The other comment Hugh made was that he could create deeper, more defined bass and "you know, more bass." He hit the nail on the head here as well. The way I had them set up, I had been a little disappointed with the SabrinaX's bottom end. There wasn't anything wrong with it; it was actually quite good. It just wasn't the killer bass I'd expected after having heard the Yvettes. The two cuts I mentioned in my Yvette review, "First, We Take Manhattan" from Jennifer Warnes's Famous Blue Raincoat (Cypress 661 111-1) and "Racing in the Street" from Bruce Springsteen's Darkness at the Edge of Town (Columbia JC 35318-LP), were great with the SabrinaX's, just not transformed as they had been with the Yvettes—not before Hugh went to work.
True to his word, Hugh got me deeper, tighter bass, and "you know, more bass." The Warnes and Springsteen cuts regained much of their impact. The SabrinaX's pulled out incredible bass notes from "First, We'll Take Manhattan" but lacked the eye-opening slam of the Yvettes. But the notes were more clearly described with the SabrinaX's. They had more inner detail, and the transients were sharper. A similar thing happened with "Racing in the Street." My chest wasn't pushed backward, and I wasn't transported to Row 2 at the concert, but there was more impact than I typically heard from other speakers, and again, I was hearing details that I didn't remember being there when I listened to the Yvettes.
Next to hit the turntable was one of my go-to albums for checking out a speaker's bottom end, the Ray Brown Trio's Soular Energy, in particular, the cut "Mistreated But Undefeated Blues" (Concord/ Jazz LELP 111, Half-speed Mastered Edition). At several points, Brown does what I can only describe as "digging" for a note at the very bottom of the instrument's range. It begins with him slapping the string and kind of sliding it across the fingerboard before curving it up to the note. The SabrinaX's aced the test: The note was rock-solid and had all the power it should. The round, warm resonance that's so characteristic of Ray Brown's playing was even more so with the SabrinaX's. The warm and round aspects might or might not have been more pervasive, but the sound of the body itself just popped out. There was dramatically more detail, the sort of thing you don't know exists until you hear it, at which point it becomes so obvious you wonder why you never heard it before. It wasn't so much the presence of more spatial detail as it was the harmonic structure and choral nature of the notes. And lest I forget, the rasp as the string grinds across the fingerboard had become a mix of sounds that evolved in that tiny slice of time. Very, very cool.
I took a break from reviewer mode and put in a CD I love and chose as one of my 2000 R2D4 selections: Lucinda Williams's Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (Mercury 314 558 388-2). The first track, "Right in Time," is an all-out rocker, and after about three seconds, I was hooked. After a few seconds more, I was locked in and started bouncing in my chair. Before I could settle in, though, the energy started building toward that first, killer chorus I knew was coming. I started holding my breath, the intensity started to build, the chorus hit, and the intensity went through the roof. Lucinda's voice was now coming from deeper in her chest, gaining weight and power. Just as she hit her stride, ringing guitars crashed in from both sides.
There was more power and intensity than I was used to hearing. For that matter, there was more of everything. Except glare; there was less of that. Lucinda's voice, the guitars, and drums had been distinct and focused the whole time. They hadn't blurred together, which they usually did. Sometime later, it occurred to me that the guitars had never gotten edgy, either, and that the hotter sibilance that typically crept into Lucinda's voice during the loudest passages hadn't been there. I'd gotten used to accepting that, when the level hit 11, I was either going to get blurred guitars and no sibilance, or sharply bounded guitars and too much sibilance. Not here, not now.
After I recovered sufficiently from listening to "Right in Time" about 30 times in a row, I moved to the third track, "2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten," which is a 180° change from "Right in Time." It's quiet, slow, and simple and showcases Williams's unique voice. It's always magnetic but was more so with the SabrinaX's in the system. Her vocals wrapped up the listener part of me and the world shrank into nothing but her lyrics. When I sucked up enough discipline, the reviewer part of me noticed that somehow microdetail and tonal texture had intensified her voice's magnetic pull. After hearing this and feeling how I was affected, I found it impossible to recall other speakers to use in a comparison.
Still in listener mode, Lucinda led me to a couple of other albums that have seen a lot of playing time of late: Warren Zevon's Warren Zevon (Asylum 7E-1060) and Jackson Browne Solo Acoustic – Vol.1 (Inside Recordings INR52561-2). "Hasten Down the Wind" has to be one of the simplest, truest, and most beautiful songs ever written, and this understated 1976 recording has always been a window to Zevon's purest, most unaffected voice. The simplest way to describe hearing it through the SabrinaX's is to say that it opened that window. Nothing like microdetail or the precision of transients was apparent in itself, but I couldn't avoid the impression that the recording itself had improved. The image was more dimensional and substantial, and Zevon's voice had me thinking "This voice is pure."
I found myself feeling much the same way listening to the Jackson Browne show: No audiophile characteristics were on display, but I had a heightened sense of being in the audience, surrounded by the voices and random noises all around. I could feel and understand the intimacy Browne established with the audience and, in a weird way, with the venue itself. I've been to several of his concerts but never this close.
