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Wilson Watt Puppy 7 or Sophia 2 for my room and gear?

Hello, I am considering the purchase of either the Wilson Watt Puppy 7 or Sophia 2.  The have similar values on the 2nd hand market.  Arguments can be made for both - The Sophia 2 is newer, more attractive, more updated, perhaps easier to drive and more forgiving?  The Watt Puppy 7 is the best of the legendary Watt Puppy series.  I see that the WP7 is more sensitive than the Sophia 2, but the Sophia has been called easier to drive.

I am using an Audio Research VT100 mkII 100 watt tube amp with an Audio Research LS25 tube preamp.  The rest of my gear can be seen here:  https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/5421

My room is an inverted L shape.  I made a schematic that shows the shape, dimensions, and details here:  http://www.marktomaras.com/3106878-audio#1
The blue squares in the schematic are the current Rockport Monitors (to scale & also currently for sale)

The distance between the Rockport tweeters is about 9.7 feet and the distance from the tweeter to my listening position is about 10.5 feet.  There is a bit of room for movement in the speaker placement as can be seen in the schematic, but not a huge amount.
 
My question is, with my room, shaped as it is, real world items such as windows, and my audio equipment other than speakers (which will not be changed any time soon), which Wilson is going to perform better?


marktomaras

Showing 1 response by gpgr4blu

gpgr4blu
1,077 posts
 
I have had Sophias and Watt Puppy 7s, both with 100 wpc of tube power. There was no contest. There was nothing that Sophias did better than the 7s. The only advantage of the Sophias was that they played better with much less wattage (eg 15wpc which I tried on both for kicks). The 7s were more coherent, threw a bigger, deeper soundstage and were more transparent. They also displayed a greater bandwidth with a more defined low end.
Although I did not have the Sophia 2s in my system, I heard them on many occasions. They were slightly better than the original Sophia, but only by degrees. The 7s are a different speaker altogether. One cannot mistake a Sophia from a wattpuppy.
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