Wilson Alexia V - 2023 Stereophile Speaker of the Year ???

[ahofer]

Actually it gets worse, amazingly enough, the Raidho TD38 made the finalist list …

Raidho TD3.8 loudspeaker Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

www.stereophile.com

OMG, I saw that garbage at Singer. "Diamonds I tell you"

 

[fpitas]

I thought their special material was supposed to help with that stuff in the decay plot (whether audible or not). So it's all just for show?

Maybe it's even worse without it?

 

[DanielT]

The components don't look bad at first glance. Hammond mains transformer and choke and Lundahl OPTs. But I can't really tell. I have spent decades refining 300B and 211 SET circuits and enjoy listening to them. No problem with the listening volume.

The DIY 300B tubis might have given that Audio Note Meishu 300B a match, maybe I don't know anything about that. What I do know is that it cost well under $15,740 to build.

And to get back on track for the thread and link to DIY. A pair of well-built, crafted DIY speakers giving the Wilson Alexia V is certainly doable and at a cost FAR below the $70k that the Wilson Alexia V costs.

Or maybe buy some speakers at 5% the price of what Wilson Alexia V costs and give them a match , for example:

Monitor Audio Silver 500 7g

Nice measurements today from Soundstage hifi…someone get Amir the 100 7g https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2685:nrc-measurements-monitor-audio-silver-500-7g-loudspeakers&catid=77:loudspeaker-measurements&Itemid=153

audiosciencereview.com

If desired, bass junkies can of course supplement with some fat subwoofers. A long way to go until $70k if I do say so myself.

 

[MKR]

It's too bad that this message board becomes "Audio Hater Review" as often as it does. I'm not defending stereophile and I can see that some of the complaints about this speaker's measurements are valid, but we all know that these awards are often driven by money, hype and generating advertising dollars. We live in a world where Taylor Swift is the most popular artist. Did you honestly expect that the best measuring speaker would win the award? It's not all about measurements and audio purity. Between this and the weekly bashing of GR Research I wonder if anyone has time to focus on the good products out there.

I don’t follow your reasoning at all … one of the reasons ASR exists is to have a place to call out such nonsense. If this bothers you, maybe you are on the wrong forum

 

[fpitas]

It's too bad that this message board becomes "Audio Hater Review" as often as it does. I'm not defending stereophile and I can see that some of the complaints about this speaker's measurements are valid, but we all know that these awards are often driven by money, hype and generating advertising dollars. We live in a world where Taylor Swift is the most popular artist. Did you honestly expect that the best measuring speaker would win the award? It's not all about measurements and audio purity. Between this and the weekly bashing of GR Research I wonder if anyone has time to focus on the good products out there.

It serves a purpose to alert unwary noobs about high end shenanigans. Let's face it, the industry thrives on that stuff. Does the negativity get thick? Yeah it does.

 

[MKR]

It serves a purpose to alert unwary noobs about high end shenanigans. Let's face it, the industry thrives on that stuff. Does the negativity get thick? Yeah it does.

Exactly … it is well deserved “thickness”

 

[ThatSoundsGood]

I don’t follow your reasoning at all … one of the reasons ASR exists is to have a place to call out such nonsense. If this bothers you, maybe you are on the wrong forum

I erased my comment because I thought it was confusing. My point is that is that it becomes catchy to be negative and bash things that we already know are not good. We know that Stereophile isn't going to give an award to the best measuring speaker. They aren't based on audio purity. They are based on hype. I love this forum, but I don't like when it turns into the problem that it seeks to correct. Yes, it's good to scientifically criticize and point out the faults, but I struggle when it starts to become a name calling and bashing game. I don't like when the criticisms are as uninformed as the information that is being criticized. I struggled to express it accurately so I erased the original comment because I'm not sure that I'm getting across the point that I would like to make and then I felt like I was doing the same thing I was criticizing. Too much caffeine this morning.....

 

[fpitas]

bash things that we already know are not good

Still missing the point. Lots of people read this forum who aren't experts and don't post.

 

[ThatSoundsGood]

It serves a purpose to alert unwary noobs about high end shenanigans. Let's face it, the industry thrives on that stuff. Does the negativity get thick? Yeah it does.

The thickness of the negativity is my issue. I would like to see people here take a slightly higher road. Thanks for helping with the clarity. I agree that the industry thrives on this stuff, just like the rest of the world. I just loathe when we get caught up in it.

 

[MKR]

I erased my comment because I thought it was confusing. My point is that is that it becomes catchy to be negative and bash things that we already know are not good. We know that Stereophile isn't going to give an award to the best measuring speaker. They aren't based on audio purity. They are based on hype. I love this forum, but I don't like when it turns into the problem that it seeks to correct. Yes, it's good to scientifically criticize and point out the faults, but I struggle when it starts to become a name calling and bashing game. I don't like when the criticisms are as uninformed as the information that is being criticized. I struggled to express it accurately so I erased the original comment because I'm not sure that I'm getting across the point that I would like to make and then I felt like I was doing the same thing I was criticizing. Too much caffeine this morning.....

