Wilson Audio of Provo, Utah, is executing a multiyear revision of their product line, resulting mostly in a series of “remastered” redesigns that carry in their names the designation “V.” The latest V model is the Sabrina V, which replaces the prior SabrinaX. “V” refers to Wilson’s proprietary V-Material first used in the Chromosonic XVX. This is the third iteration of the Sabrina series. Other current Wilsons designated V are the Alexx V; the Alexia V; and the Sasha V. The Chromosonic XVX uses the V-Material but precedes the “V” revisions; the 50th anniversary WATT/Puppy also uses the V-Material but doesn’t carry a “V” designation.
For some audiophiles, “bigger is better” is a common and valid aspirational path—and there’s no doubt that larger speakers, when designed correctly, can deliver more scale and deeper, more abundant bass, and that can be a source of much fun and satisfaction. Those familiar with Wilson Audio Specialties know that they offer really big speakers, but not exclusively. At the small end of their lineup is the two-way TuneTot, intended to sit on stands or shelves, and the Alida CSC, which can be mounted to vertical surfaces. In addition to taste, logistics and budget typically dictate: Hi-fi is the art of the possible.
The Sabrina V ($28,500/pair in standard finishes) is a three-way, single-cabinet floorstander. (Every larger Wilson speaker comprises at least two separate boxes that connect together.) It is the smallest floorstander in the current Wilson line, with the most economical price. However, size, price, and substance are all relative. The Sabrina V is all-Wilson, sculpted and substantial.
I previously reviewed and then purchased and lived with the Sasha DAW and the Sasha V loudspeakers. A year ago now, we relocated, and I needed to fit my reference system into a multipurpose music room. I traded the Sasha Vs for the somewhat smaller 50th Anniversary WATT/Puppy, which was brand new. The difference in size isn't large, but it's just enough: It fits perfectly. I now have elbow room while playing my upright piano. It also weighs 85lb less, which makes it easier to move around.
The opportunity to evaluate the Sabrina V continues my downsizing experiments, though at the moment I have no plans to replace my WATT/Puppies.
Table of contents
Those who know Wilson Audio's products will find much familiar about the new Sabrina V, but there are also some important changes, in design as well as hardware. The exterior dimensions are 38³⁄₈" H × 12" W × 15¹⁄₂" D, the last two dimensions measured at the base. That's almost the same as the previous model: The V version is taller than the X by slightly less than an inch. This small difference, plus a change in the midrange drivers, contributes to a weight gain of 11lb, up to 123lb per speaker.
The cabinet is shaped like an obelisk but with only a subtle taper; the 15¹⁄₂" base depth drops to 6¹⁄₂" at the top, and the 12" width becomes approximately 6". These modest dimensions make the Sabrina V far less imposing in the home environment than Wilson's bigger models. Their configuration maximizes the cubic inches of chamber in which the woofer is housed.
The quality of the paint is superb, as always with Wilson. The reflective Ethereal White pair (a new color) is highlighted by a subtle bevel on the sides that creates interesting reflections. They reflected, during daytime, colors from outdoors, and at night, the blue illumination from the meters of my McIntosh equipment. Sexy!
Other changes visible from the outside include resistors mounted on the rear that can be changed easily by the user; these are a part of the crossover but also serve as protective fuses: They'll blow if a massive current surge hits. A newly designed V-Material spike interface called V-MCD has been integrated with the bottom of the enclosure, providing improved vibration damping with any chosen spikes. The Sabrina V's base-reflex design, with its rear-ported woofer and rear-vented midrange driver, continues unchanged: The hefty, finely machined aluminum woofer port is a hardware standout. A pair of heavy-duty speaker taps completes the rear-mounted hardware; Wilson doesn't support biwiring.
Inside, the crossovers now include two new capacitors. Wilson notes, "The soul of the Sabrina V resides in its crossover. ... At the heart of this crossover are Wilson Audio's uniquely wound AudioCapX-WA capacitors, produced in-house. A variant first introduced in the Sasha V ... improves high-frequency micro-detail and spatial clarity. ... Bass integration is also enhanced through the development of a new woofer capacitor." CEO-designer Daryl Wilson exercises his chef's prerogative, keeping crossover values to himself.
