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Wilson Sophia 2

Hi all,

Has anyone purchased the new Sophia 2? If so what are your thoughts about the speaker? Have the changes made produced a nicer speaker than the original Sophia.

I am in the market to purchase a new set of speakers and have always been interested in Wilson. I hope to potentially build a Wilson/Spectral combination or Verity Audio/Spectral combo. I listened to the original Sophia's a long time ago as well as the Verity's but cannot remember the differeneces. Before I go audition I was curious what people on the forum felt regarding the new Sophia 2.

I listen to experimental electronic, world, rock/alternative and my wife listens to mainly female vocal orientated music. Our room is large 17x32' so I think the Wilson would be great...not sure about the Verity Audio Fidelio though.

Anyhow please let me know if anyone has any experience with the new Sophia 2's. Thanks!
redspectral
redspectral OP
26 posts
 
Hi Av,

Sorry to hear about your experience. I'm glad to hear you are enjoying them. I am pretty new to the Wilson brand. I have been a B&W guy for the last 10 years and wanted a change. I actually had the B&W 802D's for a short time...liked them but felt they needed alot more power than I had in my system for them to sound great. I think there great speakers but maybe not for me at the moment. I have heard that the Sophia does not require an enormous amount of power to make them sing. I hope that's the case when I audition them. As I had mentioned before in my thread my potential goal if I go the Wilson route is to match them with a Spectral DMA-100S. I have heard Spectral and Wilson are a good match. Anyhow I will audition them fairly soon.

Can you confirm the current pricing for the Sophia 2? Someone on the thread mentioned 14k? Is this correct?
avguygeorge
2,300 posts
 
Ok__This is all based on what I have read in reviews__ What they say is the Kevlar is stiffer and thus B&W's requires more power, which makes sense to me. (This is a paraphrase re.the 802 and the 801;says so in both reviews)
I had bought my dealer's demo Sophia. I only owned them for maybe 12 weeks. I got to trade them back for 1800. When they delivered my Series 2's they picked up my originals which was a pretty sweet deal 4me. I would guess at just under 15k would be near the price.
rgs92
974 posts
 
How are the Sophias on vocals?
My old Watt Puppy 6s (Pass X350 amp, Accuphase DP75V and Meridian 508.24 cd players) often had vocals that were so astringent and etched they were unlistenable. Listening to the Beatles was impossible. Most classical was pretty good though, except for some piano recordings that sounded annoyingly "electric." ('loved that tight bass + deep soundstage, though.) Is this part of the Wilson sound, or have things improved in the intervening years?
avguygeorge
2,300 posts
 
On these boards we have all read what might be construed as "hate-mail" t'ward many mfr's,ranging from Krell/B&W/and certainly Wilson,included. Everybody has their favorite front end,cables and the like. Then we have listner's preferences_____ALL part of the hobby.I don't have your ears/ you don't have mine. Vocals that are etched ?____That I don't hear from ones or twos. I think tone of instrument (all instruments) and vocals go hand in hand.I have no loyalty to Wilson beyond my speakers.I would be unhappy as would just about all of us with etched vocals.---Jeez,get you some speakers--hold the "etched"--
rgs92
974 posts
 
Sorry, I did not mean to sound so negative or grouchy. I actually think that Wilsons (Watt Puppies, at least, I have not heard Sophias) have a wonderful sense of space and a bass that is perfectly integrated and natural, almost a bass to die for; that is why I bought them 6 years ago. My WPs probably deserved better cabling and more compatible upstream equipment, and I truthfully regretted letting them go without trying harder.

I was just making an specific inquiry on how the Sophias handle voices, as I feel some otherwise fine speakers somehow, to my ears, get them wrong. I had another post elsewhere noting that Apogees excelled on vocals, so that subject was on my mind. Just my 2-cents opinion from many years of listening. Thanks for writing about the Sophias.
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