I istened to the Watt Puppy 6 and the Sophia 2.
Both speakers seemed to have a lack of bass energy and a tilted upward hi end. The Puppy 6 more so than the Sophia 2.
The Watt/Puppy 8 bass sounded tunefull ,but at $20,000 more.
All looked great!
Sigh.... |
My personal preference is the Sophia, but I've owned neither.
Duke |
I owned the Sophia's for a short time and upgraded to the Watt/puppy System 7. I haven't heard the 6, but I guess the 7 was a big improvement. If you can afford a pair of 7's, I highly recommend them. Be prepared to have all of the shortcomings in your system revealed to you. Wilson's have a knack for doing that. They are highly resolving transducers. |
I agree with Johnjbarlow, I owned the WP7's for two years. |
One other factor - I currently own two different amps, a McCormakc DNA 0.5 and a CJ Premier 11. I believe they are rated at 100 and 75 WRMS, respectively. Will this be sufficient power to drive the WP 6's? |
Yes that is plenty of power for Watt ouooies |
My personal pref is also the Sophia -- by far.
A sensible and well executed product IMO. The Alexandria is good too (but a tad more expensive). Both can offer good music as far as they go.
Of course, if you need high spl and listen to orchestras, you need a sub (used as a woofer) with a Sophia. |
Despite the price difference, I prefer the sound of the Sophias to that of the WP7s, but both are excellent. My wife thinks the Sophias look like the trash receptacles our town uses, except with beautiful finish.
db |
I own WP7s. That said, I'd go w/ the original Sophias over the WP6s. Anyone who says that the WP have a tilted up high end and lack of bass energy has not heard them setup properly. They require extreme care in setup and are ruthlessly revealing of everything in the chain upstream from them. |
Sonic preferences aside, the Sophias are the more forgiving speaker and, therefore, the easier to incorporate into a variety of systems. I've heard them sound superb with a Naim integrated amp and Rega Planet CD player, a system that would be seriously subpar with any interation of WPs. So, if extensive expertise with Wilson speakers is not available to you where you live, I would go with the Sophias without hesitation. They can be made to sound absolutely fabulous with significantly less effort. |
Thanks to all for the input! It looks like I really don't have any bad choices. |
Siliab speaks the truth. I had an unbelievably hard time getting the Watt/Puppy speaker to settle down in my system. Once I did though, watch out! I do have to warn it was a very painstaking process, and expensive. If you go to the wilson feature and click ownership club, it is discussed at length. |
a bad setup witht the 6 still beats the daylights out of the sophia. after hearing these two speakers side by side how anybody could think the sophia is a better speaker blows my mind.
of course a lot of people bought the pinto!!! |
I have owned the original Sophias and now Watt/Puppy 7's and both are terrific speakers. That being said, the WP7 is a better speaker IMO. Better bass and dynamics for the WP7 was no surprise. I wasn't prepared for the improvement in detail and soundstaging. The reason I ended up with the WP7 is that I was investigating whether it was worth upgrading my Sophias to Sophia II's. Wilson quoted $4K for the upgrade, the new tweeter and crossover, but the I cannot be upgraded to the slightly larger II cabinets. The dealer recommended going to the WP7 instead and he was right. However, you cannot go wrong with either. |
I have heard sophias & Wilson puppies 6 in the same room & same equipment..... Watts/Puppies 6 are better everyway from the word go....no comparison. I agree with Rlawry.
Currently own WP 6. |
Thanks for all of the input - I decided to go with the 6's. Can't wait. |
We heard the original sophias and did not like the lower end and felt that there was an emphasis in the upper mid range. The Wilson's six also had the same emphasis but had a better bottom end. I bought the 6's but spent a year finding what I felt was a good match with a Bat tube amp. The ss amps only magnified the upper range emphasis and contrary to the common wisdom the tubes made the speaker better balance and more musical imo. |
