Напольная акустика — Wilson Audio Sasha DAW

The Sasha DAW is a two-box floorstanding loudspeaker from Wilson Audio Specialties and the successor to the Sasha 2. Its line goes back to the WATT/Puppy that company founder David A. Wilson designed more than 30 years earlier, and it was the first new product the firm released after his death. The initials in the name honour him, and the company is now run by his son Daryl Wilson. The European price was EUR 45,000 per pair.

Key specs that matter

The layout is passive and three-way, with reflex loading and four drivers in total. A 25 mm Convergent Synergy Mark V tweeter, the fifth generation of that Wilson unit, uses a textile dome. The 178 mm midrange has a cone of paper and cellulose composite, and two 203 mm paper-cone woofers handle the bass. Wilson rates the response at 20 Hz to 30 kHz within 3 dB, measured as a room-averaged curve. Sensitivity is 91 dB at 1 W and 1 m, and the nominal impedance is 4 ohm, with a minimum of 2.48 ohm at 85 Hz. The maker asks for at least 25 W per channel. Each speaker stands 114 cm tall without spikes, 37 cm wide and 58 cm deep, and weighs 107 kg.

Engineering and use context

The woofers sit in a lower enclosure and the midrange and tweeter share a separate upper module, with the cabinets built from Wilson's own composites called X-material and S-material, whose exact recipes the company does not publish. Faceted panels are meant to break up standing waves and internal resonances. Internal volume grows slightly compared with the Sasha 2. The bass box vents through a rear reflex opening, and the upper module has its own rear slot vent. A mechanical ladder at the back sets the tilt of the upper module so that the arrival times of all four drivers line up at the listening seat, which is how Wilson achieves time-domain alignment. Heavy-duty binding posts on the midrange and tweeter enclosure accept banana plugs and thick cables. Nine finishes are listed, among them Obsidian Black, Galaxy Gray, Cobalt Blue, Desert Silver and Lavender, and the warranty runs for 10 years.

Pairing

Because its impedance curve dips well below the nominal rating in the upper bass, the Sasha DAW calls for an amplifier with plenty of current reserve that stays stable into low loads, which favours solid-state designs or valve amplifiers with a 4 ohm or 2 ohm tap.

Alternatives

The Wilson Audio Sasha V is the later floorstanding model that carries the Sasha name forward.