I had a pair of Sophias and enjoyed both solid-state and tubed amps. However, I think they sounded the best with tubed jobs, blooming more with a robust sound and a bigger soundstage. The slight reduction in bass depth is much less than that of the Watt/Puppies, so it is not really missed. In fact, I heard a pair of Sophia 2's at a local dealer being driven by VTL tube amps and I heard the unusual sound of deep bass being imaged separately from bass guitar. I had a Conrad-Johnson Premier 140 and Audio Research VT100 Mark III that made the best sounds with this speaker.
