New Wilson Alexia system underway

[isquirrel]

I have been a Wilson Audio fan for many years, starting as a customer then after spending time with Dave & Sheryl I became the distributor for Australia and New Zealand for over a decade. I had the Alexandria X2's and a beautiful system when the GFC hit me hard. In the space of a few years I had lost everything and could no longer do my duty as the Wilson Audio distributor. I even had a period of homelessness. A difficult time of life with many hard lessons learnt.





I have loved music since I was a small boy and over the past few years I could not contemplate a 2 channel system, so headphone it was. I am now starting in 2 channel all over again with the help of family and friends. I have just come back from Sydney where I setup and listened for a day to the Alexia's. A good friend of mine is now the Wilson distributor and is being incredibly kind & helpful. I fell in love with the Alexia's. I had asked for them to be driven by the D'Agostino Momentum Integrated which as a tube lover I had low exception of, I could not have been more wrong it was a beautiful combination and exactly my cup of tea.

I am posting here as it this is exciting stuff and I cannot wait to be able to listen to good music reproduction at home again, I also have plenty of questions:

Colour: I have been undecided between Grey and the Darker of the 2 Oranges - I am currently more in favour of the Orange, does anybody else here have that colour or other colours to recommend.

Stillpoints: I have been reading about the Stillpoints Ultra 5's (I think) and I am wanting to get some feedback on those.

Amp: I am going to go with the D'Agostino Stream or MLife as it is only a little more expensive than the normal integrated and gives more flexibility, I am wondering if this is the right way to go?

DAC: I am using the Computer Audio Design 1543 DAC with the CAT streamer, this is a very musical DAC and has the analog sound I enjoy. The Alexia's were paired with the Gryphon Kalliope DAC - anyone have any impressions of this?

Thanks in advance, thoroughly enjoying the community in these forums.

Simon

 

[Bruce B]

Congrats on the Alexia's. I'm still loving mine and they make me money!!
If I didn't have the Pass amps, my second choice would certainly be the D'Agostino amps. I heard them with ARC, but they were a little soft for my liking.
Definitely get the Stillpoint Ultra 5's for them. Almost seems mandatory. Mine are in Desert Silver, but I do like the Orange!

 

[isquirrel]

Thanks Bruce, hopefully everything will be confirmed this week.

I am a analog/tube lover so I found the D'Agostino's very easy to listen to, depending on how I end with my fine tuning in my room, the thought crossed my mind that I might slightly bump the tweeter up. We shall see. Re colour its always tempting to play it safe with a more neutral colour but I do think the Orange as long as it a rich orange will be eye catching and lets face there is no hiding them.

Do you have any photos of the Ultra 5's and how you have them placed? I have carpet, will they still work on there?

 

[Bruce B]

Rockitman uses the Ultra 5's on his Alexandria's on carpet. I think Steve does as well.

You can see my thread HERE.

 

[amirm]

I can't answer your questions but congratulations on the purchase! I can almost feel your anticipation . Must be very exciting.

 

[isquirrel]

I can't answer your questions but congratulations on the purchase! I can almost feel your anticipation . Must be very exciting.

Thanks, still have to confirm a few things but hopefully done this week. I have trying to console myself with good headphones but as soon as I heard the Alexia's I fell hard. Astonishing difference with the tweeter and just the right size. I have to organise some budget speaker cable for the time being, I used to use Transparent OPUS - not on the horizon this time. At least the power is sorted. Very happy with the Shunyata - love that stuff !

I have to wait until mid September as the amp is not shipping until then

 

[XV-1]

Simon

Good to see you back and able to enjoy expensive hifi again.

I have the Momentum Stereo and Maxx3's from Joe. only SS amp I have been able to live with. Great combo.
Stillpoints are excellent - I first used Stillpoint Ultra's under the Maxx's almost 3 years ago now, they work very well.

 

[amirm]

I have to wait until mid September as the amp is not shipping until then

Oh, I didn't realize the Stream had not shipped yet. Would be great to have your feedback on the streamer portion. It is a new domain for them. Software stack for these things is tricky to get right.

 

[microstrip]

Congratulations on the Alexia's. I owned them for some time and really enjoyed them. Once properly placed they can play excellent music with many types of electronics - much less specific than some other speakers I have owned. The pictures you show look great, but I have to say that in my room and with my electronics and cables I preferred them to the X2 that I hosted before getting them.

I am now playing with a Devialet 400 - two Devialet 200's used in mono blocks. Unfortunately the Alexia's are gone, I would love to test them with the Alexia's. Or with the XLF's , one of the two be best sounding demo's I ever participated used the XLF's.

 

[isquirrel]

Oh, I didn't realize the Stream had not shipped yet. Would be great to have your feedback on the streamer portion. It is a new domain for them. Software stack for these things is tricky to get right.

I spoke with Dan's designer and they are waiting on Apple approval, I have been recently working on iOS development and it can take a while especially if its your 1st submission. From what I could gather, the DAC section will be okay but probably not world class, however given its a US $3K difference in price it does add a lot of functionality.

The 1st units ship in early September.

 

[Steve williams]

Simon

congrats on the Alexias. I do seem to remember you when you were the distributor for Wilson in Australia many years ago. I seem to remember an audiogon forum thread of yours regarding changing the resistors on ones Wilson speakers on an annual basis ( if that was you as I remember it being by the Wilson distributor in Australia). I also remember those photos of the red and blue X2

I also have Ultra 5's under my speakers

 

[isquirrel]

Congratulations on the Alexia's. I owned them for some time and really enjoyed them. Once properly placed they can play excellent music with many types of electronics - much less specific than some other speakers I have owned. The pictures you show look great, but I have to say that in my room and with my electronics and cables I preferred them to the X2 that I hosted before getting them.

I am now playing with a Devialet 400 - two Devialet 200's used in mono blocks. Unfortunately the Alexia's are gone, I would love to test them with the Alexia's. Or with the XLF's , one of the two be best sounding demo's I ever participated used the XLF's.

Having lived with a number of Wilson speakers in the past and the X2's for some time I was really surprised at the how the sound has evolved. It is a huge step, the largest Wilson have taken to date IMHO. I also found the tweeter dispersement to be much more accommodating and much easier to setup. Image height was good too, at no stage did I feel I was missing out on anything and found I prefer the easier to live with footprint and more intimate sound.

 

[isquirrel]

Hello Steve, yep that's me.

Congratulations on establishing a great site & community. I have been following your room with interest and thank you for your Shunyata recommendations. You were 100% right. I haven't had the Alexia's confirmed by the new distributor yet but I am hoping that will happen this week. I miss being the distributor for such a fantastic brand but have stayed close friends with them so its all been for the best. Its will be a dream to have Wilson's at home again. Trent is hopefully coming over soon & will be staying with me. He can check my setup skills

 

[Steve williams]

Trent is a great guy