Wilson Audio Specialties has for years utilized proprietary cabinet materials, assigning each a letter. X-Material is employed for enclosures and internal bracing. V-Material is used at interface locations for vibration control. Though, consistent with other recent loudspeaker remasters, the Sabrina carries the "V" designation, the Sabrina introduces a material that Wilson hasn't used before, designated H-Material, employed on the front baffle, to which the drivers are mounted. Wilson says the H-Material was "developed as a high-density composite with organic and phenolic properties. ... H-Material is similar to X-Material in inflexibility, yet slightly softer with different construction, which lends itself to be more musical in the midrange.”
With the speaker grilles removed, the most important change from prior Sabrina models stares you in the face: the integration of Wilson’s 7” alnico (aluminum nickel cobalt) QuadraMag midrange driver. This paper pulp composite cone driver has been used in other Wilson floorstanders for some time. This is not trickle-down technology, it’s the same driver used in those other speakers. Wilson doesn’t use cheaper products in any of its models. Wilson Brand Ambassador Peter McGrath described this to me: “The approach that Daryl (Wilson) takes adds tremendous legitimacy to that phrase ‘They’re all cut from the same cloth.’”
The tweeter is also new to the Sabrina line: Wilson’s 1” Convergent Synergy Carbon (CSC) doped-silk dome tweeter was first used in the Alexx V. As there, in the Sabrina it is housed in its own sealed carbon-fiber chamber, designed to absorb the rear wave and dissipate its energy as heat. Just below the tweeter is the aforementioned 7” midrange. Below the midrange is a single, 8” paper pulp woofer, the same woofer used in the WATT/Puppy and Sasha V, but those speakers use two instead of one.
The Sabrina is not a point-source loudspeaker no concentric drivers here but it is closer to point source than most larger speakers. The physical closeness of all the drivers can be expected to contribute to image cohesion and clarity, especially considering that the three drivers cluster close to listeners’ average ear height. That’s an advantage larger speakers can’t offer though Wilson addresses this on its larger models by allowing the drivers to be aimed and adjusted forward and back. That doesn’t create a point source, but it accomplishes something similar.
Looking at Wilson’s published specifications for the Sabrina V, one item stands out. Compared to the SabrinaX, the Sabrina V’s low-frequency extension dropped 4Hz, from 31Hz down to 27Hz, with a specified variance of ±3dB, same as before. How was this extra reach achieved? “[Along] with the external aesthetic changes we made, we also made some internal modifications,” Daryl Wilson told me. “The space gained with subtle dimensional stretching translated to an increased internal volume for the woofer. The added space behind the woofer … increased low-frequency performance.” The low-frequency reach of the SabrinaX easily covered the upright acoustic bass and its 41.2Hz frequency. But the lowest note on a standard piano, an A, sounds at 27.5Hz, so the Sabrina V’s frequency response now encompasses the whole piano. So while the SabrinaX was arguably full-range despite its small size, the Sabrina V makes a better case, reproducing the vast majority of Western Classical, jazz, and rock/pop music.”
Other Sabrina V specifications remain the same as or very close to those of the prior Sabrina model. Sensitivity is rated the same 87dB/W/m, measured at 1kHz. The nominal impedance remains 4 ohms, though the stated minimum is slightly different; the Sabrina V’s low impedance point sits at 2.23 ohms @ 121Hz, slightly lower than the SabrinaX’s. When I ran this by Peter McGrath, he responded, “There are speakers that approach this quality in terms of loudness and bass, but none that are as easily driven as the Sabrina V is. Despite all the commentators, low impedance is not
6 Stereophile’s criteria for “full-range,” as used most importantly in the loudspeaker category of Recommended Components, incorporates not just low-end reach but also the quantity of low bass. This depends in turn on room size and room contents, including intentional room treatments. All this together renders “full-range” a subjective concept, at least as Stereophile views it. a challenge for a good amp. Those are issues that were dispensed with 20 years ago! Any dealer that we would use will have amps that can drive the Sabrina..."
Ready, set, go
The Sabrina Vs were shipped to my home in double cardboard boxes heavily wrapped in plastic, strapped to a wooden pallet. This differs from the packaging of larger Wilson models, which arrive in rough but sturdy wooden crates, like the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark. I recommend adding screw-in casters to your purchase; they are not expensive and can be purchased easily from Wilson. They make placement a breeze, since you can roll them around and listen before you install the included spiked footers and then fine-tune placement. I didn't have casters, but my older son Peter was visiting, so I put him to work. The per-channel weight of the Sabrina V is 37lb less than that of the WATT/Puppy, but the two-box design of the latter means they are actually easier to move around: Just pull them apart and move each part separately.
