Stereophile - Sabrina 5

@hiendmmoe 

Nice system and updates! Do you find the SME a major improvement over the Clear Audio? They're both lovely and I'd be happy to live with either one.

Good discussion ----   There is a pair currently for sale on another site.

@hiendmmoe wrote:

Amateur opinions don’t speak loud enough for them to be heard. Bashing without hearing based on hatred qualifies as nothing when it comes to being taken seriously!

So what exactly are "amateur opinions" - any of which that are not coming from critics for hi-fi magazines, YouTube channels or self-proclaimed forum seniors/experts? I get how hateful bashing coming from no experience and loads of conjecture adds to nothing, but it's fairly easy to identify and ignore. More oblique however and yet fairly obvious when coming down to it is that with a range of high-end brands/models and posters who own such products there's a bias and attitude that's less welcoming of critical views. Maybe what it boils down to is that any critical assessment from forum members of such expensive gear is deemed "amateur opinions," also exemplified with what I noted as more than one instance of "Lautsprecherneid" (i.e.: speaker envy) being suggested. 

Usually I don't see the point in sharing a more detailed assessment of speakers I've heard here and there, especially not when my views are less than favorable overall, but with such cocky notions about the Wilson Audio Sabrina speakers that have also surfaced in this thread, and being that I have actual, fairly extensive experience with them (the Sabrina X version) from a friend's setup (when he owned them), this may be an opportune time to give some headers of what I thought of them. 

My friend's listening room is well treated with natural decor, wood paneled floor on concrete and just shy of 30 square meters (some 15 x 19 ft.). Source was (but no longer is) the Auralic G2.1/Qobuz, which also acted as a preamp, and the power amp was the MC² Audio S1400, a great amp less known in hi-fi circles, and with an abundance of power (775W/8 ohms). IC's were loosely braided Mundorf Silver/gold, and power cables a combo of Nordost and Supra. A power conditioner/voltage regulator was placed over the Auralic. 

My friend bought the Sabrina without having heard them, but he got a good deal and given their popularity surmised that he could sell them off without taking a hit if he didn't like them (he wound up making money on them). Still, he got a few good months with Sabrina's, and over that period of time I auditioned them at several occasions. The first thing that struck me was that from a seated position with the ears ~40" from the ground the Sabrina's image came from a point too low in height. Their slight tilt backwards didn't help to alleviate that feeling, although the actual stage they threw was quite large. I found the overall presentation lively, free of the speakers, with relatively good dynamics and a punchy, fairly deep bass given their smaller woofer size. To my taste the highs were a bit too hot (also aided by the fact that I found the mids on the thinner side of things), but it gave off a nice sense of air and "drama" to the presentation. Tonally, needless to say perhaps, I found them on the lighter side. 

Here's the thing though: I couldn't help but feeling uninvolved with the music and sorely lacked a sense of coherence and musical "texture"; it sounded more of less like three different drivers and a woofer that gave off a sense of effort when called upon to reproduce more complex material in the lower octaves. Indeed the whole pair of speakers top to bottom struggled to fill the listening space with music in an effortless way. Combined with their too-low sonic image I simply came away finding they sounded more like speakers, and less like music that actually involved me in a fairly convincing way. And at that price..?

When my friend had sold off his pair of Sabrina's we re-positioned his S.P. Technology Revelations in his listening room, and what struck me with their presentation by comparison was a rather smooth, coherent "radiation bubble" in front of me and a fuller, more effortless and room filling low end. The top end didn't stand out but was ingrained in a seamless way (although with a bit of waveguide nasality); less "impressive" in regards to air and seeming detail, but much more musically inspiring and natural - to my ears. So, personal preference no doubt has a say here, but hey - just my honest $0.02.