Does the wilson sophia 1 sound good only with perf

May I ask which Audio Research pre/power are you using?

I heard them through the more modern Audio Research gear (Ref 2 or was it ref 3 driving a VT 1X0 (forgot, sorry) )
and didnt like them.

Then I heard them driven by Melody 1688 (a very sweet 6SN7 based pre) and modified Cayin tube monos and then Canary 309s and they sounded good.

The Sophia I's tend to sound aggressive when driven by anything other than triode amps. But since its not as efficient as the WPs you need some power drive them.

A lot of times people tend to blame their setup's tendency to leanness, thinness and soundstage smearing to bad recording.
I was there when I had my Krells and Levinsons and some Audio Research (notably VT200).
So are all DG recordings from 1975 to 1990 bad?
They do sound horrible on systems with a false sense of detail and resolution such as the early 90s krells.
But play the same stuff in a well matched system of competent gear and you might find the sonics enjoyable again.
I am not talking about flea powered single ended amps with horns or OTLs into ESLs.
With good amps the Sophia 1s can be tamed to not make the not so smooth recordings sound terrible.