The obvious starting point for positioning the Sabrinas was the spot usually occupied by the WATT/Puppies, which is also the spot where the Sasha Vs had worked well previously. But when we first fired the Sabrinas up, Peter commented that they "felt a bit closed in." He was correct. This wasn't a placement issue: After a week and a half or so, they began to open up. I can't explain this, though the very close tolerances in many high-performance dynamic loudspeakers make it plausible that things need to loosen up before they start to sound their best. Let the Sabrinas run in for quite a few days with internet radio before trying any positioning experiments or making any listening notes.
When I began to focus, I moved the Sabrinas slightly farther away from my listening chair and placed them slightly closer together. Their final position formed a triangle that was a little more isosceles, no longer equilateral. The sonic result was good frequency balance and a soundstage that was a bit more coherent, especially with the speakers toed in a little.
Pleased with their positions, I started to experiment with the electronics. My McIntosh C12000 preamplifier allows me to choose solid state or tubed outputs. At first I felt that the Sabrina Vs benefited from the Mac's solid state circuits, gaining clarity and detail. However, I later found that I preferred the tubed outputs, as I usually do with my WATT/Puppies. Maybe this too was a consequence of the need to wait for the Sabrina Vs to break in. Amplification in my reference rig is the solid state McIntosh MC462, which is specified to deliver 450W into any load.
At one point during the audition, I moved the Sabrinas out of the music room and into our living room, which is a bit smaller, with a lower ceiling. Here, I used my McIntosh MA252 hybrid integrated amplifier, which is considerably less powerful than the MC462, specified at 100W into 8 ohms, 160W into 4 ohms. The Sabrinas sounded great with the lower-wattage amplifier. I was able to achieve very similar volumes without apparent sonic compromise. This corroborates Peter McGrath's claim.
In the room
I first heard the new Wilson Sabrina V at its product launch at Innovative Audio in midtown Manhattan. Longtime owner Elliot Fishkin presides over one of the longest-surviving brick-and-mortar audiophile dealerships in the metro New York region, and I have enjoyed several listening events in his underground bunker showrooms just south of Central Park. McGrath was on hand to introduce the Sabrina V, which at this session was powered by the D'Agostino Pendulum integrated amplifier. Innovative Audio has three showrooms; the session was held in their medium-sized room, which has a fairly high ceiling. McGrath often plays demos from recordings he has made over the years. Along with a few large-scale tracks that made the oomph capability of the Sabrinas abundantly clear, a real standout piece was a piano/vocal reduction of the last movement of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. A solo female vocal and a piano was all it took to make clear that the Sabrina V was a first-class music maker, capable of delivering the emotional goods.
Back upstate in my own listening room, the new pair of Sabrina Vs broken in, one of the first pieces I took notes on was from Edward Grieg's Lyric Pieces, Op.54, from the set Edward Grieg: Complete Symphonic Works (No.15 from the WDR Symphony Orchestra Köln, Eivind Aadland, conductor 24/48 FLAC, Audite/Qobuz). I heard a piece I don't ever recall hearing before: "Klokkeklang," or "Bell Ringing." Grieg himself described this brief piece as "absolutely crazy". A friend of Grieg's labeled it "a veritable apotheosis of fifths." Delicate and impressionistic, some measures sound note-
The Sabrinas conveyed this sonic identity and remarkably, the full power of a 9' concert grand.
for-note like the opening of Billy the Kid. Aaron Copland would have seen this score on the piano rack of his teacher, Boulanger; Grieg was big in Paris at the top of the 20th century. Now I know where Copland came from.
The Sabrinas brought the magic: delicate sustained strings, a mournful trumpet in the distance, large outbursts with huge dynamic swings, all wonderfully delivered.
Peter Scott Lewis is an American composer based in San Francisco. We were undergrads together at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Peter has a new album out, Padre Triptych (24/96 download and CD. Sono Luminus SLF-70040). This album holds three works for solo piano. Motion seems to be a theme: the title piece includes the sections "Following the Sunrise" and "Traveling Music." (The third is "Toccata.") Another work is An American Travelogue, Book in four movements. My favorite is Seven Nuggets. The title refers to "a group of uncut, yet brilliant gemstones." Most nuggets run less than three minutes.
