Wilson Sophia 1 vs vandersteen 2ce

Given the Sophia 1 is an older model I'm assuming you are looking at used ones.  The Wilsons are nice speakers, I heard them at a show a few years back and liked them.  On the other hand, I've had Vandersteen 2Ci, 3A Signature and now 5's.  The 2Ci to 3A was a moderate jump, but the 3A to 5 was a big jump.  I really like the 5's.  So I would give consideration to a used pair of original model 5 which should be comparable in price (about $5k) and performance to the Sophia 1.  I really like the adjustable built-in subwoofer of the 5.  It can be tuned to your room.  The trouble might be finding a pair, not too many have come up in the last couple of years.

Wilsons are polarizing and you certainly wont get any consensus opinion here.  While they may be better, they will also highlight any issues or deficiencies and consequently put you on the upgrade merry-go-round hence Jafant's suggestion above.

I have the Sophia 1s in my system and have had them for 7 years now, everything else has changed several times from really good solid state amps, CJ 2250A, Pass XA30.5 to several different tube amps, the Canary CA306 triode, VTL ST85, Audio Research 100 amp and settled on the VTL MB125s 6 years ago and the Sophias sounded great with all of them but really was surprised how good they sounded with a 27 year old B&K ST140 when I sent my VTLs in to be reworked it was really an eye opening experience. I also had a pair of Sophia 2s but liked the ones better, might be in the minority on that though. Always used a good tube preamp with them but have seen the light with the Lamm LL2.1 paired with an Allnic H1500 SE II phono. I would say that the Sophias really sound like music and you just forget about them and listen to music and that is what it is about. 

Well, I think the Wilsons will be a touch more clear and revealing than the Vandersteens, but not as much as with other Wilson speakers, as the Sophia 1s were, IMHO, Wilson's most forgiving speaker--they even sounded good with a decent receiver driving them, so Tooblue's observation about the B&K is not that surprising to me.  I think your electronics will sound fine with them, they are excellent.  I do like Pmotz's idea of possibly listening to a pair of Vandersteen 5s as well, given that you like the Vandersteen sound.  I agree that they would be on a similar level with the Sophias in terms of sound quality.  Not easy to find, though.

You folks are all absolute champs. I can't thank you enough for your time and opinions!