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

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.


Troy- I would agree with you about Vandy and have always thought the same thing.

Paradigms historically have been bright speakers - but maybe the new Personas have changed to represent a much more realistic tonality.

Went back to dealer to give final payment for speakers. I listened to the Sasha 2 again. To my ears, they sounded better than I remember. I also listened to Maggies, Golden Ear 1, Facal Sopra, B&Ws. No contest. I think I will be very happy with my decision and am excited! Yeah, there are speakers that I did not listen to but when I met "the women" or heard "the speakers"  I suddenly realized that my quest was over. 
Nice! 996cupracer-

of the speakers that you auditioned , only, the Focal Sopra comes close to the Wilson speakers.  What other gear, including cabling, is in your system?

Happy Listening!
Good to hear. You will like the Sasha. I would like to hear about how the Sopra compared. I always liked the Focal 1038be but never pulled the trigger and the Sopra like a nice evolution.