My criticism was uninformed? How so? The measurements speak for themselves.

 

[ThatSoundsGood]

Still missing the point. Lots of people read this forum who aren't experts and don't post.

The point is that it's good to point out the flaws but I think we undercut ourselves when we go too far and turn it into a name calling thing rather than focusing on the science.

 

[fpitas]

The thickness of the negativity is my issue. I would like to see people here take a slightly higher road. Thanks for helping with the clarity. I agree that the industry thrives on this stuff, just like the rest of the world. I just loathe when we get caught up in it.

It gets too deep for me at times. I think that's inevitable when you get a bunch of perfectionists on a forum.

 

[computer-audiophile]

The DIY 300B tubis might have given that Audio Note Meishu 300B a match

Might or might not.

You would have to make a shootout to find out, and need the appropriate speakers - what you know. Despite from being expensive, the AN amps are of high built quality and they know their stuff.

 

[ThatSoundsGood]

My criticism was uninformed? How so? The measurements speak for themselves.

Not your criticism. Not at all. The measurements are not great and I agree. I don't like how things spin and turn into a total bash fest rather than just focusing on the flaws.

 

[MKR]

The thickness of the negativity is my issue. I would like to see people here take a slightly higher road. Thanks for helping with the clarity. I agree that the industry thrives on this stuff, just like the rest of the world. I just loathe when we get caught up in it.

Not caught up at all, in fact I rarely post such things as indeed it will not change this industry (not as long as there is money to be made by the snake oil), but we should never hesitate to call a spade a spade. I consider it a duty as a lover of audio truth.

 

[ThatSoundsGood]

It gets too deep for me at times. I think that's inevitable when you get a bunch of perfectionists on a forum.

Agreed and my original comment was contributing to it so it felt sort of hypocritical which is why I deleted it. I became what I was criticizing. Sort of ironic.

 

[ThatSoundsGood]

Not caught up at all, in fact I rarely post such things as indeed it will not change this industry (not as long as there is money to be made by the snake oil), but we should never hesitate to call a spade a spade. I consider it a duty as a lover of audio truth.

I wasn't attacking you or anyone specifically. That wasn't my point. I think we undermine our scientific approach when we go too far because it starts to become an emotional thing rather than just pointing out the problems. That's what I'm trying to say. I agree with the general approach here, I just think it's good to take a step back sometimes and not become what we criticize.

 

[MKR]

Agreed and my original comment was contributing to it so it felt sort of hypocritical which is why I deleted it. I became what I was criticizing. Sort of ironic.

All good! I do in fact understand what you are saying in a general sense, and agree… case in point the GR topic has gone over the top IMHO and almost become personal. THAT is exactly what we must rise above here on ASR, allowing things to become personal. But I will never hesitate to comment on poor measurements, especially when they are put out there as ”superior”. That is intolerable to me.

 

[ThatSoundsGood]

All good! I do in fact understand what you are saying in a general sense, and agree… case in point the GR topic has gone over the top IMHO and almost become personal. THAT is exactly what we must rise above here on ASR, allowing things to become personal.

Thanks for helping me clarify. I was not doing a good job of explaining.

 

[Salida]

Three pages into a thread and nobody has listened to these speakers. That’s understandable because they are hard to find in the wild and they are expensive.

I was in Manhattan a few weeks ago and made an appointment at Innovative Audio for a listen. I met Chris and spent about 30 minutes listening to the Alexia V’s. I am NOT a fan of Wilson speakers. They are too strident for my tastes and while I like the imaging and presentation they are just too fatiguing to listen to for long periods. For me anyway. So I wanted to hear what Darryl Wilson has changed since his father passed away.

I was favorably impressed. The new tweeters are much smoother and the speakers have a more natural sounding timbre. I listened to the third movement of Saint-Saëns 3rd Symphony, the Telarc version.

The in-room low frequency response was excellent. The presentation was wide and fairly deep. It was easy to pinpoint instruments in the orchestra.

I wish I had more time to listen, but I was favorably impressed. I think Daryll has done a good job of removing some of the negatives l experienced with earlier versions of Wilson speakers.

I was disappointed that JA did not use his standard MLSSA measurement setup. It’s been a go-to for me because it is consistent and I can look at a set of his measurements and get an idea of how a speaker will sound in a room.

With this new setup, I’m not sure. I’ll have to read up on it. Seems like the room response is more prevalent in the measurements and he’s changed his standard measurement distance from 50” to 1 meter.

I also miss the family of off axis response curves.

I don’t think he ever measures distortion vs frequency vs amplitude so that’s an unfortunate missing link.

Would I buy these to replace my Amati Futura’s? Nope. The juice isn’t worth the squeeze. But it was a fun listen anyway and I’m impressed with what Wilson is doing with their product line.