NEW!!! Wilson Alexia MkII listening session


Had a chance last Wednesday to listen to Edgar Kramer's (reviewer for Sound Stage Australia, 6 Moons, Australian HiFi, Audio Esoterica)  new Wilson Alexia MkII's, and came away very impressed with their sound compared to his old Alexia MkI.

 

System consisted of:

 

Source:  Yamaha CD-S2100 Used as transport and very good never missed a beat.

 

Dac: R2R Mutibit Totaldac d1-core DAC with optional 2 x external power supplies, outstanding R2R dac from Europe (somewhere?)

 

Pream/s: Supratek DHT Reference or Lightspeed Attenuator LDR passive attenuator. Swapped between these a few times, but found the tubes in the Supratek too microphonic.

 

Poweramp: Gryphon Audio Antileon EVO. This is one hell of an amp, will drive anything anywhere any time! We used it in Class-A 50w with it's adjustable bias, then goes to 150 Class-b at 8ohm or 1200w Class-B 1ohm and a staggering 5000w Class-B peak into 1/2ohm  

 

I 'd heard this same setup a couple of months earlier but with the Alexia MkI and thought yes this is very good, it still has to me that great Wilson signature sound, some like it some don't, can be a little confronting over long periods to some with it's dynamics.  

But with these new Alexia MkII's there was a massive difference to me, they got far greater integration between the drivers, without that highlighted Wilson signature of certain things.

What they strive'd for with this new model, was a seamless sound integration between tweeter to mids to upper bass to lower bass which gave it a larger sound stage and a more disappearing act of the speakers, reminded me of my massive full range ESL's. This was all attained without loosing any detail or impact of dynamics from MkI's and the music itself, with less in your face dynamics, but still there in spades but with a big wash over you effect instead, rather than a shot at you from a cannon effect, for want of a better word, more relaxed to listen to even all day.

 

Great speaker, I believe will become a sought after Wilson Classic second hand if you can afford them, as new they are way way out of my reach.

 

Cheers George


128x128georgehifi
I like B&W too. I used to own the 802D. Lovely speaker. Although with a lot of people, it could be infamous rather than famous. But I won't get into that as a lot of words have been said about them in these threads. Mr. Kramer liked the speaker very much, but as I skimmed through the review, I didn't see any comparison to the Wilson's. Did I miss something?
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Edgar Kramer was really raving about the new Bowers and Wilkins 702s2’s in his review compared to his own Wilson Alexia MKII speakers!
That review was well before he got the Alexia MkII, it was the MkI (different sound) he compared the B&W too.

Cheers George