Revel Salon 2 with Pass Labs amps

You never mentioned your room size, but if it's on the large side, say in the range of 400 sq-ft, 4000 cu-ft or larger, the Salon is going to work better than the Studio. In my auditions I always liked the Salon 2 better, and the difference was mostly in the upper midrange to highs. The Salon 2 handled loudness significantly better. If you listen at only polite levels you might never notice the difference.

The Wilson thing is a matter of preference, and only your ears can know for sure. I don't care for the Wilson sound myself, which emphasizes bass and highs a bit, but some people like that. It's usually the same people that like B&W, so it seems to me.

The Legacy Whisper, now that's a case of where you had better listen. The combination of dipole bass and monopole mid-high is unusual, to say the least. I haven't heard the XD. Maybe Duddleston finally got the Whisper right. The older ones weren't for me.

Sorry, I must have misconstrued this post:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1325125968&openusid&zzTobb&4&5#Tobb

Duddleston has been getting right for several years now.
First with the Focus SEs, then the Whisper XD , then the Signature and now the Aeris.
From the Aeris to the Helix they remove the room from the equation period!
Looking at the specs at first glance the Salon 2s might be close to the Focus SE but certainly not in the same league as the Whisper or Aeris.
When you buy the Whispers they fly their tech guy in to tune them.
Not much to get wrong.
I agree about the Wilson/B&W comparison too clinical for me.
Plus B&W is 70% hype 30% product.
If you haven't heard the XDs you owe it to yourself.
Just listening to them now with Big Sam's Funky Nation its like a live performance.

I did hear both the Legacy Focus SE and Whispers when auditioning speakers last year (and ended up with Salon 2s). I actually preferred the Focus SE to the Whispers, which I thought was surprisingly bland and overly polite.

When compared to the Salon 2s I found the following: the Whispers are similar in that you can get away with less than ideal room placement - I moved the ones I auditioned around to several spots and they didn't lose much or get the room too involved when put in tight spots. The Salon 2s however are significantly more transparent, create a wider and deeper soundstage, and have better driver integration. They also provide the low end weight the Whispers don't, and are faster and more dynamic.

I'm sure some might prefer the more "polite" sound of the Whispers, but regardless of personal preference, the claim that Salon 2s aren't in the same league is utterly laughable fanboy talk.

Now, the Focus SE: I liked them quite a bit more than the Whispers and actually thought them a solid bargain for the price (I also listened to Paradigm S3s in that price range and liked the Focus SEs much more). The drivers were reasonably well integrated and they had the low end weight the Whispers oddly lacked. But the big problem with them was that they had poor treble dispersion and a tiny sweet spot. Once I stood up from the listening chair, I lost at least 5 db from the top end. Wasn't gonna work for me, as my system is in a 28X16 room that doubles as my office and I don't like to be tied to my chair all day long. Too bad, as it crimped an otherwise very good speaker. Maybe Duddleston can research ways to improve on that.

Now to the OP's second question. I have to echo Irvrobinson's thoughts that the Salon 2 is a noticeably better speaker than the Studio 2 and that it will be a much better match to a large room.

As for Wilson Sashas, I actually like their sound although as noted they do not feature ruler-straight frequency response and are not the last word in neutrality. They also have a smaller sweet spot than the Salon 2s. I thought they'd be too fatiguing up top to work in my sunroom, but in a well-treated man cave I'd think they have something to offer. I frankly thought the Sophias were well behind them in terms of bass slam and dynamics and dismissed them pretty quickly, but there are others who are very happy with them.