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If the WAMM was Dave Wilson’s first loudspeaker as Wilson Audio, the WAMM Master Chronosonic is his swansong at the helm of the company, because earlier in the year Dave handed over the keys to the company to his son, Daryl. Dave Wilson has no intent of simply retiring, however; he is now the ‘WAMMbassador’, leaving his son to the simple tasks of designing loudspeakers, running the company, and the rest. In a way, the WAMM marks a true transition, as it’s as much Daryl’s first loudspeaker launched with him in the big chair (although technically, that’s the Yvette), and so much of the design work, testing, and listening have come down to Daryl Wilson.

The new Wilson WAMM Master Chronosonic might sound like a wristwatch, but the reality is those invented words are more than just there for show. ‘Chronosonic’ (‘time and sound’) expresses much about what is so (literally and figuratively) pivotal about the WAMM, as the mid-range and beyond is extraordinarily precisely time and phase aligned in the listening room, for the listener’s precise position. This has been a constant theme in all Wilson Audio loudspeakers from the Sasha upward for some time, but the level of precision in these adjustments is taken to a new level in this multi-way, basketball-player tall loudspeaker system, and the results speak for themselves.

The drive unit line up reads more like a haul of loudspeakers. There are seven front-firing and two rear-firing drive units in each loudspeaker. Of these, the front and rear 25.4mm Version 5 Convergent Synergy soft-dome tweeter, and the front and rear 127mm pulp paper upper midrange units were designed specifically for the WAMM Master Chronosonic, while the 267mm and 318mm bass drivers were also designed for the WAMM Master Chronosonic, but the Alexx got them first. Only the pair of 178mm fabric lower midranges (used in seven other designs from the XLF onward) are not part of the WAMM design process. What’s more, treble, upper midrange pair, and lower midrange pair are housed in adjustable pods in a micrometer-precise framework. And it’s here where we get things wrong in audio. We glory in adjustable loudspeaker housings to help time-align the loudspeaker, but this seems slightly crazy if you think it through, because the slightest movement of your head relative to the time-aligned loudspeakers will throw everything out of balance. Instead, says Wilson through the medium of the WAMM Master Chronosonic, perhaps we should be looking at time alignment in terms of time coherence. This harks back to Wilson’s original patents on time alignment back in 1984, but these concepts remained largely unrealised in domestic loudspeakers until the arrival of products like the Sasha, Alexia, and especially the Alexx.

Our aural system is relatively insensitive to small changes in the time domain, and above 5kHz, our ears cannot detect timing-related issues less than about 10microseconds (µS). This is also one of those aspects of aural performance that does not decrease with age: our ears lose both high frequency performance and consistency with age, but our ability to determine time-delay errors is undimmed by maturity it seems. Given the speed of sound in air at around sea level, this relates to approximately 3.43mm. In other words, get the loudspeaker aligned so that the distance from speaker to ear and from ear to floor right with that kind of precision, and it will sound ‘time coherent’. Most loudspeakers get their time coherence right to within about 100µS, the WAMM Master Chronosonic gets to an impressive 2µS. Of course, this kind of precision requires two things; a loudspeaker capable of a significant amount of adjustment (and a rigid lock-down when adjustment is complete), and installers both trained and obsessive-compulsive enough to complete the installation process with a degree of absolute thoroughness.

The WAMM Master Chronosonic doesn’t just require a precise installation, it also requires careful selection and compensation for upstream electronics. Put simply, if you have 10µS sensitivity in-head, the loudspeaker is good for 100µS and the amplifier 50µS, the pinch-point is not the amplifier. But if the loudspeaker is capable of time-coherent precision down to 2µS, then the performance of the amplifier suddenly becomes a pinch-point. Wilson Audio has already started to analyse the ‘time profile’ of several amplifiers that might be used with the WAMM Master Chronosonic, with D’Agostino Momentum mono amps and the VTL Siegfried tube mono amps being the first candidates.

