People sometimes refer to our loudspeakers as luxury items. When I hear that, I wonder what the word "luxury" means to them. Frank Lloyd Wright famously observed, "Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do without the necessities." I imagine what he meant was that, for him, having things of quality was a necessity of life.


When we chose the phrase "Authentic Excellence" to describe what we're about at Wilson Audio, it was with this confidence: by offering you a glimpse of how our products are made, it would be apparent that words like "value" are not intrinsically at odds with expectations of high price.

Marketers often use the term "perceived value" as a measure of what they're selling. Our only interest is in "authentic value." Anything else is a chimera, a wisp, a ploy.

The indisputable luxury (and necessity) of my life is the chance to do what I love surrounded by people of immense skill, pride in craftsmanship, and dedication. You will glimpse some of them in this section. We hope also you'll sense the collective passion that motivates us. At its core, it's about our love of music.

Sharing that—through the products we make—is our goal.

Every company has a culture. In most cases, a company's culture is the direct extension of the values and goals of its leader.

Dave Wilson has always been motivated by his insatiable curiosity, his love of good science, and his empirical open-mindedness. His simple desire is to build loudspeakers he himself would want to own. Dave has the self-confidence to believe his products will succeed in the marketplace, and the humility to recognize his is not the only valid approach.

Above all, he believes in teamwork—and so empowers a guild of craftsmen motivated by their personal stake in meaningful work, expertly done.
Dave Wilson once observed that, when the original Sophia was launched in 2001, it was inevitably described in the audio press as Wilson Audio's "entry-level" floor-standing loudspeaker. While Sophia remains Wilson's most affordable floorstander, focusing on price obscures an important fact—which was that price was incidental to Sophia's actual design objective. What Dave and the Wilson design team set out to create was a loudspeaker that—unlike its siblings at the time, X-1 GrandSLAMM and WATT/ Puppy— was less demanding of rooms and electronics. Sophia was designed to be a product easy to drive, easy to own, and one that invited its owner to just relax into the enjoyment of music.

Nevertheless, Sophia's true magic is that a speaker designed to sound so good with modest electronics will still reveal the nuance and detail of state-of-the-art gear. Impressive sales aside, it is Sophia "cult status" among audiophiles which speaks to the success of the original vision. It is not uncommon for Wilson customers who could easily afford the company's more expensive loudspeakers to choose Sophia—just because they love the sound.