Wilson Audio’s Mid-Line Alexia Gets the “V” Treatment

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by TAS Staff
Nov 04, 2022

Wilson Audio’s Mid-Line Alexia Gets the “V” Treatment

It’s been fascinating to watch how Wilson Audio has systematically trickled-down its flagship technologies into its lower-priced loudspeakers. The latest example is the just-announced Alexia V—a reworking of Wilson’s mid-line Alexia. Excluding the WAMM Master Chronosonic (a limited-production model), there are six floorstanders in the Wilson line: the Chronosonic XVX, Alexx V, Alexia Series 2 (now the Alexia V), Sasha DAW, Yvette, and Sabrina X.

Wilson Audio’s current wave of innovation began in 2017 with David Wilson’s magnum opus, the $850,000 WAMM Master Chronosonic. That speaker was a reimagining of Wilson’s first product, the groundbreaking WAMM from 1982. But it was the Chronosonic XVX, designed by Daryl Wilson, that turbocharged the company’s recent creative burst and is now informing the redesign of the lower-priced models. The XVX introduced more innovations than any other speaker in Wilson history—innovations that are now trickling down the line.

Among these innovations is the XVX’s entirely new midrange driver with an unusual motor made from Alnico (aluminum-nickel-cobalt) magnets that Wilson calls QuadraMag. After living with the XVX, I’ve come to believe that this midrange driver is the heart and soul of the XVX. It has a harmonic beauty that defies description, combining dense rich tone color with superb resolution of inner detail. The driver simply offers a lifelike rendering of instruments and voices, which are immediate and present, yet subtle and delicately nuanced.

The “V” in the XVX signifies the incorporation of Wilson’s so-called “V Material” in the enclosure construction—the first use of this material. According to Wilson, the discovery of V Material was a “game changer” because of its extraordinary damping properties. When used strategically alongside Wilson’s long-standing “X Material” and “S Material,” V Material complements these stiffer substances to realize the ideal combination of rigidity and damping.

The XVX was also the first model to benefit from new in-house-made capacitors. Wilson had long been using Reliable Capacitors (better known as Rel Caps), but while developing the XVX, Wilson bought Rel Cap and all its machines and processes. Before re-starting the production line in its factory, Wilson re-engineered the capacitors to a higher specification and tightened the manufacturing tolerances. In addition, the in-house capacitor-making ability allows Wilson to produce one-off caps to experiment with new designs.

The first speaker to be redesigned using materials and techniques developed for the XVX was the Alexx, now called the Alexx V. The Alexx V, reviewed by Matt Clott in Issue 327, represents a massive leap in performance over its predecessor. Matt was so taken by the Alexx V that he bought the review samples.

Now Wilson has applied what I’m calling the “V treatment” to the Alexia Series 2, a speaker one step below the Alexx V. The Alexia, in Series 2 version since 2017, is the least expensive speaker to feature separate midrange and tweeter enclosures, along with Wilson’s patented time-alignment mechanism for synchronizing the arrival of each driver’s wavefront at the listening position. The just-announced Alexia V features 30 separate areas of improvement, many of them directly descended from the XVX—the QuadraMag midrange driver, V material, custom capacitors, and custom binding posts, to name a few. The Alexia’s woofer and midrange enclosures, made from X Material and S material, are now damped with layers of V Material to further reduce cabinet vibration. The entire structure was redesigned to realize more precise time alignment between drivers. The spikes supplied with the Alexia Series II have been replaced by Wilson’s Acoustic Diodes that are significantly better sounding than the stock spikes. With the Acoustic Diodes I heard greater transient fidelity; notes started and stopped more precisely, and low-level resolution increased.

Watch for our review of the Alexia V when it becomes available. The Alexia V promises to bring flagship-level materials and technology to Wilson’s mid-line loudspeakers.

Specs & Pricing

Driver complement: 8″ woofer, 10″ woofer, 7″ QuadMag midrange, 1″ doped silk-dome tweeter
Woofer loading: Rear ported
Sensitivity: 90dB 1W/1m
Impedance: 4 ohms (2.59 ohms at 84Hz)
Frequency response: 19Hz–33kHz, ±3dB
Dimensions: 15.75″ x 53.25″ x 24.25″
Weight: 265 lbs. each (net)
Price: $67,500 to $79,500 depending on finish