I particularly like the sixth, "Emerald, Uncut." This is a great, focused musical program. I wish I'd thought it up!
Lewis's music is tight and concise, with active, forward-driving rhythms to the front; it is not spacey trance music. Pacific Triptych was originally scored for orchestra; a solo piano version was completed later. Pianist Blair McMillen performs with strength and conviction on a Hamburg Steinway D, from 1987, at Oktaven Audio in Mount Vernon, New York. Owned by engineer Ryan Streber, Oktaven has one of the larger studio spaces in the New York metro region. The studio has two Steinway Ds, a New York version and the Hamburg. Variation exists from one instrument to the next, but in general the Hamburg-built pianos are known for a more burnished, less forward-sounding tone than their New York cousins perfect for solo or chamber music recordings.
The Sabrinas conveyed this sonic identity and remarkably, the full power of a 9' concert grand. This is a fine contemporary classical recording check it out. One of the pluses of living now in Woodstock, New York, is that established music acts that might not normally play small venues play here because hey, it's Woodstock! And so it was that the current iteration of Little Feat played Albert Grossman’s Bearsville Theater a few weeks back. Lowell George has been gone for many years, but several key members from back then are still going strong, including keyboardist Bill Payne.
In the event, the Sabrina Vs plus records easily bettered Little Feat live, because the live sound was atrocious. I hate those rectangular boxes they hang up in the ceiling. From my balcony seat I was staring right at one, and it was delivering knifelike, overdriven white noise. I left early. The album is a whole other thing. What a pleasure it was to hear Bernie Grundman’s recent vinyl remastering of Feats Don’t Fail Me Now (LP, Warner R1 726197). On the Van Dyke Parks-produced track “Spanish Moon,” bassist Kenney Gradney lays down the groove like nobody’s business. The Sabrina got right in there with a band that delivers locked-down syncopations like no other. This is a band that lets you feel that backbeat in your gut, assuming the system is up to the task. The Sabrina Vs got down and dirty as needed.
Before he started manufacturing audiophile speakers, David Wilson was engineering audiophile recordings. Browsing, I was pleased to find that Chad Kassem’s Analogue Productions had reissued Sonatas for Violin and Piano (LP, Wilson Audiophile/Analogue Productions APC-8722), pressed on nice new 180gm vinyl at
The Sabrina Vs got down and dirty as needed.
Quality Record Pressings. This excellent program is performed by violinist David Abel and pianist Julie Steinberg, recorded to tape in the Mills College Concert Hall with a spaced pair of Schoeps microphones. Steinberg plays another fine Hamburg Steinway D; Abel’s violin was made by Guarneri in 1719. This is a premier example of fine chamber music sound.
When I mentioned to Daryl Wilson that I had picked this album to listen to, he told me that the album is still in use in Wilson R&D and for demos: “Rumanian Folk Dances is still used as a reference for high-frequency evaluation.”
Through the Sabrina Vs, I heard precise placement of the instruments as they would have sounded on stage. I heard firm, welcoming upper bass from the Steinway and deeply satisfying string textures from the Guarneri. The Sabrina Vs revealed subtleties in performance style in works by Brahms, Debussy, and Bartók. This is a reference-caliber recording, so pick up a copy while you can.
How much performance?
Is the Wilson Audio Specialties Sabrina V the equal of the larger, costlier loudspeakers in the Wilson lineup? No—but nor are they its equal. It’s horses for courses. What best fits your preferences, lifestyle, space, and budget? Though granted, two woofers, or three, can make more sound than a single woofer can.
I asked Daryl Wilson how much of the performance of its larger siblings he would ascribe to the Sabrina V at average listening levels (because bigger speakers can play louder). “I would say a Sabrina V owner is getting about 80%–85% of the performance of the WATT/Puppy in the smaller package afforded by the Sabrina V.” That sounds about right.
I relished my time auditioning the Wilson Audio Specialties Sabrina V loudspeaker and studying and evaluating Wilson’s refinements. Whichever Wilson speakers you buy, you can rest assured that you’re getting the best creative work and craftsmanship they have to offer. No compromises just decisions.
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