SoundStage!

"The best of the best, the benchmark for loudspeaker design here and now." This is how Marc Mickelson summed up the Wilson Audio Alexandria X-2 speakers, the winner of this year's SoundStage! Edge of the Art award. So much can be said about the X-2, from its advanced materials to its heroic build, but it is significant because of its tonally right, dynamic, wide-bandwidth sound. "It is a more realized version of what we audiophiles are used to hearing from well-reproduced music, but laced with a few things that reproduction achieves only with the Alexandrias" is how Marc expressed it. David (left), Sheryl Lee, and Darryl Wilson accept the award. [www.wilsonaudio.com]

The Best Product Debut award goes to AudioQuest's Sky interconnects and their patent-pending Dielectric-Bias System, which "keep[s] the cable's dielectric constantly charged with 72V DC and thereby ensure[s] that the dielectric never drains its energy as distortion." Does it work? "A sonic accomplishment" according to Marc Mickelson. AudioQuest's Bill Low accepts the award.

Lew Johnson (left) and Bill Conrad accept the Aesthetics & Sound award for their ACT2 preamp, which Tim Aucremann likened to "a retro-industrialized Guggenheim Museum." Tim also wrote about the ACT2's sound, praising its "best-of-breed dynamic range and spatial ambience..., vanishingly low noise floor, [and] sense of immediacy and life."

For eschewing so-called innovations like upsampling and 24-bit/94kHz playback, Zanden Audio's Model 2000 Premium transport and Model 5000 Signature DAC are unusual winners of the Innovation in Design award. It takes some courage to go against the grain with expensive products, but Zanden has done it anyway, to a spectacular outcome. From Marc Mickelson's reviews: "When CDs can do this, who needs another medium?" Kazutoshi Yamada accepts the award. [www.zandenaudio.com]

How does an A/V product win a SoundStage! award? By being "a sure-fire bet for average folks looking for a terrific product in one easy-to-manage, attractive package," as Jeff Fritz wrote in his "Surrounded" column on the NAD L73 DVD receiver. Greg Stidsen (left) and Mark Stone of NAD accept the Budget Leader award. [www.nadelectronics.com]

The Magnepan gang (left to right, Wendell Diller, Margaret Roush, and Mark Winey) accept the Hall of Fame award for the MG3.6/R, which, according to Marc Mickelson, has "reached a unique place in the audio world, the status of a classic." [www.magnepan.com]

The SoundStage! Exceptional Value award went to Axiom Audio's Ian Colquhoun for his M80 v2 loudspeaker, whose "outstanding clarity," seamlessness and $1240 price define the category. As Doug Schneider wrote: "Its predecessor was one of the best values in audio when it debuted in 2000, and the M80 v2 is an even better value today." [www.axiomaudio.com]