Watt/Puppy 7 or Sophia?

I have had demo of WP7, sophia, and the original MAXX in the same room (an isolated treated listening room at the dealer) with the same equipment (meridian 861/800, transparent cabling, classe CAM-350 monoblocks). Prior to this audition, I had heard the sophias in a separate dedicated room with classe home theater amp with transparent cabling. This latter audition was my introduction to quality equipment and it sounded great. The sophias sounded great with the other audition also, but are definitely upstaged by the WP7s. The MAXX and WP7 I would agree did not sound much different from one another. The WP7 has MUCH more detail than the sophia making for a more intimate listening experience. The sophia is no slouch, though, and imaging is excellent on both. I had read reviews on the sophia before the audition in which it was compared to the WP6. The bottom line in it was that the WP6 was more detailed, but the sophia was more enjoyable to listen to. The WP7 seems to take the sophia a step further in that it is even more enjoyable to listen to in my opinion.

I too am curious to hear opinions on the sound with the jc-1's.

When I was shopping for speakers I also listened to B&W nautilus 801s and martin logan odysseys with musical fidelity gear, jm lab micro and alto utopia berylliums with g series meridian components and transparent cables, and revel salons with krell preamp/ levinson 436s/ denon cd player(I am sure this CDP impaired this audition greatly as I was unimpressed by this setup). The WP7s were my favorite and I hope to one day aquire some. Currently I use the micro utopia berylliums with a rel sub.

The real question isn't whether the Watt 7s are better than the Sophias, but which speaker will sound better in your listening room with your equipment? It actually could be the Sophias.

I think the JC-1 should make both speakers sing
I've never heard the amp.. (cough..) but
this guy (Fremmer?) at the Stereophile highly recommended the Pass X-160 to the WP7s and he recalled the closest competition to the X-160 was the JC-1.. (if I remember right)

either way, good luck and happy listening ~!

I would never buy Watt Puppies w/o a careful audition. They are an acquired taste & not everyone's cup of tea. I had the WP 6's for a year or two and could never get the highs to stop sounding buzzy, and vocals were terribly screwed up, like a tinny transistor radio. Remember that was the 6's, not the 7's, so I can't speak for those. The bass, however, was phenomenal on the WP 6's: unobtrusive, "just-there", extremely detailed, never overbearing even at close listening range. I still long for the Wilson bass.
I wish Dave would put a softer tweeter in the Watts, maybe a ribbon. Or maybe he should try the ribbon supertweeter approach like Albert Von Schweikert uses in the smooth-as-silk VR9s. Dave Wilson would have one heck of a speaker if he could just get those highs and upper mids on a par with the bass, IMHO. (Watt Puppy 8 someday?)

Thanks for your responses guys.
As I have stated, I will listen to the 7's in the next week or so. I will do an A/B comparison with the Sophia's.
The issue I'm having is listening to these speakers with the system I have put together.
Onhwy61, I agree with your point, so that's why I'm trucking the jc-1's and the Capitole to a fellow audiophile's place to voice my system on his Sophia's. I won't be able to do this with the 7's. The dealer I have been using for Wilson is in the States and I'm in Canada. I think it will be a real hassle for him or for me to get the amps or speakers over the border to listen to this system. Yes I could go to Toronto, but I would rather not drive 4 hours with this equipment to do so in that traffic.
That's why I'm trying to use the collective knowledge of the 'Gon to come up with some idea of the synergy of this possible system.
Jeffjarvis,
I have to listen to the 6's (which may be impossible for me) so that's why I haven't considered them.
Bigsam2 and Hifimaniac,
Interesting point about the MAXX's. I listened to the MAXX2's the same day I listened to the Sophia's (at the insistence of my brother!) Clearly an amazing speaker- I could go that route, but I have to put a stop to this spending $ somewhere. I wonder how the 7's will compare to them- I guess I'll find out soon.
Jungsan,
Thank you for the reference to the Stereophile article- it would seem the Pass XA 160 has some sonic similarities to the jc-1's, at least according to MF. Perhaps by extrapolation this means the jc-1's will synergize as well with 7's as well as the Pass amp does. If I go this route in someways it will be somewhat of an educated guess to see whether this all works. An expensive guess too.
I am hopeful because currently my amps are getting broken in on Nautilus 802's at my in town dealer. I first heard these speakers using his Rotel monoblocks- the system sounded absolutely crappy- loud but no music. Well, I heard those speakers yesterday voiced through my system. It was like night and day. I thought B&W had sold out(I have 805 matrix) but they can still make a good speaker. I still feel the Sophia's outperform them and looking forward to hearing the 7's.