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Sophia 1 with McIntosh/Lamm tubes? Please advise

My system is now B&W 804S, McIntosh MC275 amp and Lamm LL2 preamp, and Rel Storm III sub. The Lamm was the latest addition about 1.5 years ago and I REALLY like it.

I'm thinking of a next upgrade, either the speakers or amp. If I were to upgrade amp today I would probably go with Lamm ML1 or M1.1 hybrid. However, I'm leaning towards upgrading speakers first. Right track? BTW, the following upgrade would be a couple years away.

My budget for speakers is $5-6k, maybe $7k if I can let the sub go. Thinking of buying used. I've been reading about Wilson Sophia 1, Merlin VSM, and DeVore Nines (Silverbacks likely beyond my budget). Do you think these would match well with tubes? The Sophias are 89 dB (vs my B&W at 91 dB), but said to play very well at moderate levels. I'm certainly open to other suggestions.

I really enjoy the sense of 3D spaciousness during playback, the "musicians in the room" holographic presentation. Absolute true tonal balance is less important to me, to the extent is not grossly off, of course. Musicality and high definition are important, and also bass extension and definition.

The room is 33x15x8 ft, speakers on a short side, spaced about 7.5 ft between them, and 5 ft from front wall. Listening position on an equilateral triangle.

Music tastes: all over the place, but mostly rock, blues and jazz. The dynamic range/impact the Sophias are said to have are appealing too.
lewinskih01

Showing 1 response by captain_winters

captain_winters
133 posts
 
For what it is worth, I went from Martin Logan Aerius to Wilson Sophia 2. I had the Aerius for 16 years or so, and I was very familiar with them. As soon as I hooked up the Wilson's I jotted down some notes while the Aerius was still fresh in my mind. I am also running tube amplification, Music Reference Rm-9 MKII amp, about 125 WPC, and a large room 18' by 36' with openings. So far I have not been wanting for power, but then again, I have not tried another amp. My system consists of:
VPI Classic 3 Dynavector XX-2 MKII, Avid Pulsus phono stage, Acurus RL-11 Preamp, Music Reference RM-9 MKII amp (Genalex Gold Lion KT77 and Russian 6922) and Sophia II speakers.

"I like them better already than the Martin logans, so much more articulate. And they crank! Bass is way low, like a sub, but very balanced on all frequencies. Big surprise is they image better than the logans, 3 dimensional instead of 2. Plus the midrange is way better. I only played a couple of albums so far. But Yes, different class of speaker. Much more detail in the mids with great bass extension. I really like the 3 dimensional image. The Martins were not as 3 dimensional in the imaging. No box coloration, I am very happy about that. Box is completely inert."
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