News

It's time to start counting down the days, The UK Hi-Fi Show Live, hosted at the Ascot Racecourse Grandstand, High Street, Ascot will be taking place on Saturday 30 September and Sunday 1 October. Tickets cost £20 per day or £30 for a weekend pass via eventbrite.co.uk or the link on thehifishowlive.com website. Concessionary £15 day passes will be offered for subscribers of HFC and our sister magazine Hi-Fi News, and all details for this offer can be found on the insert included with future subscriber copies.

Making its debut British showing at the UK Hi-Fi Show Live is the highly anticipated Sasha V loudspeaker from Wilson Audio.

Drawing on the components featured in the company’s current flagship, the Chronosonic XVX, plus the technology engineered specifically for its Alexx V and Alexia V, Wilson says the Sasha V: “unravels your recordings in a remarkable way that belies its relatively compact size… Sasha V’s exquisite craftsmanship and thoughtful contours create a sculpted masterpiece, beautifully integrating into your curated listening space, and stands as an embodiment of industrial art.”

Measuring 368 x 1,145 x 608mm (WxHxD) without spikes and weighing 111.13kg, the Sasha V features a Convergent Synergy Carbon (CSC) Tweeter. The company says: “This unique and complex carbon fibre rear-wave chamber is constructed entirely in-house on one of our many dedicated 3D printers. Alnico QuadraMag Perfect blending between the tweeter and midrange is a fundamental element to accurate and realistic sound reproduction… Wilson Audio’s 7in AlNiCo (Aluminium-Nickel-Cobalt) QuadraMag midrange driver sings harmoniously with the CSC tweeter in the Sasha V. This exceptional midrange driver is celebrated for its effortlessly revealing nature and absorbing soundstage dimensionality in the frequency band to which the human ear is most sensitive. “Previously only available in the Chronosonic XVX, Alexx V and Alexia V, the QuadraMag is now a critical part of the Sasha V. The upper array baffle includes Wilson Audio’s proprietary S-Material. This baffle is composed of a unique blend of materials that form a highly stable and low-resonance coupling surface for the midrange driver, thus allowing the natural sonic beauty found in the QuadraMag to bloom.

“The Sasha V has also strategically nested V-Material in the critical interface between the upper module and the top of the woofer cabinet. Novel in its properties, this material provides uncommon vibration control and upper module isolation, similar to the design philosophy found in the Alexx V and Alexia V. This proprietary V-Material is also recessed into the Wilson Audio Acoustic Diodes. These purpose-built spikes employ peerless vibration management, which clearly expresses the system’s dynamics and micro-detail.”

The Sasha V also features a host of hardware upgrades, including the bespoke Wilson Audio multi-connector binding posts with modified knurling in a bid to create a cleaner signal path. There’s a choice of either spade or banana plug speaker cables plus the resistor mounting hardware has been improved featuring a carbon fibre back plate and aluminium framed glass cover, similar to Alexia V. At the back of the driver top plate is a flush mounted bubble level, which gives a levelling system for better installation.

All external umbilical cables are terminated with the Wilson Audio spade as found on the Chronosonic XVX, Alexx V and Alexia V, and the upper module two-position front spike track offers additional adjustment positions which the company’s Sasha DAW doesn’t have with a view to creating more precise time alignment accuracy and more adaptability to a wider variety of listening positions.

Wilson Audio formulated V-Cable is used for all internal connections creating continuity for the entire audio signal path, which passes the signal from the main-in connector plate to the woofer crossover, upper crossover and to all the drivers.

Priced at £53,998 per pair in the standard range of WilsonGloss colour options the Wilson Audio Sasha V is available to order now from Absolute Sounds. Premium and custom colours are also available and you can check out these beauties exclusively, courtesy of Absolute Sounds, at the UK Hi-Fi Show Live in Ascot’s huge On5 suite.

You can also join Dave Beese and Bill Leigh of Auden distribution, as they introduce an equally spectacular stack of Hegel separates, including the top-flight Viking CD player. Anders Ertzeid, Hegel’s ‘man in the know’ will be travelling from Norway to the UK Hi-Fi Show Live to answer any questions you may have.

Other high-end firsts include Renaissance Audio’s John Carroll and his team spinning up VPI’s Titan Direct turntable with its double stack chassis, ‘Magnetic Direct Drive’ and air suspension system. Electronics will include MOON’s new North Collection, headed by the flagship 891 network player/preamp and partnering 891 power amplifier, the latter rated at a full 300W/8ohm. In addition to all these high-end hi-fi exclusives, the UK Hi-Fi Show Live will host a mega vinyl record fair and a smorgasbord of lectures, meetings and seminars.

Keep checking in on the website for more details on exhibitors and regular news updates.