Wilson Sophia 1,2, or 3?

Doug,

There is a DIY version of just about every brand on there.

The devil is in the details though.

James63

+1

The problem with the clones is that they never sound like the real speaker.

The midwoofer on both Sophia 3 and Sasha is basicly the same. AFAIK the main (only ?) difference is the shorter voicecoil on the Sasha driver, which gives it more sensivity.

It is difficoult to say that one is a simplified version of the other - they are just a bit different.

This is what the Wilson website states about the Sophia 3's midrange, "The proprietary Wilson midrange driver,which transformed the sound of Alexandria X2 Series 2, and was subsequently deployed in MAXX and Sasha now, in a simplified version, finds a home in Sophia."

I own the Sophia 2's with ARC LS27 & a Ref 150 , the sound is very good but I believe the Sophia 3's are an obvious step up from the 2's and a major step up from the ones . But , the Sophia 3 does not have the silk dome tweeter of the new Alexia or the existing XLF which I prefer to the other versions and I suspect , actually hope , that a Mk 4 version will come out with some flow on improvements from the Alexia . I have also found that the system can be quite cable dependent , I tried a pair of the new High Fidelity CT-1 interconnects between my sources and pre-amp ( both phono stage and cd player ) , and couldn't believe the difference it made to the sound of the Sophias. I think it boils down to either the 2's or 3's dependent the asking price/condition and also what colour you like , no use buying a colour you are lukewarm about just because the price is right , as you probably ( like me ) will be looking at them every day for a few years . I would be tempted to trade my 2's on a mk 4 in a year or so if a newer version becomes available .