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Considering Wilson or Sonus Faber floor standing over my Rockport monitors & Wisdom Sub

Hello All,

I have a pair of Rockport Mira Monitors with a Wisdom SCS subwoofer, driven by Audio Research tube amp and preamp.  I am considering a move to a floor standing speaker.  The Wilson Sophia 2 and the Sonus Faber Cremona M or Sonus Faber Olympica III all caught my eyes.

As it is, I am getting very good bass with the Wisdom SCS sub, and great sound from the Rockports.  What will a move to a similarly classed floor standing model over the monitors and sub give me?  I wonder at the ability of the monitors & sub compared to a singularly designed floor standing speaker.

My room is not dedicated, and the living room where the system is opens to the left to a dining area, and there is an open foyer behind the listening position.  The listening area itself affords about 9.5 feet between the speakers, and an equilateral triangle to the listening position.  The speakers are about 4 feet off the back wall.  The left speaker has the open dining room to the left.  The right speaker has about 3 feet to the right side wall.

My Rockports are relatively insensitive at 85db, so a move to an 89db or 90db speaker would be a welcomed one.

Do you think a floor standing speaker on this level (Sophia 2 / Cremona M / Olympica III) will be a dramatic improvement over what I have?

The details of my system can be seen here: https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/5421

Thanks!
- Mark
marktomaras
rcprince
3,078 posts
 

While normally I'd agree with John on the descriptions of Wilson speakers as revealing, I don't believe that is as true with the Sophias that I have heard.  They are much more forgiving of upstream components than the usual Wilson speakers (especially the Watt Puppy 7s you are going to hear). 

Quite frankly, you can't go wrong with either of your choices, but I think you will lose a bit of the lowest bass you have in your current setup, since they don't have the bass extension of your subwoofer.  However, an advantage of the floorstanders will probably be better integration of the bass they do put out, as you don't have to dial in a subwoofer to the proper crossover frequency, phase, etc.  Listening to them both will probably let you know which speaker you prefer, but keep in mind that (1) the WP 7 you will listen to is a good deal more revealing and analytical than the Sophias and (2) it is likely that the SF speakers will not be optimally set up (I've never been a fan of the chain stores and their listening rooms).  Both work very well with the ARC amplification you have.  Good luck!

mapman's avatar
mapman
22,543 posts
 
I don't think any speakers mentioned (Rockport, Wilson SF) are inherently designed for best performance with a tube amp.  Using a powered sub currently to offload work from the main amp and speakers is a good approach to address that on paper if done well.

If you move to floor standers with no subs, just make sure the speakers are a good fit to the room and the amp is capable of driving the speakers to the max.  With a tube amp that usually means higher efficiency and an easy load to drive as determined by independent measurements if possible, like those published by Stereophile for example.   Lots of users reporting success with their speakers and comparable tube amps is also good to know.   Most speaker makers will say their stuff is fine with tube amps so as not to loose potential customers and may well be but fine versus optimal is a big difference.
marktomaras OP
544 posts
 
RCPrince,

Indeed you are right about the setup in the Best Buy store.  I listened to the Sonus Faber Olympica III there today.  The room has a different system on each wall and too many speakers in the room overall.  But I have seen worse.  I had a little time gap between errands and meetings so I went in for a listen.  They sound good, but I would like a more critical listen with more time.  They are driving the speakers with a 400 watt solid state McIintosh amp.  Clearly this is nothing like my amp.  Is that going to throw me off quite a bit?  They do have a MC275 in the store, though it may be challenging to get them to hook it up to the speakers for some reason...
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Having participated in a big Rockport room at CES once upon a time and having visited Rockport rooms other years, I can report they showed with tube electronics both times.  Now I don't know whether the Rockport dude is sweet on tubes but if he is he's got good reason to be IMHO.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,543 posts
 
I think I saw Rockport running tube amps at CAF a few years back as well, but they were very big, very esoteric and very expensive. I’m sure most anything would have sounded very good with those amps. The system seemed to perform very well by audiophile standards (big sound, uber detail) but not quite my cup of tea soundwise, a bit analytic sounding  . Pllus the speakers themselves were quite large floorstanders so quite possible a few tube watts went a good way there. Smaller monitors with smaller drivers and extended bass tend to not be very efficient or easy to drive and usually do best with high current SS. Of course YMMV.  You never know for sure what might float one's boat.
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