Upgrading from Wilson Sophia 2's?

before you go off on another pair of speakers, and I'm not a big fan of Wilson from what I've heard of them in local showrooms, I'd say try this one thing...

CAll the cable co and ask for a pair of Nirvana SX Ltd, and a pair of Nirvana SL ICs. Put the SX onto the ??? source, and the SL onto the preamp to amp.

Things should then be mo betta.

That move will cost $50 or so to find out... and that beats $10K or so, easy.

Wilson's have a bit more life in them than the Revels, but I've found both less than musically satisfying without tubes throughout... but that's just me

you could try all SX Ltd throughout too, even in speaker cables. The ambient retreval is fascinating. I'd bet they'll fix your woes... and save ya some dough in the process!

it is inexcusable to have speakers costing over 10 grand (or for that matter ONE grand) that sound this disappointing. the sophias are good transducers, no question, but raising this many issues in (what sounds like) a decent room with very good components upstream just doesn't add up. i'll bet a pair of eggleston andra's (or similar speakers like sonus fabers or von schweikerts) would sound very natural and unforced, while giving up very little in resolution. and you can get a used pair for a song...

it may be worth a call or email to wilson. you may find a simple solution such as changing the spike configuration. i know with the wp, spikes and spacers are tools that can produce some very dramatic changes. wilson support has been very responsive and helpful in my experience, particularly jerron.

some interesting perceptions in this thread. personally, i see the sophia as a speaker that is extremely versatile and pleasant. to my ears, laid back and easy to listen to. i attended a gathering with dave and daryl wilson a couple of months ago and they set up sophia2's with a small krell integrated and a krell dvd standard. the cables were middle to low in the mit line, the room was not treated and over all bad. they sounded amazing. i wanted to go home and sell all my big dollar stuff and get an integrated/sophia pair.

people hate on wilson for many reasons unrelated to the sound...

try putting some walker HDLs on the watt binding posts. will reduce the aggressiveness of the highs. might be a quick & cheap solution

If you change to a more forgiving speaker like a Verity, or a Sonus Faber, you will be giving up on the excellent Wilson clarity and dynamics.

Your issues are most certainly room and setup related. It sounds like you have done some treatments, which is a good start, but the next step is to take a more objective approach to acoustics. That low ceiling isn't working for you.

If it were me, I would look into hiring an acoustic consultant who can take full measurements of the room acoustics issues, and work with you to address the acoustic shortcomings.

If you change speakers, you will just have a different set of problems.