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Wilson Audio AlexiA loudspeAkers

Alexia, the female Alexius, the Greek defender of men. Or perhaps, be-ing at the median point of the Wil-

son speaker collection, it’s the guardian, or the representative sentinel, for the brand’s whole speaker range. Indeed, the new speaker has become a fresh pivotal focal point that, at least for now, has stolen the limelight from the company’s best-selling and multi-generational pin-up hero—in its new Sasha guise—the WATT/Puppy.

What’s more, the Alexia plugs a void in the range’s price point, physical form and conceptual design that fits it in between the Sasha W/P and the large scale MAXX 3. But the new speaker is the recipient of much of the driver technology and overall engineer-ing of Wilson’s flagship, the massive Alex-andria XLF. So for starters, the Alexia is the

first to receive the new tweeter as used in the XLF—in a revised version to mate with the single midrange driver—and therefore shares the tonal signature of the flagship design. But I’m getting ahead of myself…

ConCeptual prinCiplesAlexia is a new design from the ground up: Wilson Audio’s first such since the Sasha W/P… though that speaker was really an evolution of its WATT/Puppy Series 8 ances-tor. Founder/designer David Wilson says that he and the company’s design team set out to create ‘a loudspeaker that would communicate the majesty of music on a grander scale while only marginally increas-ing Sasha’s footprint.’ So overall Alexia measures 1,350mm high by 387mm wide by 537mm deep, all of 240mm taller, 30mm

wider and about the same depth as its little sister while weighing a substantial 27kg heavier at 116kg. The stature becomes apparent when, as you’re seated in your favourite sweet-spot chair, the tall imposing figure of Alexia and its single tweeter-eye gazes down upon you.

Said tweeter is the new Wilson Audio CST driver (Convergent Synergy Tweeter) in a modified version of the XLF’s own, which came about after a prolonged research pro-gram during which Wilson says all manner of tweeterage was tested and evaluated. Made by Scan-Speak to Wilson’s specifica-tion (and reportedly further modified at the Wilson factory) the 25mm dome silk tweet-er marks a departure from the long-running modified titanium tweeter previously used that came from Focal.

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For this new tweeter, Wilson claims a very linear response, wide bandwidth and high power-handling capabilities: all factors that permit a smooth transition to the midrange driver. Said midrange driver is a derivative of the 178mm unit Wilson has been using across the floorstanders and is said to be almost identical to the XLF’s. It features a stiff but very light diaphragm consisting of a proprietary cellulose fibre blend and a soft rubber roll surround.

In line with the larger Wilson speak-ers, Alexia features two disparately-sized bass drivers (203mm and 254mm, also sourced from Scan-Speak) presumably to capitalise on the speed of the smaller driver while reaching for subterranean lows with the larger one (actually, the two drivers operate in unison at very low frequencies). The combination of the larger driver array and increased internal enclosure volume (in conjunction with a large low-tuned machined aluminium port tube) results in a more robust and extended low register while actually maintaining a room-friendly near-Sasha footprint.

The Alexia introduces for the first time at this price point the ‘Aspherical Propa-gation Delay’ sub-enclosure alignment techniques Wilson uses in its larger models. Each speaker system comprises three spike-coupled enclosures; the largest, of course, being the bass cabinet housing the bass drivers while atop sits the pyramidal 178mm driver’s twin slot-ported enclosure which supports the sealed tweeter module.

Fore, aft and vertical adjustments can be made to the mid and treble modules to acoustically align the speaker, in relation to the throw distance and ear height, to ‘focus’ at the listening position. The spiked mid enclosure moves fore and aft (along two metal guide rails for the front spikes) to line-up at the rear with a machined metal stepped block which shifts along a numeri-cal scale. The vertical/angle adjustment is

performed via an interchange-able rear spike (different lengths supplied) that sits on one of the block’s 10 ‘steps’. The rear spike sits on the appropri-ate step firmly enough but a shallow spike-cou-pling indentation on the step would make the arrange-ment more solid while also centring the spike within the width of the step. This could be offered as an upgrade seeing that the step block can be removed and replaced easily enough.

The tweeter module sits within a cut-away of the mid enclosure and can be independently adjusted via a metal indenta-tion guide integrated into its top surface. A heavy aluminium plate serves as a brace against the mid module’s ‘wing’ cut-away panels and features a downwards-pointing spike which, once aligned with the scale atop the tweeter module (all part of the Propagation Delay adjustment suite), can be hand locked via yet another spiking ar-rangement which provides fulcrum pressure from the rear.

