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One of the benefits of being a reviewer is that, of the large number of products that pass through my listening room, occasionally there are those that I really would like to see take up more permanent residence. One of these was Wilson Audio Specialties' Alexia loudspeaker, which I reviewed in December 2013. "Its clarity, its uncolored, full-range balance, its flexibility in setup and optimization, and most of all its sheer musicality, are, if not unrivaled, rare," I wrote, and concluded: "If I were to retire tomorrow, the Wilson Alexia would be the speaker I would buy to provide the musical…
I'd begun my auditioning of the original Alexias with David Wilson's own recording of Beethoven's Violin Sonata 10 in G, Op.96, performed by violinist David Abel and pianist Julie Steinberg (24-bit/192kHz needle drop from LP, Wilson Audio W-8315). I wrote that, through the Alexias, "the balance of the instruments was intimate yet unforced. They were reproduced with faithful tone colors—I heard no colorations—and the imaging was such that the musicians seemed to be in my room." My reaction to this recording through the Alexia 2s was the same.
As the sonata drew to a close, Roon suggested…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way, four-driver, reflex-loaded, floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" (25mm) silk-dome tweeter, 7" (178mm) cellulose-fiber/paper pulp-cone midrange, 8" (203mm) paper-cone woofer, 10" (254mm) paper-cone woofer. Crossover frequencies: not given. Frequency response: 19Hz–32kHz, ±3dB, room-averaged response. Sensitivity: 89dB/W/m. Impedance: 4 ohms nominal, 2.54 ohms minimum at 85Hz. Minimum amplifier power: 20Wpc.
Dimensions: 53" (1347mm) H by 15.25" (387.4mm) W by 22.875" (580mm) D. Weight: 260 lb (117.9kg).
Finish: Multiple…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Source: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply, Linn Ekos tonearm, Linn Arkiv B cartridge.
Digital Sources: NAD Masters Series M50.2, Roon Nucleus+ digital players; Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; Ayre Acoustics QX-5 Twenty, PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream D/A converters; Ayre Acoustics QA-9 USB A/D converter.
Preamplification: Channel D Seta L phono preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: Bricasti Design M15, Constellation Centaur II 500, Lamm Industries M1.2 Reference (monoblocks).
Integrated Amplifiers: Luxman L-509x…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Wilson Alexia 2's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield and spatially averaged room responses. Because of the speaker's weight, I was unable to raise it off the ground for the measurements, which reduced the resolution of the frequency-response graphs in the midrange. And as with the original Alexia, there was the problem of which axis to place the microphone on for the farfield measurements. I wanted to measure it at my standard 50" microphone…
Herb Reichert reviewed the Joseph Pulsar in July 2018 (Vol.41 No.7):
Ever since loudspeaker designer Jeff Joseph, owner of Joseph Audio, delivered and carefully positioned in my Bed-Stuy bunker a pair of his stand-mounted Pulsar loudspeakers ($7700/pair without stands, serial nos. P-0187L/R), I've been experiencing a new variety of audio pleasure. I'd experienced short, scattered moments of a similar pleasure in Joseph's rooms at various audio shows, but I'd never been able to understand its cause or perceive its full nature until I heard the Pulsars in my home system. As I told Joseph as…
Art Dudley wrote about the HoloAudio Spring DAC in July 2018 (Vol.41 No.7):
Praise it all you want, but digital audio is still my second choice: In a life in which the enjoyment of art is infinite but the hours in which to do so are limited, and given the choice between listening to LPs and 78s on the one hand or files and CDs on the other, digital is a waste of my time: It doesn't connect me with the music as well as analog does, period. In my experience, digital audio isn't evil, merely banal.
But digital is getting better all the time, and part of my job description is to…
Kjell Tore Innervik: Utopias: Radical Interpretations of Iconic Musical Works for Percussion
Xenakis: Psappha. Morton Feldman: The King of Denmark.
Kjell Tore Innervik, percussion
2L 2L-141-SABD (SACD/CD, BD, downloads: DXD, DSD256, MQA). 2018. Morten Lindberg, prod., editing, mix, mastering, balance; Beatrice Johannessen, rec. technician. DDD. TT: 46:04
Performance *****
Sonics *****
Xenakis: Psappha. Morton Feldman: The King of Denmark.
Kjell Tore Innervik, percussion
2L 2L-141-SABD (SACD/CD, BD, downloads: DXD, DSD256, MQA). 2018. Morten Lindberg, prod., editing, mix, mastering, balance; Beatrice Johannessen, rec. technician. DDD. TT: 46:04
Performance *****
Sonics *****
With 32 Grammy nominations, 24 for Recording Engineer and Music Producer, Morten Lindberg and his 2L label continue to issue one astounding recording after another. Their recordings are…
Photos: Jim Austin
I'm sitting in a rented Nissan just off Highway 61—yes, that Highway 61—looking out at a Shell station through the bug-stained windshield and across a litter-strewn, not-yet-planted cotton field. It's late March, and I've just left Clarksdale, Mississippi, on my way to Memphis. Leaving Clarksdale made me thoughtful, so I've pulled over to jot down a few notes.
Clarksdale—specifically, the intersection of highways 61 and 49, at the town's southern edge—is the crossroads where, according to legend, Robert Johnson encountered the Devil and exchanged his soul for his…
In the rural home in Cherry Valley, NY that my family and I inhabited from 2003 to 2017, we had dirty water but clean electricity. Evidence of the latter was seen in the results of tests performed by a technician from the local utility, National Grid—I told him I intended to do commercial sound recording on site, which was close enough to the truth that I considered my sin venal rather than mortal—and heard in the sound of my playback system, which rejected as superfluous or worse all of the AC-conditioning products I tried there. As for that, keep in mind that the purification of power,…