Just thought I would share this info I found tonight on the new Wilson speaker called the Alexia.

The Alexia is supposed to be released Fall 2012. The Wilson Audio Alexia is a new model positioned above the Sasha, and below the MAXX.

Alexia Teaser Final - YouTube

Preliminary information:

The Alexia's form factor resembles the Sasha; its footprint is similar to the Sasha, and it is slightly taller. The Alexia features three modules to facilitate micro adjustments in the time-domain for all three driver groups, the woofer, the midrange and the tweeter. High frequencies are handled by a revised version of Wilson's newest driver, the Convergent Synergy Tweeter. The critical mid frequencies are handled by Wilson's acclaimed midrange driver. For the bass, Wilson developed two entirely new drivers, an eight-inch and a ten-inch. As with the MAXX Series 3 and the Alexandria XLF, speed, bass extension, and authority are optimized with this carefully tuned staggered-two-woofer approach.

Full technical details are supposed to be included in a press release scheduled for September 15, 2012.

Could be a great speaker!
Looking forward to Martin's review??

Teaser here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT1Xbmx0Ink

Looks interesting and has been said a logical progression from the Sasha. I like the styling

A well-connected dealer friend told me that there is strong sales resistance to the new Alexandria, and that even the seriously rich are growing weary of the 'asperational' pricing now common in hi fi. £200,000 for a couple of box speakers...no matter how big or well-made. It is just a bit insulting, and time it was stopped before the hobby is totally wrecked (because rich people are not very interested in hi fi...no real status among their friends.)
And for those who defend the pricing by talking of pushing the boundaries....it's another box speaker, with loads of marketing speak and little true innovation. In fact, I can't see any innovation at all.Lots of things are well-made, that dopesn't begin to justify a price of £200,000. The pricing of much of the latest hi fi has become silly....a point 'stereophile' is now starting to admit (see Art Dudley's editorial in the latest edition.)
I think 'Critic' is in a good position to take a hard look at this issue. By all means make the case for the 'big' stuff, but recognise the arguments against as well.Even audiophiles want value for money.
You could buy a new Bentley Continental and a Range Rover for the price of a pair of Alexandrias.Or a decent house in many parts of the UK and US.

If you are a dealer and hoping to sell these expensive speakers it is going to cost you a lot of money to buy demo stock. This will limit the number of dealers- perhaps a good thing- or are these mega expensive speakers on loan to dealers? I dont know any more, I would guess the Wilson and other established brands have a different approach to the up and coming brands. Gawd only knows what your average punter thinks of £200K speakers, something funny to put into Stuff magazine??

I purchased my Sashas new from an authorized dealer at a significant discount. Even with that discount it is hard to justify the price on any objective scale. However, every time I listen to my system the emotional impact and connection with the music is priceless. So for me, the cost is justified by the immense pleasure the speakers provide.

Will I upgrade to the Alexia's? That remains to be seen. I have inquired with my dealer on the cost of trade up, although the price of the Alexia has not yet been communicated to dealers here in the US.

I read on an American forum today the the US price was going to be $50,000. Is it possible that they have brought back the Concord and are flying them over 1st class? One of the prices must be in error; a quick search was inconclusive on US price.

I appear to have misread and thought the price of the new speaker was 200,000 pounds; is that then the price of the Alexandria ? So I would assume that the new one will be selling at around 50,000 pounds over there. Still a lot of money but not totally insane. If it indeed improves on the Sasha then it would be hard to justify spending 4x the money for the top of the line in my opinion.

Let me add a real world footnote; I have a pair of Apogee Duetta Signatures in good working order. Six months ago a local audiophile "bought" them for $1600 ; which I regard as a very fair price. I still have them and the "sale" has apparently fallen through. I am preparing to offer them around at no reasonable offer refused but right now can't see where such an offer would come from. These are still great speakers and can give the Wilson's a run for their money at a very small fraction of the cost. If there is all this money floating around in the market it has not drifted down to the level of the market I operate in; Louisville has over a million residents but the high fi scene appears to have died some time ago. Reading hifi mags with mega expensive gear is like looking into a window of another reality.


