What about 845 tubes on Wilson Sophia 3...?

push/pull 845 should work fine with them. i know the originals were spec'd at 30 watts or something like that. the only Wilson that is easier to drive is ironically the X2

I assume you meant the Cary 805ae which uses the 845 (and 211) tube.

I use that Cary on my Magnepan 3.6's from time to time (rotate it with Pass ss). The Maggies have a very flat impedance graph which tubes like. Even though the Wilsons might be more efficient they could actually be a worse load for tube amps and especially single ended ones. To best advise, the "minimum" impedance and phase angles come into play.

If your Wilsons don't have any severe impedance dips and you don't play your music very loud, I think you will like pairing.

wilson impedance goes bellow 4 ohms which will result terrible distortion in these regions of the frequency/impedance plot. will this distortion sound great to ears, i don't know, but will definitely be not accurate recording material playback. any professional acoustic or recording engineer would be terrified by this decision. moreover, the unused power to the load will return back as a heat causing early tube failures.
it's one of the audiophile toys to try to drive giant speakers with small tube amp or set and try to convince that little set can drive anything.

My wilsons have 4 ohms of impedance and does go deep on 3,1 ohms minimum..I assume they got flat response but still have feeling that they goes well on solid state radher than tubes (but many users declared as tubes for best matches). Carry 845 ae is 50 watts with zero negative feedback and have 211 tubes together with 300b running in parallel mode, using 845 or (211) together with 300b is the unique and only design used. and this make 845ae very interesting.. I can use also 845 tube with them resulting less dynamic and some saying romantic sound. I am now running my wilson sophias 3 with krell 600c and have no problems and thinking that is a good match..but as an audiophile that never stops wondering I am curious to drive them with tubes, 211 or also OTL's..
My dealer have one pair of 845ae and offered me a good deal, when I listened those amps that he plugged on verity audio rienzi's (knowing that not more efficient than mines) had good soundstage but limited detail and sparkling..
Another my consideration would be nagra 845 tubes, having same power as carry's..
still need to know your experiences for wilson sophia 3 owners,
many thanks for your kind and valuable responses

Hi there,

Wilson has at least one pair of Nagra VPA 845 Class A P-P amps (50WPC) in their evaluation room, so an 845 amp would be a match made in heaven.

(Disclosure: was Nagra's US service eng. And we always had Wilson's at CES hooked to our VPA's. Wonderful synergy).