There was recently another thread on this subject. I have had both Sophia I's and now have Watt Puppy 7's. The Sophia is an easier load than the WP, so it responds better to low-powered amps, especially tube amps. I didn't like what SET amps did with either as the bass and dynamics, the forte of Wilson speakers, were curtailed. I did like what higher-powered, push-pull tube amps like the Audio Research VT100 Mark III and Conrad-Johnson Premier 140 did for both. The soundstaging and dimensionality of instruments and voices were best with p-p tube amps, although the drawback was reduction of bass impact and dynamics. Big solid-state amps are the cure for this but I didn't like the flatter soundstage of SS amps, so I would listen to SS amps prior to purchasing them. I now have some Essence SS amps that are flat-out the best I have heard with the Wilsons, grabbing some dimensionality of tubes but far, far superior in other areas. I also heard Sophias at my Wilson dealer driven with a couple of different VTL amps (I think the ST150 and S-400) and I could hear the bass drum and bass guitar coming from different spots in the soundstage like on good SS amps, and the midrange was to die for. So maybe you could try these if you gravitate toward tubes.
