Are Wilson Sophia 2's lean in the midbass?

Tusa,

What models of those Pass lines have you tried - or specifically how many watts?

I'm wondering if I should try different amps (currently using Theta Citadel 1.5's).

Madfloyd - within my budget and for my listening room - I tried the PASS XA60.5 mono-blocks and X250.5 stereo amp. both sounded great through the Sophias - the XA60.5 has an estimated 120 Class A watts into 4-ohms, and the X250.5 has an estimated 30 Class A watts into 4-ohms/500 Class AB watts into 4-ohms. I went with the X250.5 for the extra power - though it stays in "Class A" for most of my listening (the meter is usually steady). The Sophia is a fairly easy Speaker to drive - to realistic sound levels - in an average size listening room, so I didn't find it necessary to go any further up the PASS line.

Madfloyd,
I upgraded my XA160 to the new XA100.5. They have much better control of the bass on my Eggleston Rosa (87dB,4ohm min) and drive them to satisfactory levels in my smallish room (200watts at 4ohms). You may want to read a review on the Pass website by Dr. Peter Poltun comparing the XA.5 to the XA. The Vienna Archives uses Pass and Wilson WP8. The XA.5 are truely special, but I'm biased.

Madfloyd,

Don't bother changing your excellent amps, I used Citadels on my WP7's and Maxx2, and they are not lean, I did however find my older MIT cables output more low bass and sacrificed some of the upper mid bass (but that was 8 years ago and I'm sure MIT has resolved that), and now I run transparent. Switching to Pass amps is not the answer, as this really is a setup issue.

Sophia's are not mid bass lean and it sounds like your speakers are puttting your listening position into a bass null zone. Look at your wilson manual or google "Wilson WASP" setup and use painters tape to mark where your dealer setup your speakers so you can return it there if you don't like it and then start voicing within the zone (which will be closer to the wall).

If you are having imaging and soundstaging issues then you have exceed the equation for setup of 1.1~1.2 times the distance between the tweeters is where your listening position is. When you are sitting in the correct location you should be able to barely see the inside rear corner of the Sophia's as they should be toed pretty directly at the listening position. This minimizes the 1st order reflection points.

Your Realtraps will tighten up the bass so you can try removing them but they will get rid of the boom.

Have you spiked your Wilsons yet? If you haven't the soundstage/detail will be soft as will the bass.

If that position doesn't work, try moving the speakers in the zone you marked out during the process so that you can move your listening seat either forward or back and hopefully out of the bass Null.

Bottom line is you need to play around with them and put some time in evaluating the response until your happy! The Wilsons should be about 10 to 12 ft apart and need not be aimed completely at your head. As you rotate them out you will open up the soundstage and increase dynamics...do so until you maximize these aspects and still have solid imaging and centerfill. Overall your soundstage will expand in all dimensions and low level dynamics will bloom more easily. Soffit mounting IS used for the Pro market ala engineers, musicians, studios etc... Pro sound is vastly different from the typical listening experience us audiophiles require or expect. Pro sound is more direct and in your face for purposes of evaluating a mix hwile free standing speakers maximize dimensionality, ambient and spatial cues along with proper scale and imaging. Two dimensional vs 3 dimensional really.