Does Wilson Sophia Sound good at low volumes?

Anything Spica will sound good at low volumes, but will not get loud. Audio Physic Virgo II and Step (late 90s models)will sound good at low and high volumes, as will Sonics by Joachim Gerhard Allegras.

As I recall, the Fletcher-Munson curve mapped the sensitivity of the human ear, frequency on the horizontal axis and volume on the vertical. As volume decreases, the ear is less sensitive to the low and high end of frequency plot as volume decreases. The "loudness" circuit on some receivers is designed to compensate for this decreased sensitivity at low volumes, increasing the low bass and high treble. For a time, Yamaha even made some receivers with a "loudness" control that was a rotary knob. The idea was you would turn the volume up as loud as you were likely to listen, and then decrease the volume of sound by turning down the "loudness" control...which changed the equalization to increase the low bass and high treble roughly along the Fletcher-Munson lines as the control was turned.

The performance of a loudspeaker at low volumes has very little to do with the associated amplification, except for the amplifier distortion and noise levels. The Fletcher-Munson loudness curves are far more important. The speaker drivers may or may not produce much sound at low volume, depending on efficiency, moving mass, surround stiffness, etc. For example, an acoustic suspension mounted conventional cone woofer with a rubber surround may be very sluggish at low volume. These factors help explain why compression drivers, field coils, electrostats, plasma drivers, etc. perform more linearly at different volume levels and give much more detail at low levels.

Newton,

The decline in LF hearing sensitivity as level is reduced is usually portrayed by a set of hearing sensitivity curves published by Fletcher and Munson, of Bell Labs IIRC. Preamps and receivers with a knob or switch labeled "loudness" usually try to implement an inverse of these (or newer) curves. I suppose it's conceivable that the distortion of a tube amp could to some extent give a greater sense of fullness to which Rhljazz alludes, but I wouldn't imagine that would match the loss in sensitivity as level is reduced.

db

Ever read the white paper on the B&W design principals? They are overdamped, extremely inefficient and engineered for excessive headroom aka loudness. In other words they are meant to play loudly with alot of power and not compress. The irony is that they sound dead and compressed under average to below average listening levels. Live music has energy at any volume level, not just ear slitting levels. I owned a few pair over the years and liked some aspects of their sound but eventualy heard speakers that delivered a more realistic portrayel of music being played in front of me. I recently sold my Sophias but they definately have more life a the lower end of the volume range. Preamp sensitivity and voume range will also play a huge difference in your perception of "aliveness" at any level.