No Stone Unturned - The New Sabrina X from Wilson Audio
We are delighted to welcome the brand new Wilson Audio Sabrina X to Cloney Audio. The previous Sabrina was a very worthy entry to the Wilson’s range of outstanding loudspeakers, but the new Sabrina X represents far more than an incremental improvement.
When it came time to upgrade the Sabrina, Daryl Wilson and his team faced a conundrum: how could they upgrade a loudspeaker already loved for its supreme musicality? His first goal was to preserve Sabrina’s intrinsic listenability.
When looking for ways to improve Sabrina, Daryl drew directly from his last project, the cost on object Chronosonic XVX. Drawing on that inspiration, Daryl aimed to deliver a Sabrina with even greater musicality—while at the same time, improving its transient speed, resolution, intimacy, and transparency. This required a rethinking of the materials employed and of the drive units.
The original Sabrina utilized Wilson’s proprietary and sonically inert X-Material only in its baffle and lower spike plate. Now, the Sabrina X outer enclosure is constructed entirely from X-Material. The Sabrina X cabinet now comes that much closer to the near-silent ideal that Wilson has systematically pursued for decades. This relentless pursuit of materials is one of the things which distinguishes Wilson from the competition.
In consequence, the music emerges through SabrinaX from a blacker background. Bass transient performance and clarity are vastly improved. When we listen we can hear superior “silence between the notes,” which, among other factors, enhance Sabrina’s rhythmic timing and pace.
The challenge with a sonically inert cabinet is that it throws the spotlight back on the drive units, and this led to a further round of improvements starting with the new tweeter.
The Wilson Convergent Synergy Mk 5 tweeter combines ultra-low distortion, micro and macro contrast, and high resolution with a sense of ease, accessibility, and supreme musicality.
This is complemented by the new woofers’ intrinsically excellent dynamic resolution and transient performance. The result is ultra-fast and articulate midbass and a solid and authoritative bass foundation.
Leaving no stone unturned, there are also improvements to the crossover. The Sabrina X is the second design to benefit from Wilson’s recent integration of capacitor design and manufacturer into its factory in Provo, Utah. Led by engineer Vern Credille, the design team developed a proprietary multi-wound capacitor specifically for the XVX, which the engineers dubbed Wilson AudioCap X-WA. The team took a similar approach with Sabrina X's which benefits from a version of the Wilson AudioCapX specific to its needs. The new capacitor technology significantly lowers the noise floor to even greater extremes, allowing the listener to hear more detail and resolution.
Lastly, the Sabrina X benefits from new metal work in the binding posts and spikes, or diodes, as Wilson terms them. When you have a speaker as musically revealing as the Sabrina X, absolutely every detail matters.
One of the beauties of the Sabrina X is its size. The scale and impact that this relatively modestly sized speaker delivers is astonishing. As a result, it will work in a variety of rooms, large and small. We also have to mention the soundstaging and imaging which deliver a really immersive, “3D” listening experience.
All those who have heard the Sabrina X have concurred that it is a truly groundbreaking design. Priced at €22,249, it is hardly inexpensive. But equally, it actually represents very good value for money in terms of its sonic performance and the absolutely outstanding quality materials and construction.