Installation is aided by the modualrity of the loudspeaker. No-one has quite worked out just how heavy the WAMM Master Chronosonic really is yet, because they haven’t started shipping and the Design Proof pair in Dave Wilson’s listening room aren’t going near a set of scales any time soon. But the likely weight and packing requirements are on the ‘substantial’ side. Fortunately, both the modules and the side ‘ears’ that cover the framework they sit in, and that framework itself, are all removable and designed to lock into the bass unit. This bass unit is – in itself – fairly substantial and about the size of a mid-sized Japanese car engine, but has a relatively low centre of gravity and makes placement easy. The modules are then built up from here.

When it comes to a loudspeaker of this magnitude, it doesn’t come to you: you go to it. I was one of a handful of journalists invited to travel to Provo for a one-to-one encounter with the WAMM Master Chronosonic in Dave Wilson’s fairly awesome listening room. The room is a bit of a known quantity among audio writers, as many of us have been there for the launch of one or more of Wilson’s designs, and the combination of the room size, it’s dynamics, and the equipment used to partner the loudspeakers is something of a benchmark in audio performance. Like the outstanding Steyning listening room of late Alistair Robertson-Aikman of SME (which sadly suffered a roof collapse a few years back, when a thick blanket of snow added even more load than the five tons of concrete used to build the sonically dead listening room ceiling). Practically every audio writer worth his or her salt has heard music in both listening spaces on more than one occasion and acclimatising yourself to Dave Wilson’s room is a relatively rapid process. What helps, of course, is it is a fine sounding room, too. 

There is always a touch of green-eyed jealousy that emerges whenever you have to deal with expensive products. There is an assumption (again something that one has to overcome as a reviewer) that anything significantly beyond your personal limits is ‘overpriced’ and never bought by ‘true’ audiophiles. In philosophy terms, this is mix between a form of Argumentum ad Lazarum (affirming a conclusion because the person saying it is poor) and the ‘No True Scotsman’ fallacy: an attempt to protect a universal generalisation from counterexamples. In reality, just as few people buy a pair of £2,000 loudspeakers to show off to their friends with £1,000 loudspeakers – and instead tend to buy a pair of loudspeakers on the basis of how they sound – the same holds across the board. Someone buying a pair of WAMM Master Chronosonic is buying the best loudspeaker they know of, and have the advantage of having enough financial clout to be able to buy the best. Just as someone buying the best loudspeaker from another brand; they have chosen that design because it suits them best, they love what it does, and can afford to own it. In other words, they buy them to enjoy them, just like everyone who buys a pair of loudspeakers does.

The difficulty we as reviewers face here (aside from reconciling listening to normal audio in the wake of a loudspeaker that costs $685,000 per pair) is one of terminology. We simply don’t have the words. That isn’t just the superlatives; it’s the basic terms. Our descriptive powers have inherent constraints (when we talk about the dynamic range of a system, there is an in-built assumption that the dynamic range is constrained compared to the original), and the WAMM has less of them than we’ve encountered before. A lot less. Making this more like the real thing than anyone who hasn’t visited a very nice room in Provo, Utah has yet to experience from recorded music. I thought the terms would come in time, but they didn’t.

The loudspeaker challenges all your perceptions of what you thought possible from an audio system; even those of us used to really high-grade audio and exceptional loudspeakers will find themselves wondering precisely how the WAMM is extracting that much musical information from even the most humble CD recordings. This isn’t a subtle, nuanced difference. Music played through these loudspeakers just has that ‘right’ sound that is more like real music and less like there are electronics involved in the signal chain.

The time-coherence concept suggested by Wilson Audio is not part of the traditional audiophile zeitgeist, so it’s likely to receive some degree of scepticism, but if this is one of the keys to why the WAMM Master Chronosonic sounds as it does, then it needs to be taken more seriously. There is certainly a complete absence of anything remotely like a temporal blurring, time-smear, or whatever you might want to call it. Normally too, at this point, there’s a temptation for UK audio writers to go all jingoistic and point to small loudspeakers and Quad Electrostatics suggesting they crack the timing nut by being essentially point sources. But, on the face of the evidence presented by the WAMM Master Chronosonic, we don’t have that luxury anymore. In the wake of listening to this loudspeaker, it’s possible to listen to supposedly spot-on products like the Quad and point to where the timing isn’t right. This is the audiophile equivalent of a hard reboot.

