SOUNDBITES
WILSON AUDIO SABRINA UPGRADED
Wilson Audio has upgraded its smallest floor-standing loudspeaker, the Sabrina. “The new Wilson Audio SabrinaX is a ground-up rethinking of the universally loved, small, floor-standing Sabrina that combines traditional Wilson hallmark attributes such as bass authority, dynamic resolution, midrange beauty and integrity, and a sense of inherent musical rightness,” said Nigel Ng, of Advance Audio, which distributes Wilson Audio in Australia.
Whereas the original Sabrina used Wilson’s famous ‘X-Material’ only for its baffle and lower spike plate, the entire outer enclosure is now constructed from it. “The SabrinaX cabinet comes that much closer to the near-silent ideal Wilson has relentlessly pursued for decades,” said Ng. “Music emerges through SabrinaX from a blacker background. Bass transient performance and clarity are vastly improved. Listeners will hear superior silence between the notes that, among other factors, enhances SabrinaX’s rhythmic timing and pace.”
The tweeter chosen for SabrinaX is the same 25mm silk-domed driver that designer Daryl Wilson originally created for the limited edition WAMM Master Chronosonic and was then used again in the Chronosonic XVX. “The Convergent Synergy Mk5 tweeter combines ultra-low distortion, exquisite micro and macro contrasts, and ultra-high resolution, all of which are accompanied by a sense of ease, accessibility and supreme musicality,” says Ng. “Technically and musically it is the most honest and engaging tweeter I have ever heard.”
The SabrinaX’s 146mm-diameter paper pulp-coned midrange driver takes over from a 203mm paper pulp-coned bass driver that was originally developed for the Sasha DAW’s bass module, so that overall, the SabrinaX delivers a frequency response specified at 31Hz-23kHz ±3dB with an efficiency of 87dBSPL and a nominal impedance of 4Ω (min 2.6Ω @ 135Hz).
“Wilson’s goal when designing the SabrinaX was to design a loudspeaker that could stand alongside its much larger systems such as the Chronosonic XVX,” said Ng, “and you only need to hear a pair to hear that they’ve succeeded, because the SabrinaX offers the superior level of dynamic contrast and harmonic expression that is
