Wilson Audio Sabrina X Reviewed ! WOW

andy21,379 posts06-30-2021 5:35pm

If you can't afford the Wilson Alexx V or XVX's... this is your lucky day !
 
https://www.stereophile.com/content/wilson-audio-specialties-sabrinax-loudspeaker

That's basically a set of ScanSpeak drivers that you can buy from Madisound for about $1K.

~~~~
Did not think you were allowed to make such posts...?
Considering what  folks have been through and all, this past year, 
DIY might  gain interest. 
Budgets for audio hobby  may have taken 2nd place in  folks priorities. 
(for me its always #1,,,,)

Calvinsndhobbes,

those monitor audios measure pretty good but I have never heard them. Anyway the differences I hear between good affordable speakers and good expensive speakers can be subtle if both are well engineered (this is the key). 
The monitor audio has a pretty noisy box compared to the Sabrina X. But at moderate listening volumes honestly you might not notice. My guess is if you really cranked both these speakers the wilsons would start to pull away. Assuming the room and gear were up to the task. 

@james633 I appreciate hearing your thoughts on the sound quality of good affordable speakers and good expensive speakers. As with any product, the marginal improvements with audio must also get smaller and smaller as you go up in price. My comments are really only based on my own listening preferences which are at pretty moderate listening volumes. Another possible factor is that my current room (300 sq. ft in a hexagonal shape) seems to sound pretty good with only minimal acoustic tuning and perhaps better than some listening rooms at audio stores.

I did listen to 11 pairs of speakers including a set of last-gen Monitor Audio Gold 200 speakers that I missed out on before getting the Silver 300s so I do know that they must fit my listening preferences pretty well. I was just personally a bit surprised that the SabrinaXs were not clearly better sounding given the large price difference. I will say that I heard Wilson Watt/Puppies a long time ago and those sounded somewhat sterile to me in sound. Perhaps the Wilson sound is just not my cup of tea.

I am a big fan of wilson but think they are way over priced. 
Their used prices are more inline with their sound quality imo. 
I really enjoy the coloration of wilson. A little heavy on the bass, forward mids etc but state of the art it is not imo. They sound more tuned by ear and a tuning I like pretty well. 

I am familiar with original Sabrina where highs were rolled off at least compared to Sasha. Are the X better now?