I just heard the Wilson Alexandria XLF's Wednesday


My local high end audio shop hosted its annual "Music Matters" open house where reps from their prime product lines demonstrate their latest wares. In the past I've been introduced to many products that were either just reaching the market or still in prototype stage (e.g., the Magnepan Mini's).

In one room we had Peter McGrath of Wilson, Dan D'Agostino with his new $50K/pair monoblock amps, a Meridian rep with a Sooloos front end, and John Atkinson of Stereophile, who had some great 24/96 music files he'd recorded himself.

Two demos were of music Atkinson had recorded with minimal miking--a small orchestra and pianist playing Rhapsody in Blue and a 9-person vocal group with organ accompaniment.

This setup produced the most realistic reproduction of music I've personally heard. I am a subscriber to the Seattle Symphony and attend live concerts there monthly. It's obvious to me that these live performances have--in addition to the music--a sense of room energy that's consistently lacking in audio reproduction. NOT THIS TIME! The Meridian/D'Agostino/Transparent (Opus)/Wilson signal chain produced a completely fleshed-out, live-feeling presentation. A sonic hologram if you will. The presentation was transparent and resonance-free, linear, extended, but most of all, live-sounding.

In fact, the very next demo I went to was of Audio Research pushing the new Wisdom Audio $95K flagship panels+sub system, and it sounded artificial by comparison. On its own I'm sure the Wisdom is an excellent speaker, but following the twice-as-expensive Alexandria XLF it was a complete letdown.

Anyone who has an opportunity to hear the Alexandria XLFs should give them a listen just to see what can be done. For me it completely re-defined what can be done with musical reproduction and makes me regret not setting out to become a millionaire when I was young so I could afford a pair (plus the D'Agostino amps) today.

BTW, in all previous Wilson demo's I've heard (Sophia 2 & 3, Maxx 2 & 3, Alexandria X-2, Watt/Puppy 7, Sasha W/P 8), they always sounded decidedly better--more musical, liquid, resolving, real-sounding--with tube electronics. Not so this time. The D'Agostinos are so neutral and so good at driving the speakers that all you think about is the music and the holographic presentation.
johnnyb53
Thanks for taking the time to write this. I can't afford the XLF's either, but Wilson has a habit of tickling down what they learn from the top of the line to their other offerings.

Maybe a Maxx 3.5 is in the works :)

Lot's on nice comments on the D'Agostino amps...seem like you felt they same....The source is so critical...sounds like the really got that part right....What dac where they using?
Jfrech:
What dac where they using?

The used the Meridian touchscreen Sooloos as the user interface and media library. I'm pretty sure they fed the Sooloos digital output to a Meridian Source 600 controller, and from there directly into the D'Agostino monoblock amps.
Johnnyb53, I agree about the Wilsons and tube gear. I also thought the Alexandria XLF sounded great with the D'Agostino amps. Maybe the new soft dome tweeter works better with SS amps than the old one.

I think the Wisdom speakers give up to much performance due to their on wall design. If you want to save space maybe they are the way to go.
Back in the 90's I visited Peter Mcgrath's audio shop outside of Miami. The room was exquisitely designed. He played a number of recordings, digital and vinyl through an early generation Watt Puppies and Wilson sub driven by a set of large Mark Levinson's. The sound was quite good. Mr. Mcgrath then played two recordings off of his own master recording tapes. The presentation went from great audio to I cannot believe the performers are not in front of me. It was enlightening to have first hand experience of source-influence. I offer this only to forgo the opinion of the speaker's performance as the single influence in the music prodution.
I've heard the Alexandreas at a friends house.... I'm not sure of which Alexandreas they are....what I hear that they bring to the party is a very realistic sence of dynamic sweep.