i auditioned the sophia 2's at length before moving up to the w/p 8. the sophia 2s have superb coherence, staging, and excellent transparency overall, especially at low listening volume levels. set up, as mentioned , is critical, as is amp matching. if you choose an amp that is not nimble, the speakers will sound sluggish, but if you choose an amp that is edgy or very aggressive, such as older krell, you may have to go for all tubes upstream. the arc ref amps mentioned previously are wonderful [but make sure you have an excellently resolving pre]. i experienced superb overall liquidity and a great lower end command with pass labs x350.5. i felt it gave much greater clarity and wt than the arc ref 110. i did not hear the speakers with the ref 210. if you go with a s/s amp, you may want to consider a tube preamp. also, do not slight investigation of speaker cables. consider them a component in the speaker+cable+amp triumverate. cheers.
