Speaker synergies and the Wilson SabrinaX

Your are in for such a treat…the 250 is good but going to a 500dr will blow your mind the scale depth detail and slam with that speaker amp combo will be epic…

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There are a few as I recall some Sabrina and Sasha. Sasha DAW on my short list for upgrade along with Kudos titans and possibly comparable Magico

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My personal view is that the 250 is a supremely capable amp, particularly when one gets everything else right, power quality, source, pre, stand, and cables. Coupled with the appropriate sized / damped room, I think it even makes sense to go whole hog on the speaker front.

I can certainly understand going 500dr Delta, you’ll have it all now, but the verve and brio the 250 provides is magical and as you say, immently capable of driving speakers +2X the cost!

Due to the cost of importing HiFi from the UK, when it’s time to upgrade my ATC’s, I will be looking at entry level Magico and Wilson’s. I plan on keeping my HF era 250. Which is sounding mighty phenomenal these days after upgrading the standard Din-XLR Naim cable to Witch Hat’s Morgana.

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Sasha DAW are brilliant by all accounts. Would be great to hear your views on how the SabrinaX and Sasha compare if and when you get to do that comparison. (Sasha out of my budget and too big for my room anyway which is just as well!)

Cheers, can’t wait :slightly_smiling_face:

Agreed, it is a classic for a reason. And Naim’s oldest product now? (albeit updated of course)

Hi OliveAmps, however good an olive 250 is ( I’ve owned one in the early 90s) I’d very much question, how capable it is of driving an 87 Db sensitivity speaker with a 2.6 ohm lowest Impedance. Making a speaker play music is very different to driving/controlling it. I wouldn’t want to run my speakers certainly with anything less than a 500DR or if finances allowed I’d happily throw more at them tbh. ATB Peter

Hi Peter,

Over the years Wilson speakers have had pretty dramatic sensitivity ranges. The Sabrina’s look quite low compared to some former models. I of course agree that a 500 can absolutely control Wilson’s better, but I don’t think the 250 is out of its element in a modest sized Listening space with this type of speaker. Delta liked the combination enough to make the purchase. It’s also much easier to pull the trigger if one has never heard the 500😉

Finally, assuming Naim raise their prices next year as discussed on another thread, I’m expecting the 500 to be TWICE the price of the Wilson’s!

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Yes, Naim / Wilson are great match. Wilson Audio have transformed my system to a place where I never thought 500 system can… I started with Sasha1, Sasha DAW( really wonderful speakers) … now I just upgraded to Alexx V… Naim/ Wilson is very musical, organic realistic sound and fast pace. Bass is one of the best. My 500dr drive Alexx V with no problem. However, they are very particular with position, if you spend time on details positioning and adjusting toe in… the result is out standing.

The S1MkII seems an odd comparator; its a 2-way with a 7" mid/bass driver. I’d think that the S3MkII would be a better comparator.

Enjoy your Wilsons!

Sabrina’s are indeed awesome. I think it’s important that you pointed out that they are 2.5 x more expensive than the speakers they replace. Apples & oranges and they’d better blow them out of the water for that delta. :upside_down_face:

Congrats on your great speakers!

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The point of the S1mkII was to try something with less bass energy in my room. Happily the room can take something with ‘more bass’, so yes I could have tried S3mkII as well but they are out of my budget.

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Cheers RvL, yes absolutely :slightly_smiling_face:

Wow, what a beast of a system! Congrats and great to hear that a 500 level system can drive those speakers!

Good point about positioning - my dealer spent a good 20 mins positioning each pair of speakers which made such a difference.

Duette 2s on 252/300 non-Dr, NDX2, nDac, XPS, Focal Soprano sub, SL/Vertere cable, all Powerlined on full fat Fraim at home.
Tune Tots on iso bases on TT dedicated stands on SL’d and power lined Atom at work in uae. Without a divorce, the WA speakers mentioned in this thread wouldn’t even get out their crates! With a divorce, I wouldn’t be able to afford them anyway. Am I happy? You bet! The breadth and depth of soundstage from both pairs is simply amazing.
George

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Sopra - autocorrect sucks!

That’s a great system George! My wife isn’t too chuffed about the prospect of replacing the rather beautiful Sonus Fabers with the Wilsons. Luckily they won’t be in our main living area otherwise it would have been a more difficult conversation!

Is anyone using Transparent Audio speaker cable? For the demo we swapped out my Phantom cable for Transparent Audio Super which was noticeably better…

Thanks Delta, I had Sopra 2s (and SF Olympica IIIs before that) on the big system before and then had a trial of the Duette’s from my dealer - there was no going back! Need to do some DR upgrade work - probably the XPS first - when I get back home in December
Cheers

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I had a 250dr driving pmc 20.21’s I then connected a Nap500 the difference was quite dramatic…I could tell in 1st few bars…the 500 was vastly superior…(this was an amp that was 13 years old and not fully warmed through) the detail and delicacy was amazing, bass superior just everything…and when you turned up the volume omg the scale. The 250dr in comparison felt compressed and more shut in…anyone in the fortune position of being able to upgrade should…its amazing.

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