Amp s choices to match with Wilson Sophias ?

Hello!
I listened my Wilson's Sofia with Pass Labs X 250 long time . Later I was able to hear them with Pass Labs XA 30.5.
I can say with XA 30.5 they sounded much better. This makes me think that Wilson work better with amplifiers operating in Class A.
Regards, Martev

I called Wilson when I got my Sophia 2's. One of the guys told me that they had great success with Audio Research and Jeff Rowland. I ended up with the Rowland Continuum 500 integrated and it sounded much better than the VTL gear that I had been using with them.

Good luck.

Agree with Atmasphere, I have only heard them with Audio Research and Levinson. Preferred the Audio Research.

The Wilsons have always been tube-friendly. So you have a wide range of tube amps available for the speaker as well.

The Sophias piqued my interest.

Is there an appreciable difference between the Sophia 1, 2 and 3?

Nolitan, where did you read about the Sophias sounding good on Naim amps?

Another question(pardon my ignorance) how does the Sophia3 compare to the Sasha?

Last question. Anybody compared the Magico to the Wilsons? If yes, what are the distinct differences between these two brands?

Any advice would be appreciated.

"I auditioned the Sasha's with xxx amps...sounded incredible/fantastic "

I have nothing but praise for Ayre and Electrocompaniet amps however, to really test how any given amplifier match the speakers of interest I firmly believe that you need to lsiten in your own listening room and...for a few weeks or at least a few days.... and using wide variety of music styles [that of course you can do using dealer's system].

Kind Regards,

I auditioned the Sasha's with Electrocompaniet amps...sounded incredible.

I just heard the Sashas last week paired with Ayre's monoblocks. They sounded fantastic.

I owned WATT/Puppy 8 which I very recently upgarded to Sasha. Both these speakers are also by David Wilson.

I search for right amplifiers for a long time, mostly among muscle powerful class A amps.

I ended up with pair of Musician III by Spectron Audio While substantially cheaper these amps are more powerful and show greater finessse and musical involvement then all class A amps I auditioned ( they were better then tube amp I owned at the time McIntosh 2102).

I saw today that Spectorn has rather nice promotion. I suggest you to investigate this amp very much. I know a few more owners of Watt/Puppies who have these amps and all, apperently, extremely happy.

Best of Luck,

Mike

In the Netherands and Belgium Wilson speakers are often demoed using Ayre electronics. To me the Wilson-Ayre combination always sounded good. However, this is certainly not the only good combination. About two years ago I almost bought a pair of Wilson Sophia 2. Back then I have demoed the speakers for a few days and drove them (due to budget limitations) with the Musical Fidelity A5 integrated and cd player, and also with the cheapest integrated and cd player form Ayer (serie 7 I think). Both combination were great. Some may argue that the Sophia deserve better electronics. That is true. However, my point is that you do not need top of the line electronics to get great sound out of these speakers. I have also demoed (about a year ago for an hour or so) the Sophias 2 with Accuphase electronics, i.e. the E-550 and E-450 integrated with the DP-500 cd player. Again with great results. Also, from what my dealer was saying Mcintosh, Pass Labs and Naim electronics also work great with these speakers. Thus, if you already have a decent amp do not rush to replace it as these speakers are not very peaky (like you said). Try as many amps as possible and wait for the best bargain.

Good luck!

you might try a search. this topic has been discussed ad nauseum.