I have a couple of recordings designed specifically to tax ported loudspeakers, the most notable being ‘Chameleon’ by Trentemøller [The Last Resort, Poker Flat]. The fast, electronic bass notes effectively have nothing but attack and release and can ‘choke up’ a bass port, and the Wilson WAMM Master Chronosonic is the first ported speaker that doesn’t!

This lack of port choking shouldn’t happen, but it was one of the many things that shouldn’t be happening with the Wilson Audio WAMM Master Chronosonic, and do. Given all of those different drive units, integration and coherence should be a bit of a concern, but instead this sounds like it’s a giant panel loudspeaker. Granted it does all those things Wilson speakers are supposed to do well (outstanding soundstaging properties, effortless dynamics, high degrees of detail, and an ability to play extremely loud with ease), but it does them so well you find yourself listening to other excellent loudspeakers as if they are a little bit broken. Only the very best of the best of the best come close to the WAMM Master Chronosonic.

The problem, stated earlier, is we simply don’t have the words for this. We’re at the musical bleeding edge here, and discussions about the sound of the loudspeaker dissolve into discussions about the voice of the tenor, the skills of the guitarist, or the sophistication of the composer. And yes, we did do drum records and the audiophile thing, but they don’t sound like drum records. They sound like drummers. And when those drummers are Kodo drummers, it’s a cowering experience, one that audiophiles expecting the usual dynamic and impressive sound walk away from shaking. Dynamic and impressive? Of course. But this is more. This is visceral, real, challenging stuff, and I still haven’t done it justice in terms of both sound and technology.

Finally, I was asked several questions by audiophiles on the QT about the WAMM Master Chronosonic, and we all get it wrong. It’s not bright, not dull, doesn’t have a character, it is just music, red in tooth and claw, or subtle and delightful.

I’m normally on the loquacious side. Give me half a minute of dead air in a room and I’ll fill it. I may not fill it with Shakespearean prose, but I will chatter and gossip and talk, and talk. Not this time. I was truly humbled in front of these masterpieces, and several months later, I’m still processing the experience.

Sadly, this isn’t the kind of loudspeaker many of us will hear in the wild. They won’t be at many shows, they won’t be doing much of a dealer tour, and you probably need to be one of the handful who would be in the market for a loudspeaker of this magnitude to even experience one, unless you expend much of your Editor magic powers. But, if you can, you will have the same humbling musical experience.

This is as real as it gets!

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Type: Modular four way ported floorstanding loudspeaker

Front firing drivers:
1× 25.4mm Convergent Synergy (Mk5) doped silk fabric dome tweeter
2× 127mm paper pulp composite cone upper midrange
2× 178mm doped paper pulp cone lower midrange
1× 267mm hard paper pulp cone woofer
1× 318mm hard paper pulp cone woofer

Rear firing drivers:
1× 25.4mm Convergent Synergy (Mk5) doped silk fabric dome tweeter
1× 127mm paper pulp composite cone midrange

Enclosure Type:

Main Tweeter (Sealed): X-Material

100mm Main Mid Module (Bottom Vent):
X-Material with S-Material Baffle

177mm Main Mid Module (Bottom Vent):
X-Material with S-Material Baffle

Woofer (Cross Load Firing Port (XLF)): X-Material

Rear Firing Enclosure (Sealed):
X-Material with S-Material Baffle

Gantry: Aerospace aluminium with W-Material Module Interface

Nominal Impedance: 3Ω

Minimum Impedance: 1.77Ω @ 310Hz

Sensitivity: 90dB @ 1W @ 1m @ 315Hz

Frequency Response: 20Hz-33kHz ±2dB

Minimum Amplification Power Recommended: 100 watts/channel

Dimensions (H×W×D, w/o spikes): 214×53×95cm

Weight: a lot!

