Wilson Alexx V vs Rockport Orion

[Charles S]

I'm glad you're enjoying your very fine system. Sounds like you, as many of us have done went through extraneous efforts to dial in your system.

Just a thought - as good as the Mac gear is, you might want to investigate some of the ultra - high end preamps and amps such as CH Precision, Dhartzeel, Pilium, Gryphon and Audionet offerings. You very well may be pleasantly surprised.

Thanks very much for the compliment. I wish that I could, but as you can see, my Mac An gear is barely broken in. I'm a believer in sound signatures for the highest quality sound for the value because sometimes gear incompatibility adversely affects the sonics. The CH precision pre in the most recent Stereophile received an outstanding review. If I had the money and were younger, it would be high on my list. Also Vitus Masterpiece Series would be amazing. But I'm pretty much set and I get excellent results but I know that the ultra-high end gear could offer a significant improvement. But I think that I have spent enough and just love my new Mac An gear. As Andromeda has wisely said, "It's happiness and preference/taste," to paraphrase "that matters".

 

[Ron Resnick]

Ron, I totally accept your apology.

Thank you.

I personally do not believe that the Lyra is a "better speaker than the XVX"

I think this is exactly the correct way to put the point. In a subjective hobby each of us is entitled to our personal preferences about what is "better," however each of us defines "better." No one can reasonably dispute our personal preferences.

(I think if you had expressed your earlier posts in terms of your personal belief the conversation would not have spiraled.)

 

[Charles S]

Agree totally.

 

[Frankie67]

Would any of the Alex V or the Orion be suitable for a room whose size is 4x5meters? Or would they be too much? Thanks.

 

[Charles S]

As everyone knows by now I am a Wilson aficionado but I believe the Orion would be the better choice. Why? It is a smaller speaker but obviously very potent and if I didn't have an XVX, if had your room I would be very comfortable with an Orion. You would have more room for subs. Size is the one indisputable advantage that Rockports have over Wilsons. However, I personally would want to hear the Alexia V vs the Orion. There's a guy on AA who has a topline VAC/dCS/vinyl system. Really topline, nothing spared. If he wanted Orions he would have them. His room is about the same size as yours. He's adding dual REL 31 subs, which you could easily do also and still have a lot of money to spend elsewhere. Everybody has a budget. But if money/value is not a concern, in your size room I believe I would go with the Orion with subwoofers. Both the Alexia V and Orion are 3-way loudspeakers. If money/value is not a priority, personally I would go with the Orion, if for no other reason than I have never heard one, and I am absolutely certain I would love its sonic signature.

His new Alexia V's are still on casters, waiting on the dealer for their final adjustment, and the subs haven't arrived.

 

[sbo6]

Would any of the Alex V or the Orion be suitable for a room whose size is 4x5meters? Or would they be too much? Thanks.

With appropriate room treatment and subwoofers to mitigate room modes, either should work just fine.

 

[Lee]

As everyone knows by now I am a Wilson aficionado but I believe the Orion would be the better choice. Why? It is a smaller speaker but obviously very potent and if I didn't have an XVX, if had your room I would be very comfortable with an Orion. You would have more room for subs. Size is the one indisputable advantage that Rockports have over Wilsons. However, I personally would want to hear the Alexia V vs the Orion. There's a guy on AA who has a topline VAC/dCS/vinyl system. Really topline, nothing spared. If he wanted Orions he would have them. His room is about the same size as yours. He's adding dual REL 31 subs, which you could easily do also and still have a lot of money to spend elsewhere. Everybody has a budget. But if money/value is not a concern, in your size room I believe I would go with the Orion with subwoofers. Both the Alexia V and Orion are 3-way loudspeakers. If money/value is not a priority, personally I would go with the Orion, if for no other reason than I have never heard one, and I am absolutely certain I would love its sonic signature.

His new Alexia V's are still on casters, waiting on the dealer for their final adjustment, and the subs haven't arrived.

He will be very happy when he hears them off the casters and finely dialed in. It's not subtle.

