This is an evasive answer, at least a little, but a few years back at a local dealer I heard a pair of Wilson Alexandria V2s set up in their flagship room. I had previously heard in another room some Sophia V2s to great effect being driven by VTL electronics and a good analog front end. The Alexandrias didn't sound bad, per se, but I was highly disappointed to hear the same small soundstage with mini images and that lean, hyper-detailed sound I hear so often. In fact, they sounded almost exactly like Watt Puppies. The surface loudness was all wrong, i.e. pianos sounded like pinpoints as did trumpets, voices, or cymbals. Initially I thought it was due to a lean-sounding solid state amp, but the amps were VTL Sigfried tube monoblocks and the analog front end was that overbuilt acrylic turntable with the linear tracking tonearm and the massive pendulum, forgot the name. Anyway, there was no apparent reason for this type of disappointing sound, especially from a $150K pair of speakers, especially being fronted by at least $200K of turntable and electronics.