As complicated as all this may sound on paper, the procedure is self-evident once you understand the mechanical alignment principles at play and, in any case, set-up will be carried out by your dealer. The whole thing need only happen once unless you drastically change your seating position. Even then, the entire suite of adjustments is easily made with the help of Alexia’s com-prehensive and rather exemplary manual which contains the ‘Alignment Tables’ re-quired as well as very thorough room set-up suggestions and other system information.

Results in a more robust and extended low register while maintaining a room-friendly Sasha footprint.

Wilson AudioAlexiA loudspeAkers

Brand: Wilson Audio SpecialtiesModel: AlexiaCategory: Floorstanding loudspeakersrrp: $67,795Warranty: Five Yearsdistributor: Advance AudioAddress: Unit 8, 509–529 Parramatta Rd Leichhardt NSW, 2040T: (02) 9561 0799F: (02) 9569 1085e: sales@advanceaudio.com.auW: www.advanceaudio.com.au

Superb performance in all sonic areasComprehensive alignment for optimal imaging and soundstagingExceptional engineeringSuperb finish

Form factor may notappeal to someStep coupling could be improved via a small indent

LAB REPORT: Turn to page 86Test results apply to review sample only.

Wilson Audio AlexiA loudspeAkers

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Aesthetically, the whole mid and tweeter arrangement echoes the design style of the Sasha’s top module.

Aside from the superb fit and finish, these aren’t ‘pretty’ speakers—their form is dictated by their functional principles—but Alexia’s industrial design elegance will suit modern environments and please those ap-preciative of refined engineering.

Included with the manual are two large ‘pizza-style’ boxes with internal foam cut-outs for the provided very high quality US-manufactured tools, machined ‘diodes’, matching spikes (both for tilt-alignment and the overall speaker), brass floor protec-tors, microfibre polishing cloth and a set of resistors. These last can be used to tailor the Alexia’s midrange and treble response for different room acoustics and are eas-ily user-fitted to terminals accessed via a removable brushed aluminium cover on the bass enclosure’s rear panel. Wilson advises that the resistors can also act as a form of protection should excess power threaten to harm the drivers.

Wilson Audio eschews the more com-monly used MDF in favour of its own formula of composite compounds across the entire product range. Alexia enclosures feature a combination of ultra hard ‘X’ cellulose and phenolic composite materials and midrange-suitable ‘S’ material (natural fibres in a phenolic resin laminate as first developed for Sasha) where appropriate. A number of standard high-quality gloss finishes are offered and, at added cost, a selection of premium colours or any custom tone from the infinite automotive palette. We’re thoroughly familiar with a number of products from the Wilson stable and must note that the paint finish has markedly improved over the last three generations to exemplary mirror-like standards. Our review sample was finished in a stunning ‘Dark Titanium’ with a deep lustre resplendent with metallic speckle.

Alexia ships in three large timber crates and the logistics of delivery and installation,

although handled by your dealer, need to be considered in terms of access and con-tainer storage.

Wilson Audio specifies the Alexia as having a wide frequency response between 20Hz and 32kHz ±3dB while sensitivity is quoted as 90dBSPL/1W/1M at 1kHz with a nominal impedance of 4Ω. Impedance minima is quoted as 2Ω at 80Hz but our measurements showed oth-erwise… whatever the case, high-current solid-state and high-watts valve amplifica-tion would be most suitable in order to attain the full power, control and dynamic potential.

Wheel ‘em out!The Alexia comes pre-fitted with castors, something that is invaluable in terms of room position experimentation for a speaker weighing well over 100kg. Days of wheelin’ high-jinx led to the Alexia being positioned only a few centimetres wider apart and further into the room than my reference Sasha. I had at hand a range of high-current solid-state amplifiers and some powerful valve ones too, so the Alexia was fed a good variety of the appropriate quality. Ditto for the preamplification, which featured outstanding products of valve and solid-state designs.

Going from the Sasha to Alexia dem-onstrated that the Wilson Audio ‘house sound’, for lack of a better descriptor, is recognisable out-of-the-box—but oh boy, do we have so much more on offer here…

This driver mix offers the most coher-ent cut-of-the-same-cloth sonic balance I’ve ever heard from a Wilson speaker and, indeed, one of the most coherent full stop. In my listening room—which, untreated, has been measured to be fortuitously

and refreshingly flat—the frequency graph’s 20-to-20 terrain is one of minor undulations within a narrow scale rather than most rooms’ mountainous and subterranean chasms. This allows the true signature of any speaker to transmit across with much less than the usual environmen-tal editorialising.

