Loudspeakers

The Sasha DAW is a tribute product launched by Daryl Wilson to honour his recently deceased father and Wilson Audio's founder, David Andrew Wilson, whose initials denote the latest form of this iconic loudspeaker. In practice, the Sasha DAW has the same form factor and three-way, four drive configuration as the Sasha Series-2 [HFN Jun '14].

Its dimensions are also roughly the same at 114x37x58cm (hwd), comprising a bass cabinet and separate mid/treble head enclosure, the latter exquisitely adjustable via a series of alloy steps built into the top of the big box. So while it's even easier to focus the DAW in on the listening position, it's also gained some 10kg in weight thanks to the extended use of Wilson's X-material in its construction.

Trickledown Treatment
It's tempting to think of the Sasha DAW as a scaled-down Alexia S2 [HFN Mar '18] but at a fraction of the cost – £40k here in its standard colours of Diamond black, Dark titanium, and Argento or Desert silver – than a potential Sasha Series 3 wannabe. The long list of features inherited from its bigger sister begins with the bass cabinet, for the enclosure now has additional bracing, a cut-out in its floor to accommodate the crossover and the baffle tapered by 3o for improved time alignment.

To gain internal volume, both the woofer and midrange/tweeter cabinets have had their interconnecting wire chambers removed, the cables now reaching out through gas-tight holes. Even the midrange driver and the Wilson 'Synergy mk5' tweeter are borrowed from the Alexia S2, these previously inherited from the WAMM. There's more trickledown in the woofer drivers, which are said to offer a flatter, more linear bass response, and are 'based on the 8in driver found in the Alexia S2, redesigned by [Director of Engineering] Vern Credille for the specific needs of the Sasha'.

Fine Tutoring
Around the back, the port has been relocated to the centre of the cabinet and remoulded for lower turbulence while the mid/treble resistor plate lies behind the integrated, and easily removable, tempered-glass window first seen in the Alexx. There's clearly a family ethos at work here: Wilson's youngest not only wear the finest 'shoes' and 'clothes' of their eldest but also get the same 'education'!

The Sasha DAW also has new and very heavy duty binding posts, redesigned by Daryl Wilson and lead mechanical engineer Blake Schmutz. These are easier to tighten by hand and now include a 4mm banana plug option. Other revisions include the visually appealing cut-outs on top of the woofer cabinet designed 'to reduce cavity pressure in the space between the upper and lower modules', and these are also very useful as peeping-holes to the time alignment block steps. 'The user interface of the group-delay mechanism now features a knurled knob, enabling the adjustment to be facilitated without tools', or so they say, as it's still not easy to unscrew by hand once you tighten it up.

As usual, the Sasha DAW comes in a rainbow of colours beyond the 'standards', with 5% added to the price for specials including Obsidian black, Oxford grey, Ghilles green, Imola red, Bugatti blue, Biarritz white and Fly yellow. Any off-the-books, RAL colour-matched, request will attract a 10% supplement.

Step By Step
I began with the speakers set up in a large room on the very same spot the Alexia S2s had sung their hearts out in the HFN May '18 review. Despite the technical similarities, the Sasha DAW's bass was tighter and leaner than that of the Alexia S2, but wasn't as deep. This was to be expected considering the difference in size of the speakers' bass cabinets, so I surmised the Sasha DAW would feel more at ease in a more intimate environment.

I then moved them to a smaller room, measuring 6x5m. Here they responded best when roughly 1.2m from the front and side walls, 2.8m apart, toed-in albeit not pointed straight at the sweet spot and located some 3.5m away from the listening seat. Electronics comprised the Dan D'Agostino Momentum Integrated amp [HFN Dec '14], Audio Research REF160M valve amplifiers [HFN Aug '18], and the Audio Research REF CD9 CD player as source [HFN May '13].