Limited to: 70 pairs

Price: $685,000 per pair (VAT not included)

Manufactured by: Wilson Audio

URL: www.wilsonaudio.com

Distributed in the UK by: Absolute Sounds Ltd

URL: www.absolutesounds.com

Tel: +44(0)20 8971 3909 

The Sibelius is a single-way loudspeaker with a relatively narrow front baffle and the exit point of the internal horn at the base of the loudspeaker. It is single wired to two solid connectors at the rear, with no filters or electrical components in between. It is offered with an adjustable steel base with an L-shaped upright for cable support. There’s a panel on the back bearing Jean Sibelius’ signature (this is not the kind of loudspeaker that ends up in the kind of dealer who would think Sibelius was the designer… hopefully), and that’s about it. There’s no grille or ornamentation, but they do offer a dust cover to protect the drivers from prodding fingers and adventurous household pets when not in use. So there is nothing to fall off, tarnish, or break. Even the manual is out of the ordinary, as it is a hardback autobiography, philosophical treatise on loudspeaker design and room treatment, and installation guide. Also the lack of bracing means although the loudspeaker is made from solid tree, it’s not too heavy as it comes in at around 29kg per loudspeaker.

You are not entirely without options, though. There are a range of stains available alongside the well finished, dozen year aged, solid French oak cabinet. There are also minor variants on the driver itself, such as a ‘CG’ version that replaces the silver alloy drive unit with a copper alloy cone (all other specifications remain functionally identical) and a ‘P’ version that replaces the metal cone with a paper one. This last is designed to be deliberately reminiscent of classic paper cone designs like Lowther. This makes the loudspeaker slightly more efficient, at the expense of a hair less maximum output and greater limits on power handling. On paper, at least… as we only had the standard ‘SG’ version to hand, we can’t comment on the performance of either of the other models.

If the term ‘SG’ sends you racing to the Gibson SG guitar and it being the preferred weapon of choice for AC/DC axe-grinder of note Angus Young, you are reading the wrong review. While these loudspeakers are perfectly comfortable playing almost all genres of music, the Sibelius’ power handling and maximum power output figures suggest a loudspeaker unsuited to playing power chords at high volumes, and this is confirmed in the listening.

Obviously, you are going to play Sibelius on a loudspeaker that bears his name, and for good reason: on Sibelius’ Symphony No 5 [Vanska, Lahti SO, BIS] these loudspeakers recreate the music’s almost perfectly organic sense of flow, from the French horns at the introduction of the piece to the powerful conclusion, the loudspeakers draw you into the music and the composer’s mastery of the thematic form. It made me want to skin a moose with a Nokia phone, or something equally Finnish.

The Sibelius (the speaker, that is) has an unfatiguing, almost sweet-sounding presentation. It’s possibly not the first word in modern-day audio transparency, but that doesn’t seem to matter to those who fall under the loudspeaker’s thrall. This is a loudspeaker for enjoyment, not audio engineering, and those who are in step with that kind of thinking will sit and listen to these loudspeakers happily for the next few decades, drinking in a sound that is deeply satisfying and designed for endless, effortless listening. In a way, this is a point source spiritual heir to classic British loudspeakers like the Castle Harlech, mixed in with the sound of good Horning Agathons: in other words a kind of slightly rich effortlessness that stays just the right side of ‘warm’.

That effortlessness also applies to its portrayal of dynamic range, although this is more about subtle micro-dynamic cues that draw you into the music than the rolling thunder of timpani and Led Zep drummers. This is the kind of dynamic shading of the tabla, not just in audiophile recordings, but on the zany but brilliant version of ‘Take Five’ by the Lahore-based Sachal Studio Orchestra [Sachal Jazz – Interpretations of Jazz Standards & Bossa Nova, Sachal Music]. This Pakistani take on jazz standards is a little hit or miss, but ‘Take Five’ is definitely a hit and the combination of microtonal playing and some extremely fine tabla musicianship needs a deft loudspeaker to sound at its best, and here it just shone.

Where the Sibelius really sounds at its best is on anything that plays to its strengths, and those strengths begin with  its exceptional imaging properties. This is perfectly understandable when you consider it’s basically a point source loudspeaker sitting in a quarter-wave enclosure, but even so the ability these speakers have at teasing out a soundstage is little short of remarkable. Harking back to ‘Take Five’ once more, the layering of the strings section and the physical space occupied by the acoustic guitar or the sitar between the loudspeakers is so precise, you could be in a studio half a world away.