 

[LL21]

As everyone knows by now I am a Wilson aficionado but I believe the Orion would be the better choice. Why? It is a smaller speaker but obviously very potent and if I didn't have an XVX, if had your room I would be very comfortable with an Orion. You would have more room for subs. Size is the one indisputable advantage that Rockports have over Wilsons. However, I personally would want to hear the Alexia V vs the Orion. There's a guy on AA who has a topline VAC/dCS/vinyl system. Really topline, nothing spared. If he wanted Orions he would have them. His room is about the same size as yours. He's adding dual REL 31 subs, which you could easily do also and still have a lot of money to spend elsewhere. Everybody has a budget. But if money/value is not a concern, in your size room I believe I would go with the Orion with subwoofers. Both the Alexia V and Orion are 3-way loudspeakers. If money/value is not a priority, personally I would go with the Orion, if for no other reason than I have never heard one, and I am absolutely certain I would love its sonic signature.

His new Alexia V's are still on casters, waiting on the dealer for their final adjustment, and the subs haven't arrived.

Good read. Big fan of subs to create an enveloping sense of venue and helping to found the instruments in the room.

 

[Tascam]

Thanks very much for the compliment. I wish that I could, but as you can see, my Mac A gear is barely broken in. I'm a believer in sound signatures for the highest quality sound for the value because sometimes gear incompatibility adversely affects the sonics. The CH precision pre in the most recent Stereophile received an outstanding review. If I had the money and were younger, it would be high on my list. Also Vitus Masterpiece Series would be amazing. But I'm pretty much set and I get excellent results but I know that the ultra-high end gear could offer a significant improvement. But I think that I have spent enough and just love my new Mac A gear. As Andromeda has wisely said, "It's happiness and preference/taste," to paraphrase "that matters".

You can’t go by what these magazines say. Too much politics, ad money spent, and free long term loans of equipment to reviewers. The only thing that matters is a home audition.

 

[Charles S]

You can’t go by what these magazines say. Too much politics, ad money spent, and free long term loans of equipment to reviewers. The only thing that matters is a home audition.

I generally agree and I'm not agreeing to be cordial, however it's a little more complicated. Let me explain. Home auditions are impossible with an XVX. You must hear the speaker at a dealership which as you know is almost as bad as the magazines. But at least you can form some very basic opinion as to the sound. For me, I got a tremendous value by being the first to buy an XVX in my part of the country. I got speakers 39 and 40 and my dealer wanted to have an XVX on display in his store. Ditto for the Mac An gear. I had previously owned a Maxx3 and Alexx so I knew the Wilson sound and liked it very much.

Unfortunately, the Focal Grande Utopia wouldn't come close to fitting in my room. It is absolutely huge yet the XVX outweighs it by 100 pounds and as I have said repeatedly the XVX is really a system, designed for two Subsonics which kicks the weight up to 1200 pounds plus the mono amplifier and electronic crossover. I would never consider subs with a Grande. On its own the XVX is quite competitive with the Grande regarding distortion and low end FR. And it easily fits into many rooms that the Grande won't fit into.

I happen to be good friends with a reviewer who owns a full XVX Subsonic system and what he writes about the XVX is quite accurate based on my personal listening experience. So T, just like almost everything in life, there are exceptions to every rule. Your rule is that magazine reviews are 100% useless; however, while a good rule in theory, in reality it is not practical to home audition ultra high end speakers or even your very fine EVO's. Your are going hear them at a dealership most of the time via a demo.

Also, reading a review by a seasoned well respected reviewer is a bit like reading a technical paper on a particular scientific subject. If you too are an expert in that particular subject and field, then even though 90% of the paper may be worthless to you, 10% may be beneficial to you and accurate. I am very interested in nutrition and health and I have an advanced degree in biochemistry. I want to live as long as I can and I want to leverage my knowledge by reading papers on the subject and putting them to practical use in my diet, exercise routine, and medications. (I am 75 and will be roller skating for 3 hours tonight. I weigh 135 pounds and are 3% body fat. I skate with and am good friends with the best roller skater in America on a regular basis.) Much of what is written concerning nutrition is useless to me but occasionally I find a valuable of nugget of knowledge that I can put to use to help me live longer. Therefore, occasionally, in a review there will be a valuable nugget of information, but for every valuable nugget about 95% may not be of any use to me. So I would say that you are actually about 95% correct in your conclusion, for me personally.

