What Wilson to Buy?

Edgrady
Had the pleasure of listening to the Canadian debut of the new Wilson Sophia III here in Vancouver.
Very impressive for a speaker of it's size.
Dynamic at all listening levels, great portrayal of the sound
stage, and vocals that were very honest.
The fact that a mere 20 watts of either solid state or tube will drive this new Wilson is a real bonus.
Get the Sophia III.

Egrady, I've owned WP 6, WP 8 and now Maxx 3. I've heaard the 5.1's. I think sticking with the Wilson line up is critical given your objectives.

WP 8's used are great deal. I haven't heard the Sophia 3's yet, but have heard the wp8-sahsa and maxx 2-3 in detail so I can imagegine the gains on the sophia 3's.

One consideration here is dealer setup. If you have a good-great dealer, this makes buying new important. My dealer in Austin, TX makes all the diff in the world on setup.

The WP 8 has much more ease and relaxation vs your 5.1, but keeping all the resolution, dynamics, slam. It's a pretty big deal.

Your amplification might also decide which to go with, the Sohpia likely being a little more easy to drive. In the end, you won't go wrong here, I do think going to a WP8 is a major upgrade for you...it was for me from the 6.

Best of luck !

A quick point of view. I've owned and loved 63's and have WP 7's. Both speakers sound different with tubes or ss. The 8's are "more" than the 7's of what you discribe looking for BUT the 7's with tubes are more "musical" than the 8's on ss (in general). I have used the 7's with a ML 23.5 and they sound fine. I use the 7's with Sonic Frontiers Power 2 and the result is fare more involving and for lack of a better word, "musical". This is a consistent opinion of the vast majority who have listened to my system. The tubes also give you the option of different power tubes ie 6550 vs KT88 or even the new supertube KT120. You can taylor the midrange sound to your preference. The WP's are not easy speakers to drive but good tube amps do make them come alive and avoid most of the clinical Wilson sound. The newer the Wilson, the less clinical the sound. The new Sasha's are a world away from earlier WP's. They would be the speaker that would most probably finally move me past missing what the 63's on tubes did best. Fortunately, I'm retired and no longer can afford to chase the fantasy or I'd be hard pressed to avoid the Sasha's. Only heard the Sophia's newest briefly but they even sounded wonderful on ss.

While there are many and vocal detractors to the old Wilson sound, most of us satisfied owners would qualify for a Wilson 12 Step group.

TRY TUBES before you decide.

Denny

Isn't that Focal Titanium tweeter the source of the edginess that I also found to be my old Watt Puppy 6's downfall?
(I actually loved the speakers except for that edgy, razzy, scratchy sound on strings and especially vocals.) I always wondered why Wilson never tried another tweeter type all these years and versions later. Really love that Wilson transparent bass...
I heard this scratchiness on WP8s at a show a year or 2 ago, so I know it's not just my system.

My 5.1's have been freshly updated (all new parts) and are currently hooked up to an all tube set-up consisting of an AMR CD-Player and the incredibly inexpensive Vista Audio i34. I gotta say, this combo on the 5.1's is killer, and showcases this speaker in a whole new light. Originally I was thinking about ditching them in favor of something else, now? Psh, forget it. :D

So all I can say is: Try tubes. Good ones. You may find that the Wilson's have had what you were looking for all along.