Wilson Sophia 1,2, or 3?


I have long been a fan of the Wilson's and recently heard a new pair of Sophia 3 at a dealer. I loved the sound, but the price of a new pair is beyond my budget. As I have bought most of my audio equipment on Audiogon, I have always had good results. Can anyone please tell me the differences between the 1,2, and 3? We would assume that the newer one is better and perhaps more refined, but would a Series 1 at 1/3 the price of a new one be close and good place to start for someone who has never owned a pair of Wilson?
Associated equipment is all ARC, VT100MKII amp, LS26 pre, CD3MKII
Shunyata and Transparent Cables
Thank you
vdosc
i own the sophia 1s and think that i like their basic sound and for the first time think i have a speaker that is right for my room. i also dream about better wilsons perhaps the 2's or 3's if my ship comes in. I have concentrated on tweaking my gear by doing some tube rolling and chryoed my hovland 2 phono cable, any improvements you make upstream will be heard. i think the 1s will go down in price less then 2s or 3s when the next generation comes out. but if you get the 1s sell them and get some 2s you will have more shipping expenses.
Anyone know the new midbase on the Wilson Sophia 3's?
I know the Sophia 2's used the Scanspeak revelator midbase.
I would check out a used pair of Revel Studio 2 also. I feel they are margianlly better speakers than the Sophia 3 and they sell for $8000 on here (save 3k and get better gear...)

By better it is, more coherent with better highs, with more natural timbre (IMO). Sound stage also seemed deeper and more stable.
I owned the original Sophias for a brief time. They were pretty good, but nothing special to these ears. Piega P10s and GMA C HDs beat them handily.

Shakey