New Midrange Driver
For years, Wilson Audio, like many speaker companies, has sourced its drivers from outside, specialized manufacturers. These units have never been bought simply as off-the-shelf drop-ins. Once the raw drivers arrive at the Wilson factory, they've always been extensively modified, or, in some cases, essentially "re-manufactured" on site to Wilson's precise specifications and tolerances.
With this new driver, Dave and the Wilson design team, have, in strategic partnership with a new driver manufacturer, raised the performance bar in the critical midrange. To meet the design challenge of a highly rigid but low moving mass cone, we co-engineered a special blend of carbon fiber and paper pulp.
Because the midrange is arguably the heart and soul of music, we wanted the bandwidth of the driver to be as broad as possible, so as to reveal the true density and color and tone of musical instruments. Most importantly, because of its ability to start and stop instantaneously, it is capable of reproducing the subtle dynamic cues and low-level reflections that we recognize from live music.
New Tweeter
Subsequent to the introduction of the Series 1 Alexandria, Wilson Audio developed our most advanced tweeter for the MAXX Series 2 and later, the WATT/Puppy System 8. That design has now been further refined and improved for the Alexandria Series 2.
Once again, the overriding objective was to lower the noise floor, and thus increase low-level resolution, so that the new tweeter could play in the same league as the newly designed midrange. The primary culprit for tweeter noise is the unabsorbed reflections form the back wave. The Alexandria features a new damping material that effectively randomizes and disperses these reflections. The new design immediately lowered the output of the tweeter by 1.5 dB, the sum-total of which represented the noise component of the previous version.
A new milled sub assembly of X material provides a black, resonance-free background for the quietest, most grain-free tweeter in our history.
New Crossover
It was inevitable that the lack of noise and distortion in the drivers would reveal the limitations of the crossover, so our anti-jitter technology has evolved to keep pace. The wider bandwidth of the midrange driver afforded not-wholly-unexpected benefits in the linearity of the bass, as those drivers were now relieved of some of their upper octave duties.
The new Alexandria raises the bar considerable for seamless integration of all the drivers through the new crossover design.
In all Wilson loudspeakers, the crossover assemblies themselves are wholly encased in epoxy, which serves two functions. One, it eliminates a possible source of electro-mechanical resonance, and two, it frankly preserves the proprietary nature of some of the technology which makes Wilson Audio Crossovers unique in the audio world. Nevertheless, the crossover panels of the new Alexandria are a point of pride, and are now easily accessible and visible through a new removable glass panel.
Enclosure Type Woofer: Front Ported
Enclosure Type Midrange: Rear Ported
Enclosure Type Tweeter: Sealed
Woofers: One - 13 inch (33.0 cm)
One - 15 inch (38.2 cm)
Midrange: Two - 6 ¾ (17.78 cm)
Tweeter: One - 1 inch inverted dome (2.54 cm)
Super Tweeter: One - 1 inch rear firing (2.54 cm)
Sensitivity: 95 db @ 1 watt (2.83V at one meter)
Nominal Impedance: 4 ohms, 3 ohms minimal
Minimum Amplifier Power: 7 watts per channel
Frequency Rexponse: +0, -3 dB 19.5 Hz - 22.5 kHz
Average in-room response
"As great a loudspeaker as the original X-2 is, the new Series 2 takes the performance to another level."
"Industry News: Wilson Announces Upgrade to Flagship X-2 Alexandria Loudspeaker"
Robert Harley
The Absolute Sound
January 2008
"The
upgrade is substantial, improving the X-2 throughout the entire
midrange, which is the fat part of any speaker's musical spectrum." Read More
Marc Mickelson, Editor
Soundstage!
November 2007
PART 1:
"Wilson Audio's orderly manufacturing facility is a testament to
speaker-building efficiency. Yet, it takes the company six weeks to
make a pair of Alexandria X-2s—42 days from the time the raw materials
come in the door until a pair of speakers leaves." Read More
PART 2:
"The most persistent reaction an Alexandria
owner will have to deal with is simple
curiosity. Everyone immediately identifies
them as speakers, but speakers unlike any
others they've seen." Read More
PART 3:
"They get the nature of each note right—the attack,
sustain and decay—without prominence or veiling. I'm tempted to say that the Alexandrias' best quality is
their balance, which is better than I've heard from any product of any kind and made more astounding by
their extreme bandwidth. They convey more music and do so with greater fidelity than any speaker I've heard." Read More
Marc Mickelson
SoundStage!
August–September 2005
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