Tonally, the loudspeaker is just about spot-on. It doesn’t mask errors of judgement on behalf of the producer or engineer, as it lays bare toppy, over-compressed, peaky, or dynamically compromised recordings. Play some over-produced, auto-tuned, X Factor runner-up, bleating on about yet another failed relationship as someone tunelessly mashes a few arpeggio chords on an over-reverberated piano, and that’s precisely what you hear, warts an’ all. On the other hand, play some Duke Ellington from the 1930s and the years evaporate. Yes, the recording might be the wrong side of ‘rudimentary’, but the overall balance and the musicianship of the recording shine through.

We live in an immediate, ‘always on’ world, and that comes with a lot of obsolescence in tow. People dipped in this way of thinking may struggle to parse the concept of a loudspeaker designed for decades of use. The Pearl Acoustics Sibelius SG is not for audio fly-by-nights who flit from shiny thing to shiny thing. It’s for people who got past that. This is a handmade musical tool for those who listen to a wide range of musical styles, and are mature enough not to be impressed by ‘loud’. This has to remain something of a cautious recommendation, because many people have not yet got to the Sibelius’ level of refinement and maturity in their audio system choices. But for those who have learned there is more to musical life than simply ‘wow’, the Sibelius is there for you, and will be your musical partner for decades.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Type: Wide-bandwidth driver floorstanding loudspeaker

Drive unit: 1× markaudio wide range drive unit (pair matched)

Impedance: 7.5 Ohms

Power handling: 35 Watts RMS – 70 Watts peak

Efficiency: 87.5db @ 1W @ 1 metre

Maximum output : 105db @ 1 metre

Frequency range: 28Hz–30Khz

Dimensions H×W×D: 109×23×30m

Weight: 29kg each

Price: £4,500 per pair (stands £500)

Manufactured by: Pearl Acoustics

URL: www.pearlacoustics.com

Over time, however, a number of YG’s distributors approached Geva to ask if he could create a larger and higher performance version of the flagship Sonja—a seemingly simple request, but one that posed two daunting questions. First, given how much of Geva’s personal expertise and know-how had already been poured into the flagship Sonja, was it realistically possible to exceed its performance in meaningful ways? Second, if hypothetical performance gains were possible, how could they be achieved in practical design and manufacturing terms? Geva has spent over two years seeking answers to these questions and the result is now the spectacular four-way, four-tower Sonja XV (‘XV stands for ‘Extreme Version’) loudspeaker system ($265,900) that is the subject of this review.

The Sonja XV system is a four-way, four-tower loudspeaker that incorporates a total of 20 drive units (two tweeters, four midrange drivers, six midbass drivers, and eight woofers) and an enclosure system that uses twelve dedicated modules made of CNC-machined, black-anodised aircraft-grade aluminium. Each Sonja XV speaker consists of two towers: a main and a companion woofer tower that are both 1.79 metres tall. The twin towers are similarly but not identically proportioned and share a common design motif, with each tower featuring three stacked modules, starting with broad-shouldered woofer modules at the floor level, and with middle and upper modules featuring subtly curved sidewalls that gradually taper inwards as the towers rise upward. Although YG Acoustics tends not to emphasise this point, Porsche Design played an essential consulting role in helping to develop the system’s elegant industrial design aesthetic.

The main tower consists of a midrange-tweeter-midrange module at the top, a three-driver mid-bass module in the middle, and a bass module at the bottom. The woofer tower, in turn, also has three modules, with three woofer modules perched atop one another. Visually, the illusion is that the three woofer modules are of different sizes, but in point of fact they are different in shape but identical in volume.

