Home Entertainment Show in Los Angeles

If you have $30K idling about as spare change in your pocket and no real compunction about how you distribute these funds, then putting the whole wad into a pair of speakers is no worse than some other things that have been chosen by others in the past. On the other hand, if you have a mortgage or car payments or kids who need you to pay for schooling or any of several dozen other real world obligations, such a purchase would be difficilt to reconcile. There are just too many more pressing needs in most of our lives. Consider how much money $30,000 really is and what it can buy. I don't care what Wilson speakers are made of or what sort of hallucinogenic value structure you apply. There simply is no way on earth that the cost of a pair of Watt Puppy 8's (might be 8A's before I finish this sentence) could possibly approach that of a loaded Accord.
RElative to other manufactured goods hi end audio is scandalously expensive for what you get and Wilson appears to me to be leading the pack. The reason given for switching from the 7's to the 8's is meeting European lead free restrictions. So we are eliminating the lead and selling the same product for what,$5000 more?
So, to answer Boa2's question........ No speaker is worth that much money.

I think at 30k you need a sense of scale that only larger speakers can give you. While the monitor/sub combo has matured with the 8, and its a great speaker, at some point value has to come in. The low end, while good on the 8s isn't close to say the Maxx. I do think the 8s are smoother top to bottom than the 7s.

There are many speakers at 30k that I would look at while considering purchase of the 8s. Dynaudio, JM Lab, Peak Consult, Von Schweikert etc. just to name a few. The new 5SEs looked and sounded tasty at HE2006.

btw, i own Sophias, so am pro-Wilson. The 7s at 23k are pushing the limit in my view---30k is just over the top to me for what you get. It's a great, small speaker which is what they designed it for. I could say the same thing about several Kharmas as well.

btw, the new grill covers are 10x better than the velcro of old like I have.

KeithR

Thanks, KeithR. I was curious as to the context of your comment, and this helps.

Was at the show on Friday only and saw it all 3 or 4 times.Best of show ? Close but I'll give it to the Joseph & Moscode room with 2nd place to Channel Island and VSA. Most unusual ? The Zu room. These speakers do some things marvelously and other things not so well but for all that I sat there totally involved in the music (and they had big variety) for an hour. Another odd speaker Studio Electric was a must hear.

Macrojack makes some very good points IMHO. He probably forgets that Wilson caters to the buyer who makes $1 Million a year or more. So $30K is pretty much chump change to these guys. Not sure why they are only $30K for the 8's and $135K for the Alexandria's. Probably could charge $200K for the 8's and $500K for the Alexandria's. OOps that's for the 12's and the Alexandria version X next year.