WILSON AUDIO.....BIG NAME, BIG PRICE........ARE THEY THAT GOOD?

Wilson makes Phenomenal  Speaker's. Big fan since the early 90's IMO probably one of the BEST. The WATT PUPPY's the WITT's and the Sophia all sound great with the start of the Watt Puppy V However they are not for the budget audiophile. You can get a great deal in the used market place. You need to inspect very well. The Majority of people have cared meticulously for these speakers. Be careful of the products that have been repaired, modified or upgraded by the non experienced DIY's 
The Sasha DAW sound incredible 15k - 28k price range.
If you have the cash give them a try. The Watt, Witts and the Sophia can be driven nicely with moderately priced electronics. They are that good.

mijostyn, I had Acoustat 2 plus 2's 20 years ago on a Krell stack. Amazing speakers.  I just had Acoustat model 3's and they finally gave out and the panels started to rattle. I miss the punch that dynamic speakers have but I don't think I would be happy 100 percent owning a dynamic speaker.  I had Tektons. don't let the naysayers fool you. They are decent loudspeakers. Thought about Moabs with the same drivers covering 300 hz to 20k hz with 6 db slopes would be seamless like a planar but with punch. I think the old Wilsons are out. It's between the Magnepan 3.7i and Tekton Moab. I can get them brand new compared to the 14 year old Wilsons at the same price. 

I don't think you'll be sorry purchasing Maggie 3.7 I've had them the past 2 years with a sub plenty of clarity, staging, dynamics a you are there fell with good recordings.
Good luck, happy listening!

Pretty hard to advise on buying speakers without you auditioning them, and if you can audition them, you won't need anyone's advice.

Having said that, I was never a huge fan of the Watt/Puppy in early iterations and haven't heard the 8s so can't help there, Have listened to Sophia 3 and liked them a lot. I personally have older larger Wilsons and would never give them up (I also have other very good and very different speakers in other systems).

With Wilson, you pay more, but you generally get quality stuff.  OTOH, you might want to add the Vandersteen 5A to your list....

I've listened to most of the W/P incarnations, and have lived with the Sophia 2's for about 10 years now. I love the Sophias. The W/P 8 is a very fine speaker IF you like the Wilson sound. They are more dynamic than the Sophias (although all Wilsons go LOUD if that's your thing), but also more critical of setup, and like all W/Ps (although less than any earlier incarnation) they have what sounds to me like a "hollowness" in the mids. Not a glaring issue, for sure, but I would say more tailored to jazz and classical reproduction. The Sasha doesn't seem to suffer the same hollowness to my ear, and neither does the Sophia. The Sophia is easier to set up and optimize and is less picky about room acoustics in general - it's just a lot more forgiving than W/Ps. I haven't listened to the 8's extensively, but I did choose the Sophias over the W/P 7s at the time. Money no object, I would trade my Sophias for Sasha 2s which to me have dynamics of W/Ps without the midrange issues. That said, I'm very happy with the Sophias, and will likely live with them for another 10 or 20 years - if I live that long. FWIW, I've heard Sophias described as the Wilson speaker for people who don't like Wilson speakers, and to my ears it has some truth to it.

Unless Wilson goes bankrupt, which appears very unlikely IMO, I wouldn't worry about service and parts. They are very good in that respect.