Amplifier advice for Wilson Sophia speakers

please go to the montana audio site and check out there amps before you make any decision. they will give you a tube sound with solid state slam and detail. just go look and find a place to listen you will be impressed i promise

I use CAT SL2 Ultimate MKII/JL2 Signature amp.

Better than ss--like Krell (which I owned before the CAT gear.)

Randy

If they are Sophia 1, the best sound I have heard from those speakers was with a McIntosh MC352 and C200 preamp. Absolutely awesome.

Arthur

There have been a number of posts on driving Sophias, so you may want to do a search or look at the amp/preamp section on this subject. I had a pair of Sophias, now Watt Puppy 7's, and drove them with an ARC VT100 Mark III, which I believe Wilson also uses to voice the speakers. Big push-pull tube amps are a great match with Sophias, which are easier to drive than the WP. I also heard the VTL ST150 driving Sophias at my dealer and the soundstaging, like that of the ARC amp, was fantastic. I could hear the bass drum coming from another space than the bass guitar, and instrumental images were focused well. Tonality was great with tube amps I tried, which also included the Conrad-Johnson Premier 140. The only thing you will give up using tube amps is the last word in bass and dynamics, definitely a Wilson forte, but the problem with most SS amps is lack of soundstage size. This effect is less with the Sophias than with WP's, but the only SS amp with soundstage size approaching that of tubes is Essence amps which are extremely difficult to find. I haven't tried the Pass amp, but reportedly they are good with the Sophias. I did try a BAT VK500 and VK600 and wasn't impressed with spatial detail; in fact, it was a real shortcoming. Maybe the SE version is better but I would look elsewhere based on my experiences with BAT SS gear.

Tarasando,
What are you talking about, I don't see any posts about Krell going out of business. Where are they?