ago and quite frankly they sounded very good, not even close to the Persona 9H.

You persecute a dealer and people you have not visited for the sake of being what a self professed know it all. I am sorry you should be banned. 

The Persona's are new, and they will be reviewed in the incoming issue of the Absolute sound, 

As per the superiority of Beryllium, this is not conjecture, it is a fact, a lighter stiffer material will have less coloration then paper or silk, if you look at most of the world's top speakers Magico, YG, Vandersteen, Vivid, Focal, none of these speaker companies use paper or silk. 

Again does this mean that Beryllium is better no it does not, is is just an interesting fact that almost none of the world's competing reference speakers use the kinds of drivers that Wilson uses. 

So who is believing the marketing hype. You sir a bore. You sir have no integrity and you sir are slandering a dealer who actually cares about his clients, and about finding unique and sometimes better products that are usually less expensive then their competiton.  I can not afford the Personas and I am saving for an excellent pair of Legacy speakers I heard at their shop.

Let me guess you are now going to also say Legacy speakers are bad because Audio Doctor sells them? 

Again I have seen way too many Legacy rave reviews to say otherwise.

The Sashas are an excellent speaker but without hearing the Personas in a controlled environment, you have no idea if you would like them better or not. 

I am willing to bet that the upcoming Absolute Sound review of the Personas will verify everything I head at the demo, whether you choose to believe it or not.

Just for your own edification here is what the Absolute Sound said about the contested Persona 9H loudspeakers:

"Good things do come in a relatively small packages although this is a nearly 300 lb speaker that is 51 inches high. It uses four new ultra high excursion woofers, two 700 watt amps and ARC 2 digital room compensation to produce incredibly deep, accurate bass flat to 19hz and going as low as 15hz. It also features an advance beryllium tweeter and midrange driver and provides equally outstanding midrange and treble performance in every aspect. Detail dynamics, depth and imaging are all excellent. Sensitivity is 96db, allowing use with even low power triodes and providing, an exceptional sense of life with more powerful amps, AHC forthcoming" page 54 Absolute Sound Editors Choice 2017.

So who is full of it, sounds like Audio Doctor is right on the money, just like Dave was right about Usher Audio, maybe you should have listened to Dave years ago. 

I saw some of the best brands in Audio at their showrooms so I guess Dali, PSB, KEF, ATC, Conrad Johnson, T+A, EMM Labs,  and others brands that Audio Doctor sells must not be good either, why because they are selling them, I guess you must be at odds with reality, I saw three pieces of T+A audio in the 2017 issue of the Absolute Sounds Editors choice issue as well and the Absolute Sound raved over those pieces and guess what line of equipment was being played on the Personas, T+A. 






fin1bxn
140 posts
 
We all have our opinions but owning Wilson 8's set up properly with PASS 250.5 Amp and ARC SP20 Pre with a supped up VPI Super scoutmaster in a well tuned room I agree with kuppe38 as I have heard the 9h's. I don't know what the beef is between Gpgr4blu and Audiotroy.  But then everyone's ears are different and everyone is allowed to their opinion
james633
1,041 posts
 
I learned a long time ago that "better" engieenring does not always translate to better sound. 

 When one aspect is over engineered (stiffness, lightness) other important aspects (damping) sometimes get over looked IMO. 

I have not heard the new Paradigms though a dealer 10 minutes away stocks them so maybe I should give them a try. I was disappointed by the high prices. At those prices I would probably rather have one of the more mature "high end" brands.  
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,808 posts
 

James,

What kind of comment is I was disappointed by those prices I would probably have one of the more mature "high end brands."

Paradigm has been building well respected speakers for years, their signature series was very highly rated and were compared against similar high performance brands and products.

As per pricing the Personas use some of the most advanced driver technology in the industry and their new Pesona speakers can compete easily with Magico, YG and many others in terms of performance, so unless you think a pair of $40k Magicos is a bargain the speakers are priced actually very reasonably.

In the case of the Persona 7F which is the exact same speaker as the 9H without the 2 additional internal bass drivers and active room correction, here is a speaker flat down to 19hz and sells for $25k, I do believe a comparable Magico such as the S5 which costs $38k for a similar level of performance so again I would ask you how are these new Personas overpriced?

In terms of damping, Beryllium is known for both its lightness and its stiffness as well as being the only metal which is self damping, and such is a far superior material than almost all other metals which exhibit ringing such as aluminum or titanium.

Your comments are unfortunately what I feel is wrong in the industry, instead of some of you being intrigued by a new product which may actually offer better sound for less money than some of the other brands out there I just hear negativity.

Audio as with anything else should be about exploring and if a new product from a well established company raises the bar or offers great performance people should have an open mind.

As per Gpgru negative comments about me shilling he should be ashamed of himself. I entered this post because here you have a gentleman who is interested in a superb set of speakers and is worried how well the speaker can perform in his room and along comes a new technologically more advanced product that also sounds good with one major advantage: ACTIVE ROOM CORRECTION, and none of you say hey that is a great idea, active room correction that can give this man fantastic deep bass response in HIS room.

To which if I was reading that post I would have thought I would need to take a listen to those speakers.

Taste is a different matter the Wilsons have a different sonic flavor than the Paradigms which are far more transparent, which might be an issue for some people, as such a transparent speaker must be carefully matched to sound good, where a Wilson speaker can be played with a lot of different gear and will still sound good.

So in closing it seems that you guys will have to wait a month for the validation from the experts I liked Kuppe post from SOMEONE who actually heard the speakers, and not at a show, and thank you FinBx1 for your nice comments.

So if these speakers are not that good how come the editor of the Absolute Sound said in his review:

"Good things do come in a relatively small packages although this is a nearly 300 lb speaker that is 51 inches high. It uses four new ultra high excursion woofers, two 700 watt amps and ARC 2 digital room compensation to produce incredibly deep, accurate bass flat to 19hz and going as low as 15hz. It also features an advance beryllium tweeter and midrange driver and provides equally outstanding midrange and treble performance in every aspect. Detail dynamics, depth and imaging are all excellent. Sensitivity is 96db, allowing use with even low power triodes and providing, an exceptional sense of life with more powerful amps, AHC forthcoming" page 54 Absolute Sound Editors Choice 2017.

Gee I guess the Absolute Sound is also shilling now aren’t they or perhaps the new Personas are truly excellent line of new speakers from an outstanding company that has always played safe who recently five years ago, decided to build a product to challenge the best speakers on the market.

Its funny that I don’t hear these same arguments from the Vandersteen boys, when for years Vandersteen built great affordable speakers and then boom comes a new $60k flagship from Richard and everyone applauds him for building an aspirational product when they traditional never played in that arena before.


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