Wilson Audio Specialties Chronosonic XVX loudspeaker!! only $300,000.oo

I read the review by MF of these in the current Stereophile mag. His comment about a few images appearing too tall is interesting. This problem is common in a number of larger/taller speakers that are on the market, along with their propensity to make instruments seem way too big overall. I wonder how many folk who buy these large speaker systems are concerned about these problems??

Think your forgetting the drool value of them. And the brownie points you get here if you own a pair, speakers that is.

Cheers George

I find them to be extremely unattractive...and extremely overpriced. Those two features make them nothing to drool over for me. I'd rather earmark that kind of money for live music...or a house in Montana.

@edgewound They are not over priced so long as there is a market for them at that price, which apparently Wilson believes there is! The value proposition is another matter entirely....I think most folks these days would look at numerous products in the high end audio arena and conclude that the high price asked, in no way equates to the product offered. This doesn’t seem to have put a damper on the ever growing upwards pricing spiral. Certainly tells me something about the consumer to whom these products are aimed at though!

$300,000 buys a lot of concerts....you know...live music? Reality? For years....Probably decades...

That's a fairly common refrain when high priced speakers come up.But I believe it misses the point.  



Yes you could go to lots of live music.   But could you see many of the previous great symphonies and conductors live in their prime?  Or Led Zeppelin, or Rush, or Genesis, or Miles Davis, or Dave Brubeck, or Joni Mitchell, or..countless great artists on record?


The point most (who can afford it) have in buying great speakers, including cutting edge, is to "bring alive" to the extent possible WHATEVER recording they play, including the huge number of great artists and performances in recorded music that they could never see in live.   To that person a recording of a great Herbert von Karajan performance, produced in thrilling sound in their own home, may be more desirable than seeing a live current performance of an orchestra or conductor who (they believe) can't hold a candle to the great performance.


So the worth of such a speaker shouldn't be compared to "whatever live music is available to go see today" but rather to the enhanced experience it gives to the catalogue of recorded (and contemporary) music...which likely comprises much more of the audiophile's listening time than live performance even could.


Plenty of us here have spent quite a lot on our sound system that we could have otherwise devoted to seeing live music.  But there's a perfectly good reason we spent it on our audio system (even if we like live music too).



(And that's coming from someone who loves live music!)


(Also, I'm not commenting on the worth of the specific Wilson design, but on the general objection often suggested that spending money on live music makes more sense than on an expensive speaker).