Interrupted my vacation to take delivery of the Sasha today. The combination of waiting anxiety from the new owner of my Sophia 2s and the willingness of my dealer to please both customers including myself taking delivery of the Sasha, opened up a window of 1 day to do it. It was worth it.
Here they are uncrated and the bass modules in place.
Upper bass module area showing the reference chart for the "propagation delay" spike height selection of the mid/tweeter module.
The head/upper module mounted and wired.
The casters make the speaker positioning a breeze.
Positioned and ready to play some music.
I only have a few hours on them so far but most of the qualities I heard at the dealer are present. The slightly warmish tonal balance is present and is very much to my taste. The highs are sweeter and even more refined over the Sophia 2 but not a night and day difference. The mids have a slightly warmer tonal response and the bass is a tad tighter, quicker and a bit more articulate. I actually kind of liked the rounder, slightly looser bass of the Sophia 2 but this can change as the Sasha's break in and I play around with the positioning.
The Lamm's seem to have no trouble at all driving the Sasha's. I don't hear the lack of grip down low I heard at the dealer with the Ayre MXR's at higher levels but then again my room is smaller and not as heavily damped as my dealer's room.
In these short few hours I can already tell I am going to really enjoy these speakers new found qualities of being even more engaging and musical. The ease of listening, the warmish, rich, slightly darker overall tonality is very enjoyable and amounts to a very musical presentation that has enough weight, impact and scale that allows me to relax and the music just draws me in deep, without distractions or paying attention to any flaws which is always a good sign in a long term relationship with speakers.
There is a good bit of improved coherence top to bottom with the Sasha as compared to the Sophia 2 overall but I have to say that the Sophia's slightly round and a touch loose, full bass can also be extremely enjoyable depending on personal preference if not exactly top to bottom balanced by comparison.
No question, the Sasha is a better balanced speaker that has a very musical, engaging personality that is easy to fall in love with but the Sophia 2 was also a great speaker and the Sasha's premium over them is a personal decision. I am very happy with the Sasha but I also would not be upset if I had to live with the Sophia 2 for a long time. Both excellent speakers from the Wilson workshop.