Does the wilson sophia 1 sound good only with perf

I agree with what's stated above. Setup is key with these speakers. They can sound so so, or pretty darn good with only small adjustments. Even though I liked them, in the end I found the midrange lacking detail. That was the achilles heel for me. I replced them with GMA Continuum 3 HDs.

Shakey

Agree with Goatwuss and Jdolin. Who set them up? Where are they, dedicated room or...........? Could you describe your room, rack placement and speaker placement #'s.

I owned Sophia 1's for two years and sold them to move within the Wilson line.

I am having someone set them up correctly.

Badly recorded music sounds bad on any speaker. Fact of life, Grasshopper.

A lot of times people tend to blame their setup's tendency to leanness, thinness and soundstage smearing to bad recording.
I was there when I had my Krells and Levinsons and some Audio Research (notably VT200).
So are all DG recordings from 1975 to 1990 bad?
They do sound horrible on systems with a false sense of detail and resolution such as the early 90s krells.
But play the same stuff in a well matched system of competent gear and you might find the sonics enjoyable again.
I am not talking about flea powered single ended amps with horns or OTLs into ESLs.
With good amps the Sophia 1s can be tamed to not make the not so smooth recordings sound terrible.