The Alexia is top to bottom consistent and, in conjunction with the comprehensive alignment adjustments, totally disappears—but alas, only from the listening position. While on spatial descriptions, the massive sonic field is populated with well-defined images that possess, in terms of localisation and corporeal presence, the fundamental signatures of individual instruments and voices as close to real manifestations. Very impressively, the speaker ‘vanishes’ in a way that is astonishing when you consider its physical size. Music emanates around and radiates outwards just forward of the speak-ers’ plane; enveloping but with clear and precise image localisation.

Very impressively, the speaker ‘vanishes’ in a way that is astonishing when you consider its physical size.

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The aforementioned ability for the new drivers to coalesce also presents gains in the tonal character of the loudspeakers. The Alexia is a subtle and sophisticated handler of the textural palette and micro-detail minutiae. Instruments and voices sound natural, with correct timbre and unaffected tonality, as they do when I hear them at acoustic live performances. No better exam-ple of soundscape and tonality is Audiofon’s Earl Wilde, The Art of Transcription, Live at Carnegie Hall. Alexia reproduces Wild’s majestic piano with tremendous power and dynamic accuracy while preserving and naturally-decaying its sustain within the astonishingly realistic live acoustics and rich ambience of Carnegie Hall as captured by Wilson Audio’s own Peter McGrath (who is also Audiofon’s Chief Engineer).

And I should talk about pyrotechnics—in the sense of the type of unrestrained dynamic exuberance and bass power that the brand has always been known for. Here the Alexia provides a generous and quite surprising proportion of what much larger well-designed speakers can offer. I dare you to crank the volume while playing Bozzio Levin Stevens’ ‘Duende’ from the trio’s Black Light Syndrome release. Between Levin’s punctuated bass (especially in the intro), Stevens’ devastating guitar attacks and Bozzio’s Bofors-cannon drum rolls you’ll be left breathless… and your neighbours kind of anxious. Alexia has a much more even and balanced bass than my Sasha; yet it slams much harder while dipping far lower and seeming ‘faster’. It’s a low register that brings an unconscious smile to your face, a

stupor, because its energy and excitement make it sound real. It’s pacey, clean, with sharp transient attack and mas-sive power while petering off with natural decay.

But such low-end quality, all things being equal, is to be expected. Alexia is a large speaker with two power-ful bass drivers

designed by a team of experts with decades of scientific and engineering research be-hind them. What is much, much harder to achieve is a natural midrange and top-end while balancing the respective inter-driver and crossover interactions and managing the cabinet’s resonant behaviour.

Coming from the previous Wilson tweet-er as used in the Sasha, at first listen, Alexia may seem somewhat reserved, restrained, less airy and extended. Long-term listening will, however, reveal a less forward, more refined, nuanced and natural presentation with truthful tonality, filigreed detail and stunning dynamic modulation.

I couldn’t possibly illustrate a better example of the sublime midrange and treble performance of this speaker than to ask you to give the tired and clichéd audio show chestnut that is Rebecca Pidgeon’s Spanish Harlem a whirl. I never play this for my own pleasure, or even for evaluating audio, even if it’s a fairly good recording and its ubiquity makes it somewhat of a familiar reference: its over-rotation in audiophile circles has just ruined it for me. However, at the request of a visiting friend, on it went… ‘Just for kicks and only a minute of it…’ he said. Well, I’ll be blowed! Such was the captivating beauty Alexia was able to convey that we both froze and listened to the whole track through… in my case, for the very first time in many years. Pidgeon’s voice was crystal-clear, dead-centre and rendered with a veri-similitude, a purity that bestowed the tired track with new authenticity. And should you be from another planet and not expect the shakers as they come in, then you’d be

startled at the lifelike resolution which almost allows a bead count. Spooky real.

Yet another strength in abundance is resolving power. Feed the Alexia with the most complex mixes, the most intricate instrumental dexterity and nuanced mu-sicianship and it rewards with meticulous separation and intact micro-detail while maintaining the musical flow. Sasha is adept at this too but Alexia just renders it all with superior musicality and emotive connection. And as much as Alexia excels at all perfor-mance parameters, what is at its core is an ability that is, surprisingly, somewhat rare in high-end hi-fi—the capacity to communicate the emotion of the music in a way that captivates the listener. And that is priceless…

ConClusionWilson Audio’s model releases are the result of evolving research and ideologies. Of course, form, physical elements and manufacturing factors will determine a new speaker’s price but it’s common for Wilson Audio to produce a new design featuring the latest thinking that, as a result, may outperform siblings up the range. In other words, new speakers are recipients of the best knowledge and design skill at hand and not constrained or hampered in order to fulfil price-point expectations.

