Wilson Watt/Puppy 6 or 7 versus Sophia

I purchased a pair of 7's earlier this year and absolutely love them. I think the Sophia's and the 7's share the same sound signature with the 7's being a bit more defined with deeper bass extension. The 6's are great speakers as well but not as sweet on the top end. Depending on your electronic's, a used pair of 6's are a real bargain right now. A pair of Sohpia's mated with a Wilson Watch Dog sub would be stellar combo.

I think the Sophias are superior to the 6s in terms of driver integration, midrange, and top end. While the 6s may be more extended, the tweeter is hot, and the sophia integrates so much better. You give up a bit of bass, but the midrange is what separates these too imho.

I have heard the 7s on spectral equipment, but wish to hear the 7s on BAT equipment to give them a fairer shot. Spectral, while ultra clean and transparent, is far from musical imho, and made the 7s sound very hifi. From what I hear, the 7s are definitely a step up from the Sophias, but not necessarily worth twice the price.

I cam very close to buying Sophias, but ended up with Avantgarde Solos which costwise saved me a bunch of money and space. If I was willing to spend more dough, most likely the Sophias in cherry red or ferrari blue would grace my apartment.

Thanks guy, this is most helpful. As far as system matching is concerned, can anyone comment on synergy with the following components? It sounds like I should be careful about the hot upper midrange of the W/P 6, even though it is a much better value in the used market.

Merdian 508.24 CD player, ARC SP-11 MK2 preamp, Modified McIntosh MC240 amp (55WPC) or Mark Levinson 20.6 mono amps, top NBS cables. Thanks again for your very useful and focused responses.

I have owned the Sophias and now own the 7's/WATCHDog combination. I agree with Keithr regarding the 6 vs 7 comparison, but would add that the 6's upper bass was thrust forward in comparison to the 7's and the soundstage of the model 6 was much more central and less wide or layered.

In the context of my system, the 7's were demonstrably better than the Sophias in the realm of scale, soundstaging, micro dynamics, harmonic content and pitch differentiation. The improvement in these areas afforded by the 7's over the Sophias and 6's are not subtle, and were easily worth the extra money--to me.

And yeah, Ferrari Blue sounds cool....

Happy listening!

That sounds like a nice relaxed mix of components, I have always found Levinson rather dry and do not think it would be a good mix, then again I feel the same way about Classe. Great CD Player (my friend has one, try to get an actual 508.24 not an upgrade.. if you have drawer problems the US service center is excellent and will resolve the problem).

Ferrari Blue! I ordered mine in Ferrari Fly Yellow.. can't wait to get them..