Products of the Year

Wilson Audio Specialties Sasha V
($51,000/pair; reviewed by Sasha Matson in Vol.47 No.2, February 2024 review)

FINALISTS (in alphabetical order)
DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/baby
($5700/pair; reviewed by Ken Micallef in Vol.46 No.12, December 2023 review)
Focal Maestro Utopia EVO
($76,000/pair; reviewed by Rogier van Bakel in Vol.46 No.11, November 2023 review)
Klipsch The Nines
($1499/pair; reviewed by Tom Fine in Vol.47 No.2, February 2024 review)
Voxativ Ampeggio 2024
($13,900/pair; reviewed by Ken Micallef in Vol.47 No.6, June 2024 review)

The Utah company consistently produces loudspeakers that perform at the highest level in both sound quality and measured performance, albeit at prices that are also at or close to the highest level. Sasha Matson played recordings from many different music genres with the Sasha Vs. With every piece of music, he was impressed by the superbly well-defined soundstage and spectacular dynamics. Playing a test mix of one of his own compositions for jazz orchestra, he wrote that the Sasha Vs "created a sensation of one-to-one accuracy, every instrument laid out before me as I recalled it; a soundstage duplicating the true one, uncannily true musical re-creation. That's excellent audio engineering and reproduction." SM noted that the Sasha V "needed juice" to sit up and show what it is capable of, but it could play at extremely high levels "without a whisper of strain or breakup." He bought the review samples—enough said!

Notes on the vote
Although the Wilson speaker ended up with the highest vote tally, not until I received the final completed ballot did it edge ahead of the Focal Maestro Utopia EVO and Voxativ Ampeggio 2024. And congrats to Klipsch for The Nines, an affordable "speaker-gadget system," as Tom Fine called it in his review, that made it to the finals. This full-featured active system—which features class-D amplification, digital (USB, S/PDIF, and HDMI-ARC) and analog (phono and line level) inputs, DSP-implemented equalization, and can be controlled with a Bluetooth-connected app—may well be a portent for the future of domestic speakers.