Many companies in high-end audio and elsewhere use a trickle-down approach to advance their products. The process begins with the development of a suite of new technologies, capabilities, components, or whatever the relevant entities might be. Typically, it’s a flagship product that functions as the impetus, target, and first deployment of the new technologies. Subsequently, the new technologies trickle down to other models, each one incorporating a subset appropriate to its price point.
Looking at Wilson Audio’s products, it is natural to assume that they use a trickle-down approach, but that’s not really how it works. The majority of the development effort is focused from the start on things that will be used in all, or at least several, of their loudspeaker models. The reason it works, Daryl Wilson says, is because everything they do is based on three sonic objectives: dynamics, harmonic expression, andmore recentlymicrodetail. The objectives, he told me, haven’t changed since the company’s founding.
Put another way, Wilson Audio knows how they want their speakers to sound and, to the extent possible, they want all their speakers to sound that way. The most expensive models use the same components as the least expensive onesjust more of those components plus additional technologies and a far more optimized design.
Technology
The SabrinaX is a product of that approach. The cabinet is unique to it, of coursealthough it shares much technology with other Wilson cabinetsbut nearly everything else is shared. The SabrinaX’s tweeter is the Mark V version of the 1″ Convergent Synergy silk-dome tweeter, which is shared with the Sasha DAW, the new flagship XVX, and the WAMM Master Chronosonic. The 8″ woofer is used in the Sasha DAW. One component that’s always developed specifically for each model is the crossover. The capacitors used in the SabrinaX are of the same construction as those used in the XVXwhich was the first speaker to use a capacitor produced in-house after Wilson bought Reliable Capacitor. Capacitors produced in-house could be made to achieve a custom value, allowing a single capacitor to be used in the crossover rather than several, creating a simpler circuit and shortening the signal path.
Setup
Wilson believes that you really do need to have an experienced dealer set up their speakers. Unfortunately, the SabrinaX’s showed up in the middle of COVID shutdowns here in California, so I was on my own. I’ve been setting up speakers for a long time, but not Wilsons. I did have a starting point: the spots where Wilson’s Peter McGrath had located the Yvettes, which I reviewed in May 2019, Wilson’s other, slightly larger one-box speaker. Starting with the SabrinaX’s in those spots, I spent three long afternoon/evening sessions moving them in increments of between a half and two inches. I had them sounding great and had just about convinced myself that I could set up Wilson speakers. It was at that point that California announced a temporary relaxation of the lockdown, which coincided with the availability of Hugh Fountain, the owner of Music Lovers in Berkeley and a master at setting up Wilsons. If you buy a pair of Wilson speakers in the Bay Area, Hugh is the guy who will appear in your living room.
Hugh came out and, after chatting a bit, sat down and listened to a few seconds of the CD I had playing. He stopped the music and matter-of-factly said “OK, I can get you a more focused center image and more depth.” It was apropos that the first thing Hugh mentioned was imaging, since the soundstage is high on my list of priorities, and after three days of trying, I still didn’t have it sounding the way it should. “The treble is getting pulled to the right a bit. I can fix that.” Then, as he was replacing my CD with his, he added, “Better bass, deeper, cleaner,” then pumped his fist and added “and you know, just more bass.”
“Is there anything else?” I wondered. Hugh looked the setup over for about 10 seconds, measured a few distances, moved the right speaker inward a half-inch, then sat down and went to work. Over the next hour, he worked his way through the setup. Each step consisted of listening to a few seconds of a cut or two on his CD, moving one or both speakers a bit”a bit” being somewhere between an eighth of an inch and “imperceptible from five feet away”listening to the result, and repeating.
When he finished, the SabrinaX’s were less than ¼” from where they started, but they sounded noticeably better. Actually, the difference was beyond noticeable. They sounded a lot better. They didn’t sound like completely new speakers, just much better versions of the ones I had set up.
Hugh made the moves that did the trick. Take my advicetake Wilson’s adviceand have a dealer set up your speakers.
Listening
The soundstage was huge, well beyond anything I’d heard before. It stretched to waaaaay outside the speakers and created detailed, tangible images to the very edges. It was deep as well, though not quite as deep as it was wide. It didn’t shrink or lose detail or focus, even at the farthest corners.
I absolutely love the 1957 Decca recording of Rafael Kubelik and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performing Dvorák’s From the New World at the Sofiensaal (London CS 6020). It oozes lush detail that recreates the Sofiensaal, but with other speakers, the side and back walls fade away before they get to the far back corners, and even when they’re spotlighted, the percussionists aren’t quite there. With the SabrinaX’s, this LP climbed even higher in my “I think I’ll listen to that tonight” list. There were clear, sharply drawn back corners, and the images of the percussionists were nearly as solid as any on the soundstage.
Another of my favorite performances is the Seraphim recording of Delibes’s opera Lakmé, with Mady Mesplé, Charles Burles, and Roger Soyer playing Lakmé, Gerald, and Nilakantha, respectively, and the Orchestra & Chorus of the Opera-Comique, Paris, Alain Lombard, cond. (Seraphim SIC-6082). Most good speakers do a good job of recreating the stage and performers, but the SabrinaX’s created a more vivid picture. The soundstage wasn’t necessarily larger, but there was just more there. I didn’t register the presence of dramatically more detail with the SabrinaX’s, but it had to have been there. The performers were much more clearly drawn and focused and steadfastly remained so as they bustled here and there. When a voice would pop up in one place, it would be spotlighted, but never to the detriment of other parts of the stage.
In a scene near the beginning of Act 2, there is an exchange in which Nilakantha (Soyer) pleads with Lakmé (Mesplé) to sing, in order to attract Gerald (Burles), who has trespassed on hallowed ground. Both characters move deliberately around the stage as Nilakantha’s voice increases in intensity and Lakmé’s becomes increasingly timid. There’s a sequence, maybe a minute long, when Nilakantha follows Lakmé across the stage, and if a pair of speakers gets everything right, the soundstage and images sync up just so and transcend audiophile excellence to create something like a hologram. Even though I’d heard this snippet of magic umpteen times before and knew it was comingwow, I was floored by the clarity and intensity of the SabrinaX’s presentation.
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Wilson Audio Specialties
2233 Mountain Vista Lane
Provo, UT 84606
(801) 377-2233
wilsonaudio.com
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