A few days later, I was rooting around for a live album, and the Ouija board in the back of my head steered me to Friday Night in San Francisco, a recording of Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, and Paco DeLucia's 1980 show at the Warfield Theater (Columbia Half-Speed Mastered HC 47152). No voices here, unique or not, but an immersive, spookily tangible environment and an amazing display of guitar pyrotechnics. I didn't try to pick out new details when I played Friday Night through the SabrinaX's, or try to zero in on the spatial or temporal precision of a specific piece of the environment around me, but the minute I walked in and dropped the needle, a heightened sense of realism hit me. The same thing happened when the first notes of "Mediterranean Sundance" exploded a couple of seconds later. "Dynamics" and "microdetail" popped into my head, but there was no need to analyze the speed and size of the blazing dynamic transients or the precision and sureness of the accompanying pitch changes, or the sharpness of a leading edge. Listening told me everything I needed to know.
Conclusions
With the SabrinaX's in the house, I smiled whenever I thought about the last time I'd listened to music and looked forward to the next time I'd be able to. I would truly be happy if everything stayed the way it is: room, system, records, even my chair and the light standing next to it. Seriously, just leave it all right where it is. I've heard more mega-systems than I can count, including $1,000,000 worth of Wilson WAMM Master Chronosonic. Yeah, some of them are better than the SabrinaX, but it would be a pain to move them and set everything up in my room. Nothing is perfect though, not even the SabrinaX. John Atkinson's measurements will tell all, but I have a hunch that the SabrinaX may be just a little on the warm, forgiving side of absolute neutrality. Maybe there's a bit of a rise in the midbass to the upper bass. And maybe, just maybe, the upper midrange is down a a little bit compared to the frequencies on either side. Keep in mind that I have a small, well-damped room and tube amps. Your results may vary. The SabrinaX is a very special product, and I wouldn't be surprised if history looks back on it fondly. It's Wilson's smallest, least expensive floorstanding speaker, yet it's full of Wilson's latest and greatest everything. It's a very much smaller version of the Flagship XVX. Its bill of materials reads like that of the Sasha DAW, which I think it sounds like. Wilson's Peter McGrath said, "Daryl's a perfectionist, and he went kind of nuts on the SabrinaX."
The SabrinaX is a wonderful speaker. I can't imagine someone hearing it and coming to any other conclusion.
If you're thinking about spending $20,000 or more on speakers, you should have the SabrinaX on your short list. I don't want to make enemies in Provo, but if I ran into someone considering one of the more expensive Wilsons, I'd whisper in their ear that they should give the SabrinaX a good, long listen before writing the check.
Very highly recommended!
Next to hit the turntable was one of my go-to albums for checking out a speaker's bottom end, the Ray Brown Trio's Soular Energy, in particular, the cut "Mistreated But Undefeated Blues" (Concord/ Jazz LELP 111, Half-speed Mastered Edition). At several points, Brown does what I can only describe as "digging" for a note at the very bottom of the instrument's range. It begins with him slapping the string and kind of sliding it across the fingerboard before curving it up to the note. The SabrinaX's aced the test: The note was rock-solid and had all the power it should. The round, warm resonance that's so characteristic of Ray Brown's playing was even more so with the SabrinaX's. The warm and round aspects might or might not have been more pervasive, but the sound of the body itself just popped out. There was dramatically more detail, the sort of thing you don't know exists until you hear it, at which point it becomes so obvious you wonder why you never heard it before. It wasn't so much the presence of more spatial detail as it was the harmonic structure and choral nature of the notes. And lest I forget, the rasp as the string grinds across the fingerboard had become a mix of sounds that evolved in that tiny slice of time. Very, very cool.
After I recovered sufficiently from listening to "Right in Time" about 30 times in a row, I moved to the third track, "2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten," which is a 180° change from "Right in Time." It's quiet, slow, and simple and showcases Williams's unique voice. It's always magnetic but was more so with the SabrinaX's in the system. Her vocals wrapped up the listener part of me and the world shrank into nothing but her lyrics. When I sucked up enough discipline, the reviewer part of me noticed that somehow microdetail and tonal texture had intensified her voice's magnetic pull. After hearing this and feeling how I was affected, I found it impossible to recall other speakers to use in a comparison.
ConclusionsWith the SabrinaX's in the house, I smiled whenever I thought about the last time I'd listened to music and looked forward to the next time I'd be able to. I would truly be happy if everything stayed the way it is: room, system, records, even my chair and the light standing next to it. Seriously, just leave it all right where it is. I've heard more mega-systems than I can count, including $1,000,000 worth of Wilson WAMM Master Chronosonic. Yeah, some of them are better than the SabrinaX, but it would be a pain to move them and set everything up in my room. Nothing is perfect though, not even the SabrinaX. John Atkinson's measurements will tell all, but I have a hunch that the SabrinaX may be just a little on the warm, forgiving side of absolute neutrality. Maybe there's a bit of a rise in the midbass to the upper bass. And maybe, just maybe, the upper midrange is down a a little bit compared to the frequencies on either side. Keep in mind that I have a small, well-damped room and tube amps. Your results may vary. The SabrinaX is a very special product, and I wouldn't be surprised if history looks back on it fondly. It's Wilson's smallest, least expensive floorstanding speaker, yet it's full of Wilson's latest and greatest everything. It's a very much smaller version of the Flagship XVX. Its bill of materials reads like that of the Sasha DAW, which I think it sounds like. Wilson's Peter McGrath said, "Daryl's a perfectionist, and he went kind of nuts on the SabrinaX."