Obviously, part of Geva’s plan for improving upon the sound quality of the original Sonja was to distribute the Sonja XV’s workload over a much broader array of drivers, thus minimising the excursion and distortion levels of the drivers in the array. The objective was to give the speaker virtually limitless frequency extension and dynamic capabilities. Another element in Geva’s performance enhancement plan was to design the Sonja XV as the firm’s first-ever four-way model, with crossover points set at 1.75kHz, 337Hz, and 65Hz. The intent was to have each main frequency band—and especially the critical midrange and mid-bass bands—handled by their own sets of purpose built, frequency-optimised drivers.

Through the years, YG Acoustics has developed a number of specialised, proprietary loudspeaker design and construction technologies and of course the firm has applied all of this speaker-building know-how in the Sonja XV, while adding some impressive new technical features unique to the new flagship speaker system. It is worth taking at least a cursory look at these technologies, since they collectively play a huge role in defining the sound of the speaker.

Large YG loudspeakers use modular chassis where each module can be optimised for the specific set of drivers it encloses and where the modular approach simplifies transportation and installation tasks while also—as you will learn later on—affording at least some degree of flexibility in configuration. The enclosures are made of exquisitely finished CNC-machined, black-anodised slabs of aircraft-grade aluminium, and by design panel-to-panel joints leverage aircraft-style ‘pressurized assembly” techniques that impart tremendous structural rigidity while holding unwanted vibration to an absolute minimum. Then, within, YG uses its so-called FocusedElimination™ technology to apply various proprietary anti-resonance materials in strategically chosen cabinet locations, providing critical damping while minimising internal turbulence and friction. The result is a rigid, acoustically inert, and well-damped enclosure that manages to offer, notes YG, the sort of friction-free performance “associated with enclosure-free concepts”.

Unlike some manufacturers, YG does not use off-the-shelf drivers in its designs. Instead, all YG bass, mid-bass, and midrange drive units use the firm’s proprietary BilletCore™ driver diaphragms, where driver cones are CNC-machined from billets of aircraft-grade aluminium. This admittedly costly and labour-intensive technique offers several key benefits. First, machined diaphragms are claimed to offer tighter dimensional tolerances than either stamped metal or composite driver diaphragms and they make it possible to machine strategically positioned stiffening ribs into the rear surfaces of the diaphragms. Second and most importantly, YG’s machined diaphragms remain free of the micro-stress-cracks that eventually can and do form in stamped metal or composite diaphragms; in short, BilletCore diaphragms offer superior performance from the outset and over the long haul.

New for the Sonja XV is an impressive BilletDome™ tweeter, which YG says is the firm’s “most complex mechanical invention to date”. The tweeter uses a uses a resonance-free fabric dome that is reinforced by a light, stiff precision-machined aluminium ‘airframe’ that looks like a miniaturised, gently curved flying buttress that supports the sides and centre of the fabric dome from within. The airframe weighs just 30 milligrams, but its support legs are proportioned so that they add enormous stiffness—yielding a dome that is even stiffer and stronger than a solid metal dome would be. The result is a tweeter that offers incredible acceleration capabilities and effortless treble extension to 40kHz and beyond, yet that does not exhibit the hard, sharp resonance peaks most metal dome tweeters do. To complete the picture, the tweeter’s motor features YG’s signature ForgeCore™ magnet system, which uses a combination of forging and CNC-machining techniques to introduce what YG describes as “sophisticated 3D geometries” said to reduce distortion while imparting “a sense of ease to the sound”.

In lieu of traditional printed circuit boards, YG’s crossovers feature heavy-duty fibreglass boards covered with extra thick layers of high-purity copper, where—owing to the thickness of the copper—circuit traces and component mounting-pads are precision CNC-machined into the surfaces of the boards. Only the highest quality resistors and capacitors (sourced from manufacturers such as Mundorf and others) are used on the boards, but for critical midrange and tweeter applications YG uses its own proprietary ToroAir™ CNC-wound, toroidal air-core inductors, which are said to reduce crosstalk and to eliminate unwanted “harshness, brightness, or sibilance”.

