PDF - Absolute Sounds

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WWW.HIFINEWS.CO.UK
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Review:KenKessler
LabReoort:KeithHoward
et'stalk aboutsynergy.
And not meresystem
synergy:honestly,
when did you lastget it
sowrongthat the ampwouldn'tdrivethe
speakers?
No,I meanspeaker-to-room
synergy.
In the nineyearsI'vehadmy dedicatedlisteningroom,
no speaker
hasmatchedit so perfectlyandimmediately
asthe WilsonAudioSophiaSystem2.
Delicious
isthisirony,for no speakermanufacturer
I
canthinkof goesto suchlengthsto ensurethat users
havepositioned
theirspeakers
to the millimetreasdoes
Wilson.Admittedly,
the Sophias
filleda spacethat once
containeda WATT/Puppy
of almostidenticaldimensions,
but the Sophias
didn'tmerelyfeelrightat home:they
setup camplikethe world'smostguilt-free
squatters.
AI.I, OTAPIECE
ln Series
2 form,Sophiaremains
trueto its role:that
of a lesscomplicated,
lessexpensive
alternative
to the
iconicWATT/Puppy.
lt's onlyfractionallysmaller,so its
(hwd)form provides
1 100x306x483mm
no notable
spacesavings.
Rather,
its mainaesthetic
appealisthat
it'sa singlecabinet:smooth-sided
andall of a piece.For
many,then, it's prettierthan the WATT/Puppy.
What is
lostisthe meansto tilt the sectionhousingthe mid and
trebledriversindependently
of the bass.
Onthe otherhand,you'llsave€ 10k,enoughfor one
pre/power
luscious
ampcombo.lt's roughlythe price
of the MclntoshC2200/MC2102
usedfor the listening
sessions,
but less(!)thanthe Transparent
speaker
cables.
Alsousedwerethe MusicalFidelitykWDM25
CDplayer/DAC,
the SME30/2with Series
V arm and
KoetsuUrushicartridge,
AudioResearch
PH5phono
stage,andYterand Kimberinterconnects.
A truethree-way
system,
the Sophiausesa single
1Oinlong-throw
aluminium
woofer.lt is portedat the
back,througha machinedmetalaperturealmostwide
enoughto takeone'sfist.Theonlyotherdetailsat the
backarethe largebindingposts,anda smallerdamping
port on the upperpartof the speaker's
back.
Forthe midrange,
Wilsonhasfitteda 7in driver,
whiletrebleis handledbv a 1ininvertedtitaniumdome
.6$rrcol,ouR so [oNG tts IT Exlsts
Wilsonis boundby'form-follows-function'
dictum,but still hasto dealwith the 'wife
factor',likeall makersof free-standing
speakers.
lnsteadof compromisingon the
shape,Wilsondealswith lhis throughsuperb
construction
andfinish,madepalatable
by what maybe the bestpaintworkin the
business.
Andthe customercanchoose
anycolourfor whicha paintcanbe mixed.
Truestory:when DaveWilson'scar
sustained
somedamage,
the localdealer's
paint job provedunsatisfactory.
So Dave
paintedthe panelat WilsonAudio,to
betterthanfactorystandards.
Whichtells
you that Wilsoncloss'
proprietarypaint
process
andits 12-stage
from primer
to clearcoat,is asgoodasanythingon
wheels,the in-house
facilityfilteringout
'1/2the sizeof an amoeba.'
particles
Forthe review,Wilsonsuppliedthe
Sophias
in a vinoushuein-between
Cuado
Al Tassoand Masseto.My choicesexactly!
AI'DIO
rftE
Rear-ported
floorstanding
three-way
loudspeaker
Mad€ by:
Wilson Audio
Supptied by:
Absolut€ Sounds
Price: €14,995
Telephone: O2Og
971 3909
Web:www.
abeolutesosnds.
com
ABOVE:The Sophia2 does not have a split crossoverfor
bi-wiring,sportingjust a singlepair of 4mm terminals
tweeter. The baffle to which they're fitted is sloped, to
align their performancein the time domain. Because
the Sophia2 is a single-boxspeaker,the slope of the
mid/treble baffle is at best a carefully-executedaverage;
if you want greater control over the relativeangle of
the tweeter to the mid, or of the entire section relative
to the listener,you are limited to the positioningof
the speakerin terms of distance,toe-in (more of which
anon) or tilting the entire enclosurea few degreesby
raisingthe rear spikesrelativeto the front.
A tip I was given years ago when setting up a WATT/
Puppysystemappliesequallyto the Sophias:from the
hot seat,you shouldjust be able to see the slightest
part of the inner panel on the slope-sidedtop section.
Geniusadvice:the initial positioningrequiredonly one
tiny adjustment,a mere centimetreof toe-out.
Whateverhorror storiesyou may hear about driving
Wilsons,these latest Sophiasworked sublimelywith
'The Sophiasdidn'tmerelyfeel
right at home:theysetup camp
like guilt-freesquatters'
2x100W of Mclntoshvalve power.A nominal4ohm
impedancespecificationled to the MC2102's4ohm
taps; Wilson'sPeterMcGrathinsistedthat there is a
markedchangewhen usedwith 8ohm taps. Thus,
impedancesettingsand listeningwith or without
grillesincreasethe fine-tuningoptions.This no-cost
experimentationis recommended:try both.
