Wilson Audio Sophia III Question/Help


Dear friends,

I have recently found the chance to upgrade my speakers to a pair of Wilson Audio Sophia 3's. They are driven by a McIntosh MA8000 (300w p/ch SS amp). Although the details in music, huge dynamics and being able to hear more layers into music have been a stunning experience for me with the Sophias, I am a little troubled in a very basic area of stereo image reproduction.

First, some information on the setup: The speakers are 7 feet apart and the listening position is approx 9 feet. However, due to limited space the speakers have to sit less than a foot to the back and side walls (I have installed Vicoustic Flexi wall treatments on back and side of the speakers) The speakers are on spikes and currently toed in 15 degrees. (I have experimented with 0-25 degrees toeing in). I listen to mostly Rock and Jazz music.

I feel like the center image/presence/focus/impact is not strong enough in some recordings. It feels like the vocals are too laid back when there comes a loud orchestral/dynamic passage. It just feels like I need to pay more attention to understand/decode what the vocalist is saying... In vocal-oriented music, Jazz audiophile recordings, etc, there is no such problem, yet sometimes I still feel like the vocal is not pinpoint center but a little dispersed in between the speakers. The traditional solution would be to toe in the speakers more, but then Sophias on direct axis tend to draw attention to themselves, which make the sound coming from left and right more apparent, contradicting with my purpose of strengthening the center image. It just feels like the sound is diffused - perhaps too wide soundstage than I'm accustomed to... I don't think I have trouble with boomy bass which curtain the mids by the way. I am sure the room acoustics are in play here, yet I did not have a similar experience with the B&W 804 speakers I have used in the same place before, they have had strong center fill, pinpoint phantom image in the center with a decent soundstage. I feel like the Sophias are rendering much more information from music, they offer higher resolution and transparency yet I cannot get them to sing as they are supposed to - missing some of the very basic attributes in stereo. I knew that Wilsons are picky in room setup but I have been experimenting for days and don't have an alternative space to move my hi-fi.

I'll appreciate any comments and suggestions.
Thank you.
pseudognostic
It sounds like you really know what you are doing, but I still have to ask. Have you checked your speaker cables to make sure you haven't wired your speakers out of phase with each other? I'm sure you have, but its such an easy mistake to make, and if you do it sounds just like you are describing. Also, what's your source?
Thank you for your fast reply. Checking polarity was one of the first things that came to my mind too, unfortunately it was not the case. The speakers don't sound out of phase but still there is a similar feeling that the soundstage has impact on the sides and missing something in the very center. I wonder if it is related with the sound signature of Sophia (compared to the previous speakers I use such as the B&Ws) being more laid back in vocals - but it still feels like something's not right... Perhaps Sophia owners can comment on that... I use a Marantz CD player and Network Player through McIntosh's build in DAC and listen to vinyl through Rega RP3/AT440ML occasionally.
I had a very similar issue when I went from B&W to Thiel speakers. The vocals in the center image always seemed soft. 

In the end I never fixed it and came to the conclusion that it is just that the Thiels have a wider dispersion of the mids than B&W speakers (especially the smaller ones,803,804 etc) and that B&W speakers have an artifiacally focused midrange. But setup can help a bit. 

I could never put my finger on it until I had a demo with the Sophia 3, thiel 3.7 and B&W 802D all in the same room for an A/B/C demo. The Thiels had the worst case of this issue (diffused vocals) but the best lateral dispersion. The wilsons sat right in the middle of focus and dispersion and the B&W had a laser focused midrange. 

After a long demo I came to the conclusion that it is a combination of lateral dispersion and driver integration. The B&W sounded the most fake but also had the most 3D image maybe due to poor driver integration. The vocals stood forward, and highs stood out and the bass filled the room and left a very 3D image while being somehow unnatural. 

Also what I found that day is that the Sophia is pretty setup critical. Of the 3 speakers it was most effected by the seating height and speaker angel where the Thiels are least sensitive.

So on to solutions. Getting speakers wider and more toed in will help but it sounds like that is not possible for you. With wilsons one thing that could work is tilting them forward as much as possible to get the mids range/tweeter more pointed directly at you. Since the Sophia's head is not adjustable the seating distance window is a lot smaller than the other wilsons.

You could always try a taller/short seat too in order to get the sweet spot right if you limited in you speaker position. I thought the Sophia 3 sounded best with a 10'-ish triangle (every side 10') and tilted forward using a standard couch to sit on. 


 
A foot from side walls is a huge problem. You really need a minimum of 3 feet! The side wall reflections tend to make the sound collapse to the speakers giving you a weaker stereo central image. Move the speakers closer together. Nothing wrong with placing the speakers 4 feet apart and sitting 9 foot back - you will be surprised at how good this sounds and you won't lose stereo image at all - just a bit narrower and it should suddenly be rock solid vocals in the centre.

As others have pointed out, the B&W tend to beam in the mid range producing a rather unnatural sound field but with the advantage that they are much less affected by side walls.