Wilson Sophia vs Aerial 7/9

Joncourage,

I have heard the Sophia 3's and the new Aerial 7T's, though not in the same store, nor did I hear them on the same day. I loved the sophia's, but was not favorably impressed with the Aerials. The Aerials so underperformed my expectations, that I asked the dealer to move them to a different room and drive them with a reference BAT/Esoteric system. We are talking a 100K + front end here. The Aerials still underperformed my expectations, and significantly underperformed the Magnepan 3.7'Rs, which I heard in the same system in the same room on the same day.
It is possible, that the Aerials were not broken in yet, but the dealer made no apologies for the Aerials. I walked into the store that day expecting to place an order for the Aerials, but I did not feel like these speakers were for me. I bought the maggies, but I certainly could have loved the Sophias. Something might have been wrong with the demos I heard. My point is not to discount Teajay's opinion, which I certainly respect, but just to point out that people hear things differently. Go listen, listen carefully with carefully selected music, and buy what your ears tell you is to your liking. Neither the sophias nor the Aerials are especially difficult to drive to my knowledge.

Teajay, If your 7T's outperformed a set of MG20's, there was something dreadfully wrong with the ones I heard. I can't imagine what the deal was. My living room is my listening room, so appearance is important and the 7T's are stunning looking speakers. I listened to them first using a decent front end in a less than ideal room. After a few minutes I asked the owner to move them into his reference room. In both settings I pretty much heard the same thing. There was an inaccurate timber across the board on orchestral music in both systems that put me off right away. In the reference system, the low end was bloated, which could have been a placement issue. Also, the speakers did not distinguish themselves in terms of spacial information as compared to the maggies. I also sensed that the owner was somewhat less than enthusiastic about the 7T's. I had a couple pair of Michael Kellys ADS speakers prior to my run with Magnepan, so I expected great things from the Aerials. I'd love to hear from others who have had a chance to hear them.

Thanks, TJ. In the end I will never know what was wrong with my audition of the 7T's. I wish I could have heard what they are apparently capable of, but in the end, I an so happy with my maggies there is no harm done. I'm still not sure that it is not just how I hear things. I auditioned a lot of very good speakers, ranging from 6K to 17K. The sophia and maggies are the only two speakers I thought I could live with. I am very sensitive to accuracy of timber, and if something is just slightly off there it is a deal breaker for me.
The dealer where I auditioned the 7T's is about a 2 hour drive away. Its probably the best run brick and mortar store I've ever dealt with. Next time I make the drive, I think I'll give the 7T's a second quick listen,