Then, as a performance enhancement for the woofer section of the Sonja XV’s crossover network, YG introduces its new ViseCoil™ inductors. Typically, inductors used in high-power/low-frequency applications are prone to residual losses, non-linearity, and quite audible vibrations. ViseCoil inductors, however, are CNC-wound in the YG factory and then encased in ultra-beefy, vise-like milled metal enclosures that resist vibration, while cutting residual losses by 24%, and improving linearity by 60%. The result is audibly superior bass control, better low-end transient impact and pitch definition, and the sense that there is simply less low frequency noise.

Tying all these technical elements together is the jewel in YG Acoustics’ design crown: namely, the firm’s proprietary Geva-developed, DualCoherent™ speaker design software that has the singular capability of optimising the loudspeaker’s frequency and phase response at the same time—something no other computer-aided software design tool we know of can do. Geva’s DualCoherent design tool arguably gives YG’s speakers a significant performance edge and one not easily matched by competitors.

The Sonja XV is an ambitious, cost-no-object loudspeaker whose performance targets are as high as they come. But how does it actually sound when playing real music in real-world listening environments? To find out, I was offered the opportunity to have a private, multi-day listening session with the Sonja XV as presented in the large listening room at GTT Audio’s beautiful facility in Long Valley, New Jersey (a space that YG Acoustics feels is one of the best-sounding Sonja XV demonstration facilities in the USA). Driving the system was a Roon-based music server, an extensive suite of Audionet amplification and source electronics, plus a Kronos/Airtight analogue turntable system. Then, tying the components together was a mixed set of Kubala-Sosna Realization and Elation audio cables. The resulting sound was breathtaking.

First, I found the Sonja XV to be smoothly balanced and neutrally voiced with essentially limitless extension at both frequency extremes. These extension capabilities became particularly apparent when either evanescent, upward-reaching treble passages or powerful, deep-plunging bass passages came along.

For example, when I played the track ‘Bell Painting’ from Marilyn Mazur and Jan Garbarek’s Elixir [ECM, 16/44.1], which features a delicious mix of small, high-frequency percussion instruments in play, the Sonja XV responded with effortless transient agility and terrific resolution, beautifully recreating the sound of the instruments playing within the reverberant recording space. Despite its size, the big Sonja XV perfectly captured the small, intimate, and tightly focused sound of the performance, while doing a beautiful job with the distinctive voices and reverb tails of each of the instruments.

The Sonja XV also proved just as capable when faced with demanding bass tests. One such test would be the track ‘O Vazio’ as performed by the Jim Brock Ensemble on Jazz Kaleidescope [Reference Recordings, HDCD], which features several passages with high amplitude and very low frequency percussion content. Frankly, these passages routinely cause loudspeakers to become overloaded and to falter in audible ways, but when I played them through the Sonja XV all I heard was powerful and extremely low frequency bass delivered in a taught, precisely textured, and pitch-perfect way. Boom. No drama, no distress, and no histrionics: just powerful and dramatic bass content as required by the music. This pattern of the Sonja XV handling so-called audio torture tests without even breaking a sweat is one that repeated itself over and over again during my listening tests.

Next, I discovered the Sonja XV was capable of extraordinary resolution, but not of the type that draws overt attention to itself. Rather, the speaker offers ‘organic resolution’—the kind that slyly astonishes you with unexpected moments of sheer realism. A great example would be Miles Davis’ live performance of Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time After Time’, from Live Around the World [Warner Bros., 16/44.1], where not only does Davis’s horn sound believably real, but where soft accompanying percussion instruments and indeed the entire acoustic setting of the performance stage sound real, too. As one guest who joined my for some of my listening sessions put it when hearing this track, “If you close your eyes, this presentation really is pretty much indistinguishable from being present at a live event.”

What makes this possible is the way the Sonja XV’s so perfectly capture the attack, bloom, and decay of notes from individual instruments in a holistic way that lets you hear and feel how the entire ensemble interacts with the performance space. What is also stunning, however, is the way the speaker serves up gobs of low-level transient and textural details, but without even a hint of dryness, overshoot, or excess treble brightness. As in real life, musical details are simply present and available to enjoy, but without unpleasant artefacts marring their appearance. Suddenly, it’s as if you’re no longer listening to recorded music, but rather are experiencing a taste of what it must have been like to be present when the music was made.