LTJ)SOMETHING WONDERFUL
'Loveat firstburst'istheonlywayI candescribe
the sound of the Sophiaswhen fed with the one
song guaranteedto bring me to tears:Rodgersand
Hammerstein's'Something
Wonderful'.PeggyLee,
followed by DorisDay,then CarlySimonenteredthe
room. As the Leeand Day recordingswere'golden era'
Americanstandards.the sound shimmered.Indeed,
somethingwonderful must have been dialled into O
MAY2oo9 | www.hifinews.co.ut< | Ss
ABOVE:The Sophia2 usesa single l Oin long-throw woofer
insteadof a pair of 8in driversi la WATT/Puppy
the Sophia2 to make it more listener-ratherthan
critic-friendlybecauseit managed to convey every
microscopicdetail, in signatureWilsonfashion,while
conveyinga warmth that can, on occasions,elude the
ppy.
more expensiveWATT/Pu
Spatially,the experienceis purelyWilsonian,but only
those who have partakenof a demo of Wilsonspeakers
- whether WATTor Alexandria- can know what
their breadth,depth, height and preciselocationof
instruments can do for conveying that frisson of reality.
The Sophiasdisappearwith the grace and completeness
of their dearersiblings,lackingonly in the senseof scale.
MAXXeS'
and
Theytruly sound like the Alexandrias',
WATT/Puppy'skid sister,and in that descending order,
'T',
too. But I did say that they suited my room to a
which I like to think of as a quarter-scalereplicaof the
SMEMusicRoom,so the relativescaleand bassdelivery
appliesto a spacemeasuring12x1Sft.
HOT TO TROT
Sweet and warm vocals,hot and fast transients,natural
harmonics(especiallyon Taj Mahal'sacousticguitar)
- the Sophiasdo everythingI want, but with an added
bonus.While my room has never had bassissues,neither
have I imaginedit capableof mimickinga largerarea
when lower octavesare concerned.
How wrong I was: the Sophiaplumbed the deepest
octaves,with the best control and most natural decay
I have ever experiencedin that room. Weight, body,
palpability- Kodo drums have neversoundedso
'horsesfor courses'is the onlv
in-the-room.Sometimes.
rule worth believing.{)
WilsonAudio claimsan 89dB sensitivity
for the Sophia2 but our measurements
indicatea pink noisefigure significantly
lower at 86.OdB.Thisis overthe
rather
frequencyrange30OHz-20kHz
becausethe
than our usuai200Hz-20kHz
S o p h i a sa,t 7 3 k ga p i e c e c, o u l dn o t b e
raisedoff the floor to achievethe usual
5ms?lus-time.window beforethe arrivalof
the first (floor)reflection.
Wilsonalsoclaimsthat the Sophiais
not a difficult speakerto driveand this is
affirmedboth by its minimumimpedance
modulusof 3.3ohm and its minimum
EPDR(equivalentpeakdissipation
resistinie) of 2.2ohm,which benefits
from modestimpedancephaseangles.
On-axisfrequencyresponsewas measured
at tweeter height and, 3oOHzto 20kHz,
recordederrorsof t5.5dB and t4.6dB
for the pair.Theseare a little on the high
*1^rVV
/\
sidefor an expensivespeakerbut, asthe
responsegraph [below left] shows,the
overalltrend is essentiallyflat and the
errorswould havebeen lower but for a
peakjust below 20kHzwhich appearsto
be due to the gravestbreakupresonance
of the invertedtitanium tweeter dome.
Pairmatching,at ti.4dB acrossthe
s a m ef r e q u e n c yr a n g e ,c o u l da l s ob e
a little tighter,although it bettersthe
figure we measuredfrom the Duette.A
-6dB bassfrequency
diffraction-corrected
of 39Hz is a fine resultbut at the other
end of the spectrumthe responsefalls
away rapidlyabove20kHz.Bassdistortion
i s w e l l c o n t r o l l e da t 0 . i %f o r 9 0 d BS P La t
l 0 o H z a n d t h e c u m u l a t i v es p e c t r adl e c a y
waterfall[seegraph,below right] suggests
that the stiff,weighty cabinetdoesa
structural
very good job of suppressing
resonances.KH
'u
-13
-$
fr
HI-FINEWSVERDICT
Preferring dearer models to
those that are less-expensive
is natural: we're ordained to
believe that price hierarchies
are sacrosanct. The Sophia 2,
though, played a trump card
by addressingthe synergy
issue- and I repeat, in my
room - with faultless, natural
sympathy. lt is, for my needs,
the finest 1m-talFor-less/
compact high-end speaker
currently on the market.
56 | www.hifinews.co.uk
I unv zoos
@
ABOVELEFT:The responseis a liftle irregularfor a high-endspeakerbut
bassextensionis impressive;ABOVERIGHT:The waterfall plot revealsthe
benefits of Wilson'sproprietary cabinet reinforcement
Sensitivity(sPLat 1m for 2.83vrms. Mean/lEC/Music)
86.8d8/86.0d8i86.0d8
lmpedance modulus minlmax (20H2-20kHz)
, a.Sohr O ZZtt.
!
i 14.1ohm@42H2
lmpedance phasemin/max (20H2-20kHz)
: -4O' @ 5OHz
30'@392H2
Pair matching (300H2-2okHz)
: '-
i1.4dB
LF/HFextension (-6dB ref 200H2/10kHz)
39Hz | 24.3kqzl25.lkH'z
T H D 1 0 0 H 2 / r k H z / l o k H z( f o rg o d Bs P La t 1 m )
0.1%/0.3%10.3%