 

[Tascam]

I generally agree and I'm not agreeing to be cordial, however it's a little more complicated. Let me explain. Home auditions are impossible with an XVX. You must hear the speaker at a dealership which as you know is almost as bad as the magazines. But at least you can form some very basic opinion as to the sound. For me, I got a tremendous value by being the first to buy an XVX in my part of the country. I got speakers 39 and 40 and my dealer wanted to have an XVX on display in his store. Ditto for the Mac An gear. I had previously owned a Maxx3 and Alexx so I knew the Wilson sound and liked it very much.

Unfortunately, the Focal Grande Utopia wouldn't come close to fitting in my room. It is absolutely huge yet the XVX outweighs it by 100 pounds and as I have said repeatedly the XVX is really a system, designed for two Subsonics which kicks the weight up to 1200 pounds plus the mono amplifier and electronic crossover. I would never consider subs with a Grande. On its own the XVX is quite competitive with the Grande regarding distortion and low end FR. And it easily fits into many rooms that the Grande won't fit into.

I happen to be good friends with a reviewer who owns a full XVX Subsonic system and what he writes about the XVX is quite accurate based on my personal listening experience. So T, just like almost everything in life, there are exceptions to every rule. Your rule is that magazine reviews are 100% useless; however, while a good rule in theory, in reality it is not practical to home audition ultra high end speakers or even your very fine EVO's. Your are going hear them at a dealership most of the time via a demo.

Also, reading a review by a seasoned well respected reviewer is a bit like reading a technical paper on a particular scientific subject. If you too are an expert in that particular subject and field, then even though 90% of the paper may be worthless to you, 10% may be beneficial to you and accurate. I am very interested in nutrition and health and I have an advanced degree in biochemistry. I want to live as long as I can and I want to leverage my knowledge by reading papers on the subject and putting them to practical use in my diet, exercise routine, and medications. (I am 75 and will be roller skating for 3 hours tonight. I weigh 135 pounds and are 3% body fat. I skate with and am good friends with the best roller skater in America on a regular basis.) Much of what is written concerning nutrition is useless to me but occasionally I find a valuable of nugget of knowledge that I can put to use to help me live longer. Therefore, occasionally, in a review there will be a valuable nugget of information, but for every valuable nugget about 95% may not be of any use to me. So I would say that you are actually about 95% correct in your conclusion, for me personally.

I know what you mean. I had to buy certain pieces like my McIntosh mc1.25kw amps and Focal Utopia Maestro speakers without a home audition. I heard something similar at the dealer and took a risk. This isn’t ideal. In terms of what you bought, given the price point, it couldn’t be anything but superb. Then it just becomes about equipment matching.and acoustics

 

[Audiohertz2]

You can’t go by what these magazines say. Too much politics, ad money spent, and free long term loans of equipment to reviewers. The only thing that matters is a home audition.

They said your Focal was good , will disregard ..

Many thanks

 

[Tascam]

They said your Focal was good , will disregard ..

Many thanks

They did, but so what? I have to listen for myself

 

[Charles S]

I know what you mean. I had to buy certain pieces like my McIntosh mc1.25kw amps and Focal Utopia Maestro speakers without a home audition. I heard something similar at the dealer and took a risk. This isn’t ideal. In terms of what you bought, given the price point, it couldn’t be anything but superb. Then it just becomes about equipment matching.and acoustics

T, thank you for your complement. I enjoy your comments very much. And I like your preference in gear.

 

[Tascam]

T, thank you for your complement. I enjoy your comments very much. And I like your preference in gear.

It was the best gear I could find in my local area from a legitimate dealer. Stereotypes in Daytona Beach has been in business for 42 years and the 2nd oldest McIntosh dealer in the Southeast. They treated me well. All of my equipment except my turntable came from them. The local Wilson dealer almost never answers the phone and is more interested in shipping Wilson speakers, particularly the used one all over the country instead of catering to a local clientele. That where I listened to 6 different Wilson speaker model an none of them sounded good in his room. Ultimately, I ended up with those Focal Utopia Maestros.

