Stereophile
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<p><img class="story_image" src="http://www.stereophile.com/images/1213wilson.prmo_.jpg" /></p>
With the help of 20:20 hindsight, it looks as if I made a decision when I joined <i>Stereophile</i>: to review a loudspeaker from Wilson Audio Specialties every 11 years. In June 1991, I reported on <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/content/wilson-watt-series-3-puppy-2-loudspeaker">Wilson's WATT 3/Puppy 2 combination</a>, which cost $12,740/pair in an automotive gloss-paint finish. This was followed in July 2002 by my review of the <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/619/index.html">Wilson Sophia</a> ($11,700/pair). And now, in December 2013, I am writing about the Wilson Alexia, which costs a not-inconsiderable $48,500/pair.
<p>
I first heard the Alexia at the 2012 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, but didn't decide that I needed to get a pair into my listening room until the following January, when, at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, I heard a pair of them driven by Dan D'Agostino amplifiers and a dCS Vivaldi digital source, hooked up with Transparent cables. As I wrote in my <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/content/wilson150dagostino150dcs150transparent">online report from CES 2013</a>, when I heard the hi-rez master file of Cantus singing Eric Whitacre's <i>Lux Aurumque</i>, "not only was the relationship between the sounds of the singers and musicians and the surrounding ambience of the recording venue breathtakingly real, so was the relationship between the musicians and the music. I have played <i>Lux Aurumque</i> on dozens of systems
[Source: http://www.stereophile.com/content/wilson-audio-specialties-alexia-loudspeaker]
With the help of 20:20 hindsight, it looks as if I made a decision when I joined <i>Stereophile</i>: to review a loudspeaker from Wilson Audio Specialties every 11 years. In June 1991, I reported on <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/content/wilson-watt-series-3-puppy-2-loudspeaker">Wilson's WATT 3/Puppy 2 combination</a>, which cost $12,740/pair in an automotive gloss-paint finish. This was followed in July 2002 by my review of the <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/619/index.html">Wilson Sophia</a> ($11,700/pair). And now, in December 2013, I am writing about the Wilson Alexia, which costs a not-inconsiderable $48,500/pair.
<p>
I first heard the Alexia at the 2012 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, but didn't decide that I needed to get a pair into my listening room until the following January, when, at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, I heard a pair of them driven by Dan D'Agostino amplifiers and a dCS Vivaldi digital source, hooked up with Transparent cables. As I wrote in my <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/content/wilson150dagostino150dcs150transparent">online report from CES 2013</a>, when I heard the hi-rez master file of Cantus singing Eric Whitacre's <i>Lux Aurumque</i>, "not only was the relationship between the sounds of the singers and musicians and the surrounding ambience of the recording venue breathtakingly real, so was the relationship between the musicians and the music. I have played <i>Lux Aurumque</i> on dozens of systems
[Source: http://www.stereophile.com/content/wilson-audio-specialties-alexia-loudspeaker]