The new Alexia fulfils the mandate required to produce a speaker that is close to being on par with the XLF flagship’s performance—save for the bigger speaker’s obvious bass superiority—while maintain-ing Sasha’s approximate dimensions. Alexia is a considerable investment, however, few speakers can match its level of engineering and, in the sum of its parts, it’s a product of developed and costly manufacturing meth-odologies. Its power and sonic excellence are directly derived from the meticulous acoustic alignment provisions, the advanced non-resonant enclosure materials, the be-spoke drivers, the painstaking attention to detail in construction and the skilfully tuned ‘system’ entire.

Alexia will be a landmark product for Wilson Audio, of that I have little doubt, and may even outsell the smaller and less expensive Sasha. It’s a remarkable design. Alexia, the new Wilson Audio lady, is not leaving this house. Review sample promptly purchased… Edgar Kramer

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laboratory test resultsThe frequency response measured by New-port Test Labs that’s shown in Graph 1 is, as you can see, extremely balanced and linear, so that as graphed, using the pink noise test stimulus, the Wilson Audio Alexia’s response extends from 27Hz to 20kHz ±3.5dB. As you can see, there’s a slight bass emphasis between 40Hz and 90Hz, which is around 2.5dB higher than the average for the response between 600Hz and 7kHz, and there’s a slight dip in the region between 90Hz and 600Hz that is around 2.5dB below the average. However, both the em-phasis and the dip are at frequencies that will be greatly affected by room placement, so with careful positioning you’ll be able to ameliorate these effects to gain an even ‘flatter’ response if this is desired.

Graph 2 shows the effect on the fre-quency response of operating the Wilson Audio Alexia with and without its grilles in

place. I don’t think I’ve seen such a dramat-ic difference previously: performance will be audibly better with the grilles removed—so much better that I would recommend listen-ing with the grilles off all the time (though replacing them when you’re not, to protect the drivers). Note, however, that it’s only the midrange and tweeter grilles you need to remove, you can leave the main (larg-est) grille over the dual woofers without affecting the sound quality at all. Looking at the response without the grilles, you can see there’s a dip at just above 4kHz. This is mostly a microphone-positioning issue caused because the microphone used to make the measurement was only two metres away: the response you’d hear at the listening position is as shown in Graph 1—perfect-ly linear. The sharp ‘notch’ just below 15kHz worried

me, but according to the authorities I con-tacted, it’s a characteristic of the soft-dome tweeter Wilson is using, and has been noted in all tests done on the Alexia—and not only in the measurements of the Alexia, but also of Wilson Audio’s Alexandria XLF, which uses the same tweeter. The band-width of the notch and the high frequency at which it occurs means it would not have any audible effect on the sound. Indeed for many listeners, it will occur above the high-frequency limit of their hearing.

Low frequency response (Graph 3) was fairly unusual, because the two bass driv-ers do not appear to be crossed over any

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Graph 2. High-frequency response, expanded view. Test stimulus gated sine. Microphone placed at three metres on-axis with dome tweeter. Lower measurement limit 800Hz. Grille on (red trace) vs grille off (black trace). [Wilson Audio Alexia Loudspeaker]

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Graph 1. Averaged frequency response using pink noise test stimulus with capture unsmoothed (red trace) and smoothed to one-third octave (blue trace). Both traces are the averaged results of nine individual frequency sweeps measured at three metres, with the central grid point on-axis with the tweeter. [Wilson Audio Alexia Loudspeaker]

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Graph 3. Near-field response of lower bass driver (black trace); upper bass driver (blue trace); rear-firing bass reflex port (red trace); midrange driver (pink trace) and midrange slots ['ports'] (green trace). Ports/woofers/midrange levels not compensated for differences in radiating areas. [Wilson Audio Alexia Loudspeaker]

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differently, and both have a fairly peaky re-sponse that’s centred at 65Hz, so that their combined response is around 6dB down at 45Hz and 130Hz, this upper frequency appearing to be the acoustic crossover to the midrange driver. The rear-firing bass reflex port has a very unusual tuning, so that its output is essentially completely flat from around 16Hz up to 55Hz. Above 55Hz the port’s output rolls off at 16dB/octave, so that there’s almost no output above 200Hz. This means that you could, if you wished, operate the Alexias with their backs very close to a wall without getting any un-wanted high-frequency wall bounce, as you

do with most large speakers with rear-firing ports. The midrange driver’s response rolls on very smoothly from around 80Hz so that it’s taken over by 200Hz and, as you can see, has a very even, linear output right up to where it’s rolled off so the tweeter can take over from it. The green trace shows the output from the two slots at the rear of the ‘head’ housing the midrange driver. As you can see, the slots do not provide any bass reinforcement at all, and seem present only to change the loading on the rear of the midrange driver’s cone. You can see, however, that there is quite a bit of higher-frequency output (at 450Hz) which could

give some small emphasis to the midrange.

