ruling : In the other knockings of November , I attend a monstrance for the Wilson Audio Alexia V , a brace of verbalizer that cost £ 80k – or £ 79,888 to be exact .
Of naturally , when parcel out with product as expensive as this , all the attention is going to be on the price . I lately review an£11,999 8 K TVand even that seems modest tyke compare to the cost of these speakers .
These speaker are n’t for most mass , clearly , and many make the mistake of fixating on the price for a product that ’s not aimed at them . If you may afford this speaker , then you are the intended target marketplace . It ’s as simple as that .
The Wilson Audio Alexia V vocalise great , as you ’d assume they should when get in touch to elaboration and root that presumptively rack up several thousand pound in cost . But Peter McGrath , our presenter for session , also tell the speakers are “ relatively efficient ” and could be run off a 50W amplifier , indicating they ’re easy to drive – an telling technical accomplishment .
They sounded incredibly transparent , almost placing you in the setting where the medicine was immortalise . Anyone who buy the Alexia V will be impressed by the detail , resolution , clarity and want of noise they afford to music , whether it ’s vinyl or stream from the services such as Tidal and Qobuz .
But that was n’t my main takeaway from the presentation , though . It was a comment I heard off - handwriting about people rear their eyebrows about the cost ( here I go fixate on the price ) , and that people would n’t say the same if we were verbalise about a kitchen renovation or someone corrupt a Ferrari .
The gist , I consider , is that those things are accepted as being expensive , but when it come up to hi - fi intersection such as a verbalizer or a pair of headphones , we have it in our minds that they should be comparatively affordable and if not then people tut-tut and shake their heads .
And they would have a point . If you ’re the case of person who is after a high - performance speaker unit and have the billfold to give for it , then why would n’t you ?
But the comment also had me spiraling in other directions , so prepare yourselves for a bit of ramble about the hi - fi diligence in worldwide .
The music we listened to on the verbaliser was either highbrow in nature or ( majuscule ) recording of lively performances purport at drawing attention to the verbaliser ’s characteristics . It can , however , lead to a more or less elitist perception of these types of utterer and along with the price intimate these speaker are to be appreciated by a certain type of person and that pool is not a grownup one .
During any demonstration , whenever the giver asks if anyone would wish to paint a picture some medicine , it always flashes across my mind that someone should say A - ha ’s Take On Me for fun , or maybe System of a Down ’s B.Y.O.B – songs people mightactuallycome across on Spotify and Tidal .
There ’s always been something of a disconnect , a chasm to rise over in these situation , where you experience as if you have to think of clever call choices so as to not come across as some sort of simple Goth . When you reach this level it seems to err towards taste , as if you should hear to Tchaikovsky and Bach rather than Britney Spear ’s Toxic . You ’re in rarefied breeze and must breathe accordingly .
And that makes me think of whether there ’s a generational watershed in how hi - fi sells itself , as if it ’s a little too stuck in its own ways at times .
It does n’t feel as if younger people are diving into Hawai’i - fi with as much relish as older generations did , and even somewhat expensive products seem to make not just a detachment in terms of their accessibility , but they ’re almost for people with an take , specific taste . Hi - fi is not a need , but a desire and hoi polloi often have to fence more expensive purchases rather than simply die out and get it .
There is , I ’d say , a clang between the appliance that customers want – a undivided or two box speaker unit organisation that is a minimal hustle to use – and the utility program and mellow - performance hi - fi manufacturer would like to provide with devices that do n’t scrimp on high - quality music or the motivation for gamy - caliber origin . A 128kbit / s Spotify stream should n’t still be a thing in 2022 .
There ’s room for both restroom and high - quality sound , but I do wonder if hi - fi still has that pull to soak up people , especially those of a unseasoned age , into its orbit . While speakers like the Wilson Audio Alexia V are undoubtedly great , the market they are reach for is adjust .
It ’s not in their deoxyribonucleic acid , but I ’d know to see what Wilson Audio could do at the other ending of the market , and see if they could change some of those younger , impressionable mind .
