Wilson Audio announces new flagship speaker and we’ve got a pair coming to Dallas.

It’s not every day you have the opportunity to experience something truly transcendent. Something that changes everything. Something that makes you look at the world (or at least the world of high performance) in a different way. For me, there’s a clear line that’s been drawn — life before the Wilson Audio Autobiography, and life after it. That’s right, Wilson Audio has announced an entirely new flagship speaker which promises to deliver upon Wilson’s motto of Authentic Excellence for years to come.

We first heard rumblings about a new Wilson speaker back in the fall. Like any good rumor, it quickly took on a life of it’s own, but there was little in the way of detail, other than it was big and would be built with precision that would rival a Swiss watchmaker. When word came down from Wilson that there was something new on the horizon, we immediately committed to being a showing dealer. We still had very little detail about the speaker other than early listening tests revealed that Daryl Wilson had designed something that sounded incredible and would set the tone for Wilson Audio products for the next decade or so.

The guys and I then embarked on the difficult task of choosing a finish for a speaker we knew literally nothing about. Sure there were a few teasers sent by text that were too cropped to get a true sense of the design. We ordered several paint samples. And then some more samples. We finally settled on a custom Sebring Blue w/ extra gold flake. It’s a deep rich blue finish that has flashes of blue/green when the light hits the gold flake. It’s really stunning on the sample, and I think it will look elegant on the finished product.

On Tuesday I traveled from Dallas to Provo, Utah to experience the official unveiling of Autobiography. After several hours of learning every detail of Autobiography's design, I finally had the opportunity to hear the speaker for myself at "The House" — David and Sheryl Lee Wilson's personal listening room. I recently heard the full WAMM system (with dual subwoofers) in this same space, and it was nothing short of magical.

I simply wasn’t prepared for what Autobiography would deliver.

Incredible pinpoint imaging. Superbly deep and textured bass — one of the demo tracks featured the cathedral organs' 32' stop playing down to 16 Hz, and you could feel every bit of that frequency without any sub or active bass reinforcement. I've never heard or felt bass like this from just two speakers. Dynamics are delicately layered in the sound stage creating depth of epic proportions.

Dean Martin's voice danced between the speakers as he moved a couple of inches closer to, then farther from, the Neumann microphone in front of him. Scale, spatial, and dynamic cues that are so difficult to reproduce — but critical to the belief that we are hearing a live performance.

The speakers handled full, complex orchestral passages with ease and stunning clarity.

And then Daryl played a track we know perhaps all too well: Don't Worry, Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin. We listen to this track as a final check on every turntable we set up, so to say we know this song would be an understatement.

Well...at least we thought we knew it.

Simply put, Autobiography brings music to life like nothing before it. AudioConcepts believes so deeply in this design — and what it means for the future of Wilson Audio — that we have committed to being one of a select few dealers in the world with Autobiography on permanent demonstration.

Stay tuned for more information about an official launch event at the shop featuring Daryl Wilson in the months to come. For now, here's a sneak peek at our "boys" before they head into the paint polishing room.