Wilson Audio has a reputation for building loudspeakers that are difficult to drive, and the Alexia is no exception, be-cause its impedance barely rises above 4Ω over the range where most musical fundamentals are found, and drops to just 1.8Ω at 80Hz. (I was interested why Wilson Audio continues to specify the minimum impedance as 2Ω whereas every other test of the Alexia I’ve seen, including this one from Newport Test Labs, shows it at 1.8Ω.) The fact that the impedance remains below 3Ω between 55Hz and 250Hz means this design could never be classified (at least under the IEC 268-5-16 loudspeaker standard) as having a ‘nom-inal’ impedance of 4Ω. Luckily, the phase angles are nicely controlled, only exceeding 30° at 15Hz and 55Hz, and the impedance modulus rises nicely at high frequencies, which should ensure compatibility with Class-D amplifier designs.

In the frequency re-sponse depicted in Graph 5, Newport Test Labs has used post-processing to ‘splice’ the low frequency response shown in Graph 1 to the high-frequency re-

sponse shown in Graph 2 in order to show the overall response over a wider graphing range (the two were spliced at 800Hz). You can see that although the tweeter is flat out to 20kHz, is still effective at 30kHz and has appreciable output at 40kHz, the general trend is that it’s rolling off above 20kHz. This graph shows the final overall response measured by Newport Test Labs for the Wil-son Audio Alexia as 25Hz to 35kHz ±4dB.

As usual, I have included a composite graph (Graph 5) which shows how the various drivers and ports interact with each other to produce the desired output. However, this time I’ve simplified things by not including the response of the smaller bass driver (because it’s essentially the same as that of the larger one), nor the output of the head’s rear-firing slots. As you can see, the correlation between the various measurements is excellent.

Newport Test Labs used its standard stringent methodology to test the efficiency of the Alexia, and under its conditions, reported sensitivity as 87.5dBSPL at one metre with a 2.83Veq pink noise input. This is just slightly above average efficiency, despite being 2.5dB lower than Wilson Audio’s specification. However, if you look at Wilson Audio’s specification in more detail, this US company specifies sensitivity at only a single frequency (1kHz). Newport Test Labs averages output levels over a far wider bandwidth, which gives a more ‘real-world’ result… even though it always results in ‘lower’ figures, much to the chagrin of manufacturers the world over.

In sum, Wilson Audio’s Alexia will place huge demands on the amplifier(s) used to drive them, in terms of both current and voltage, and will also require ‘way above-average skill on the part of users in order to align the various driver elements so they deliver coherent sound at the listening posi-tion—and this is quite apart from the dif-ficulties inherent in initially correctly locating and positioning these large loudspeakers in the room—as well as perseverance in terms of constantly removing and replacing loudspeaker grilles depending on whether the speakers are being used or not.

However, these minor niggles aside, the Wilson Audio Alexia is a well-designed loudspeaker that is capable of deliver-ing prodigious bass, linear midrange and extended treble…and doing so very safely at extremely high SPLs for extended periods of time. Steve Holding

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Graph 6. Composite response plot. Red trace is output of bass reflex port. Dark blue trace is anechoic response of lower bass driver. Light blue trace is sine response of midrange driver. Black trace is averaged in-room pink noise response (from Graph 1). [Wilson Alexia]

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Graph 5. Frequency response. Trace below 800Hz is the averaged result of nine individual frequency sweeps measured at three metres, with the central grid point on-axis with the tweeter using pink noise test stimulus with capture unsmoothed. This has been manually spliced (at 800Hz) to the gated high-frequency response, an expanded view of which is shown in Graph 2. [Wilson Audio Alexia Loudspeaker]

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Graph 4. Impedance modulus (red trace) plus phase (blue trace). Black trace under is reference 2 ohm precision calibration resistor. [Wilson Audio Alexia Loudspeaker]

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