 

[caesar]

I own an XVX. I wouldn't remotely consider any Rockport speaker over it. Robert Harley Editor of TAS removed the Lyra and replaced it with his XVX which he currently still uses as his reference. He recently reviewed the Orion but he did not even compare it to his XVX, which will surpass either the Lyra or Orion in every sonic category. Neither speaker is in the same league as an XVX. He has heard all three speakers in his custom built listening room for months of extensive listening and is a friend of AP of Rockport. I trust his ears and evaluations. The Orion is a 3-way speaker. I would place it in the class as the Alexia V. Since his Orion review he has reviewed numerous extremely expensive statement level loud speakers and the XVX remains his reference. There is a reason for this. The XVX has the ability to make almost any recording sound good. It is an extremely musical loudspeaker. It wants to please the listener unlike many loudspeakers yet it remains incredibly resolving and its dynamic ability is simply incredible. I It sounds good with tubes and SS gear. It is a reviewer's ideal loudspeaker and is also Michael Fremer's long standing reference. It reproduces live performances at totally realistic SP levels without a hint of strain. The XVX is -6dB at 11 Hz and will produce 110dB bass tone at 24 Hz with 1.5% distortion. Distortion measurements at reasonable sound pressure levels are inaudible 20 cycles to 20 thousand cycles. Demos are notoriously unreliable for judging a speaker. Volume 15 / Number 3 July - Sept 2021 MC extensive review HFC.

Hello Charles S,

You keep bringing up reviewers and their tastes as proof that Wilson is a better speaker. But why assume that just because a bunch of audio journalists like a speaker, others will be emotionally moved by it as well? Obviously, this is not the reality. Robert Harley is a malignant cancer upon our beloved hobby - for normalizing misinformation and misleading people, wasting their time and money. ("Berkeley Ref dac is the best dac extant", siding with Mobile fidelity after they lied and mislead people - including Michael Fremer, etc., etc., etc.) Everything he writes about is the best - for a few months, until the next issue. Take him seriously at your own risk.

Yet Michael Fremer, one of the few ethical guys in this hobby was very clear in his review of the Wamm Jr XVX: he said that guys who like horns and high efficiency speakers will not like the wilson xvx. And he's absolutely right! I would rather listen to music in my car than on a Wilson!!!

Regardless, I am happy that this speaker brings you joy! Enjoy it for many years in great health.

 

[Charles S]

Dear Caesar, I now understand that there are a significant number of folks on WBF who do no like Wilson speakers. That's absolutely fine with me. You are just one of the many and I regard you as a friend because you are obviously as devoted to the high end as I am. Again, I apologize to anybody if I have been offensive to them or their system.

RH is a good friend of mine and I might add a really nice guy. I practiced ER medicine for 34 years and was Chief of a very large ER for 22 of them. I was a lightning rod for all kinds of complaints, gripes, lawsuits, and downright threats, some of which were valid, some weren't. How I survived I will never know, but here I am, totally retired and in superb health, going roller skating tonight, and heading out today to go shopping with a beautiful highly intelligent young woman, one third my age. Robert too is a lightning rod. He does his best. He really does. He's not in anybody's pocket and he has an excellent set of ears. He has a lot of friends, me included, and is very comfortable with his station in life as am I. There are many things in life that money can't buy, two of which are contentment and happiness.

It's been years since I have heard horns and I am sure that the typical horn speaker sound has greatly improved. I would enjoy greatly hearing your system. With my system I can easily hear down to well below 15 Hz. I have tremendous output at 16-20 Hz and I very much want to hear this frequency range. This ability to hear this FR is present on virtually every cd or download. Also, my tubes give a very pleasing coloration to my sound which is quite neutral, neither romantic or shall I say solid state in quality. In my room I can recreate a live performance and it doesn't even sound all that loud because of the dynamic ease and high sensitivity (93 dB) of my XVX. You have never heard my system.

You are just one of the many who prefer another kind of sound but to my ears, my system pours forth a beauty that is incredible. I'm listening to Mahler's 6th on SACD. It is so beautiful and so sad with dashed hopes, it can make me cry. Please enjoy your system. Again, I apologize for my harsh remarks and hyperbole.

 

[Audiohertz2]

Dear Charles ,

Retired, Roller skating , 1/3 ur age ! Impressive...

 

[Charles S]

Dear Charles ,

Retired, Roller skating , 1/3 ur age ! Impressive...

Life is good.

 

[bonzo75]

Life is good.

Very envious. Does she think the XVXs do a big powerful live with dynamics too?