I actually sold the Apogees after some histrionics that would not have disgraced Italian Opera. Several acrimonious exchanges with the putative buyer led in the end to his actually coming up with the money. This after he insisted that he had exhausted his hi fi fund putting a new floor in the kitchen on his wife's behalf. All's well that ends well; still have a ton of stuff to move. Start packing the LPs tomorrow.

Edited by user 29 August 2012 03:30:59(UTC)  | Reason: update

Had an interesting listening session at Dave Neumann's Saturday; I took over a pair of Spendor SP-1s; actually my last demo pair of 1s from my dealer days. We listened first to the Sasha; then set up the Spendors in a location that sounded good but which did not require moving the Wilson's. The Sasha are sounding very good these days; the Superline is a great match for them. The Sasha are very critical of associated gear and at times in the past there has been some glare in the upper vocal range. This is essentially gone now and only fleeting traces of it are revealed by direct comparison with the Spendor. Of course, the two do not sound the same but both perform at a high standard. The Wilson obviously has the greater dynamic range and lower bass response but the Spendor does an exceptional job on vocals. While the Sasha excels at revealing the accompanying instruments and vocals sound fine the Spendor seems to focus in on the vocal; while the accompaniment is still well portrayed it seems to move back a little and the voice is front and center. I do not think this is due to a rising treble; we had a few days before listened to a speaker that is quite expensive and well specified but DOES sound like it has been balanced in a "forward" manner. These are the Thiel 3.7s which belong to John E. , the third member of the Saturday listening panel. None of us,John included, are happy with the balance of the Thiels. On the other hand we are all three happy with both the Sasha and the SP-1s; pardon my likely rather primitive description of their sound differences. A guitar note on the Wilson's sounds very detailed and the attack is exceptional; on the Spendors the detail is not as noticeable but still there if you listen for it.; the body of the note seems a little fuller. The basic differences is that the Sasha grabs your attention; your foot [ or often both feet] will be tapping madly. The Spendor invites you to sink into the music; your whole body will relax as you follow the music. My upper body tends to sway with the music rather than my foot taping. I don't think this is an idiosyncratic reaction; others have made comments along the same lines. Dave decided to buy the SP-1s, not of course to replace the Sasha but to augment them. Likewise I intend to mix my Spendors with the Gamut L5s; which are . like the Wilson's, more "modern" in sound. Considering the prices of used SP-1s or S 100s, and the ease of driving them, I would urge anyone looking for speakers to give them a listen. The SP-1s will also work in a fairly small room. Dave is going out of town but he may give his thoughts here at a later time; I hope so.

Exactly the same problem with the Martin Logan Montis I'm currently using - wonderful on voices but anaemic on full orchestra or piano, even when played loud

To build on Stan's comments, I've spent the last several days comparing the SP1's and the Sashas. Bottom line, I greatly prefer the Sashas as they are a much more complete speaker and present music in a way that I personally prefer. However, Stan is right that the SP1's do something special with voice. They seem to pull voice out from the mix and push back everything else. Even backing vocals that are recessed on my Sashas seem to be spotlighted on the Spendors. They are also very smooth sounding speakers, and seem to round out some of the rough edges of music. But in comparison to the Wilsons they lack dynamic punch and pace.

As Hans suggests, they are great speakers for small scale acoustic music. If that is what I listened to the majority of the time the Spendors may have top billing in my music room and I'd be able to pocket a lot of cash from the sale of my Wilsons. But with the rock and jazz that tends to get a lot of play in my room, the Spendors just can't do what my Sashas do. The Spendors are a remarkable speaker within their limitations, especially given the price of today's speakers. If funds allow, I could see setting up a separate Spendor based system specifically for smaller scale listening, probably including a valve amplifier.

But returning to the original topic of this thread, I plan to audition the Alexia's in early October. Posters on a Wilson forum are saying that their dealers are offering 100% trade in value on the Sashas towards the new Alexia. An interesting possibility.

Hi dave,

At 80 hz the impedance min is probably the dcr of the two 4ohm bass drivers rather than a dip. After resonance the impedance of a woofer almost returns to its dcr before the inductance drags the impedance back up.

Cant be fixed without higher impedance woofers and a loss in sensitivity.

Mat