Third, the Sonja XVs proved to have superbly expansive dynamic capabilities, not just in terms of playing ‘big’ (although the speakers can certainly do that), but also in terms of playing both big and small while preserving the dynamic contrasts inherent in music. This can be quite dramatic when playing recordings whose dynamics might have seemed unremarkable in the past, but which the Sonja XVs show to be far more expressive than you at first thought. A good example came in the form of the second movement (Scherzo: Allegro molto) of the Copland Organ Symphony as performed by Michael Tilson Thomas, Paul Jacobs, and the San Francisco Orchestra [SFS Media: DSD64]. The movement came alive through the Sonja XVs, as the speaker sharply underscored the contrasts between the quieter and more contemplative organ passages vis-à-vis the louder and more vigorous orchestral passages. In fact, the Sonja XV made these contrasts much more dramatic than any other loudspeaker on which I’ve tried this recording. Through the YGs, the track seemed ‘reborn’ in a musical sense, taking on new dynamic shadings I never realised it possessed. In short, the Sonja XVs give music its proper lifelike scope and scale, providing the recording is willing.

Finally, the Sonja XV is capable of amazing imaging precision, focus, three-dimensionality, and soundstage width and depth. One recording that forcefully drove home this point was an old favourite: namely, the Von Karajan/Berlin recording of Bartok’s ‘Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta’ [DGG, 16/44.1]. On this recording, the Sonja XV paints a vivid and spatially specific picture of each of the orchestra sections arrayed in their designated positions upon the stage, while nicely conveying a sense of both the size of the orchestra and of the recording space. Images are not just precisely placed from left-to-right and front-to-back, but also solid and almost palpable in their presence.

Put all of these technical and sonic factors together and the YG Acoustics Sonja XV stands as the finest and by far the most accomplished loudspeaker I have yet heard, and by no small margin at that. If your budget and listening space permit, the Sonja XV will serve you as a mighty musical force for good and one that will not easily be equalled, let alone surpassed.

The Sonja XV Junior – A smaller alternative to the Sonja XV

The Sonja XV is a big loudspeaker system that performs best in sizable listening spaces—rooms larger than some enthusiasts may possess. To address this potential issue, YG Acoustics can—on a special order only basis—build what is in essence a ‘Sonja XV Junior’ model that is identical to the full-size Sonja XV in most respects, but that foregoes the lower woofer modules from both the standard XV’s main and woofer towers, reducing the total woofer count from four to two per speaker. Naturally, this change also requires a special, purpose-built crossover network that compensates for the shorter system’s reduced number of woofers. The result is a significantly more compact system that—apart from its absolute bass output capabilities—sounds identical to the full‑size Sonja XV and that may better fit mid-sized listening rooms.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Type: Modular, sealed enclosure, four-way, four-tower, dynamic driver-equipped, loudspeaker system. Enclosures for tower modules are CNC-machined from solid aircraft aluminium.

Driver complement (per channel): One BilletDome™/ForgeCore™ tweeter, two BilletCore™ midrange drivers, three BilletCore™ mid-bass drivers, and four BilletCore™ woofers. (A total of 10 drivers per channel, or 20 drivers per stereo system.)

Frequency response: Below 20Hz – above 40kHz, ± 1dB in the audible band, ± 5° relative phase throughout the entire overlap.

Impedance: 4 Ohms nominal, 3.5 Ohms minimum

Sensitivity: 88dB/2.83V/1m 2π anechoic

Dimensions (H×W×D): Four towers, each 179×43×72cm

Weight: Four towers, each 210kg unpackaged. Shipping weight for the entire system (crated) is 1.3 tonnes.

Finish: Black anodised aluminium

Price: $265,900/pair

A word on product availability: The Sonja XV system is not yet available in all markets. Readers interested in the Sonja XV are advised to consult their regional YG Acoustics distributors to determine if the speaker is available in their home market.

Manufacturer Information: YG Acoustics LLC

Tel: +1 801-726-3887

URL: www.yg-acoustics.com

UK Distributor:

Padood

Tel: +44 (0) 1223 653199

URL: www.padood.com

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