Напольная акустика — Wilson Audio Autobiography

Autobiography is a five-way tower built in the United States by Wilson Audio, announced on April 23, 2025. It was designed from the ground up rather than derived from an earlier model, and every transducer in it was developed specifically for this system. The US price is USD 788,000 per pair.

Key specs that matter

The drivers form an M(MTM)M array. A 7 inch PentaMag midrange sits at the top and another at the bottom of the upper structure, and between them two 2 inch midrange units flank a 1 inch front-firing tweeter of the Convergent Synergy Laser Sintered type. Bass is shared by two dissimilar woofers, one of 12 inches and one of 15 inches, developed in parallel to act as one section. A 1 inch rear-firing tweeter with an inverted carbon fibre dome covers 6 kHz to 22 kHz and can be attenuated from 0 dB to minus 40 dB. Wilson quotes 18 Hz to 36 kHz within 2 dB as a room average response, 89.5 dB sensitivity at 1 W, 1 m and 1 kHz, and a nominal impedance of 4 ohm with a minimum of 2.1 ohm at 293 Hz. Minimum amplifier power is 100 W per channel. Each speaker is 206 cm tall without spikes, 55 cm wide and 89 cm deep, and weighs 372.4 kg.

Engineering and use context

The PentaMag midrange is a direct evolution of the QuadraMag unit, moving from four AlNiCo magnets to five. The front tweeter gains a redesigned rear wave chamber. Enclosures combine H-Material, V-Material and X-Material phenolic composites, some of them internally damped constrained layer types, with carbon fibre, aerospace grade aluminium, stainless steel, copper and gold. The gantry that carries the upper modules is a skeletonised structure of H-Material and machined aluminium. Both PentaMag modules can be moved independently on an alignment sled with gears and calibrated indicators, and Wilson claims the resulting time-domain precision exceeds that of the WAMM Master Chronosonic and the Chronosonic XVX. Height varies with the alignment settings and reaches about 212 cm at its tallest. Crossovers are built by hand, point to point, with no printed circuit boards, using copper versions of the in-house AudioCapX-WA capacitors and Rel-Cap parts matched to within 0.2 percent. A slot-type reflex port can be sealed using quick-release buttons, without tools. Finishes come from the WilsonGloss programme in a very wide range of colour combinations.

Pairing

A deep impedance dip in the lower midrange demands amplification that remains stable into very low loads and supplies large current, even though the stated minimum power is modest. The mass of each cabinet also makes the load capacity of the floor a basic requirement.

Alternatives

Wilson Audio also makes the Chronosonic XVX, a shorter floorstander with a 10.5 inch and a 12.5 inch woofer.