Amplifier advice for Wilson Sophia speakers

failry loud levels? most likely the pass 250.5 may not do it for you. the next one up, the pass x350.5 is capable of bringing more to the sohpias [are they the original version or the 2's?] the x350.5 puts out 50 wpc class a, which will probably give you beautiful quality for low and med low listening volumes. you will need the power of the 350 wpc if you require moderately loud listening levels without strained bass. keep in mind, the sophia doesnt extend down to the very bottom end as a full range speaker does. you may want to look into source and cables that excell at tight bass response otherwise you may find yourself pushing up the volume in an attempt to get the depth that the speakers are not designed to give. sub woofer may help in that area. IMO, if you achieve a tight lower end and excellent upper bass clarity, you may find yourslef listening at lower volumes as the clarity will be there.
i also suggest emailing vtl and arc and pass directly. they all will respond with suggestions within your pricerange. then do a followup call. i have found all 3 companies very available, especially vtl and pass. i dont think the vtl st150 will give you enough power. i also dont think the arc ls 16 will give you the clarity you wish to hear with mostly accoustic instruments. i have little familiarity with BAT.

with the sophia, you may want to look more towards a s/s amp and a tubed preamp. the s/s amp, or a hybrid amp, may get the best out of the mid bass of these speakers. i found that true when i auditioned the sophia 2's and an all arc amp/pre, the pass x350.5 amp excelled $ for $. i also agree with previous comments that the x.5 is a better mate for the sophias than the x250 (or x350), especially the original version. cheers.

I have the Sophia 1's in a similar room. My room, however needs a significant amount of power to adequately pressurize the space with lifelike bass. The bass characteristics of your room need to be a primary issue in your choice.
The Sophias LOVE tubes. If your room is easy to pressurize, the Audio Research VT 100 will be a good choice. I needed more power and picked up a demo pair of Audio Research VM-220's. A gorgeous combination of accurate tonality , great. huge stage and great bass. I had a Cary V-12 with 50 triode watts and 100 watts ultra-linear. Small scale music was gorgeous with the 50 triode watts, but large scale performances never achieved life-like scale with 100 tube watts.
I was never able to audition a Macintosh amp with the Sophias but one of the customer service guys at Wilson Audio felt his favorite combo with the Sophias was a tube pre-amp and a MAC power amp.
I felt the Pass X250.5, while good, lacked the tube magic that my Audio Research Monos have.
The only solid state amps I auditioned that I liked a lot were the Jeff Rowland
201 mono-blocs. They are slightly recessed in the high frequencies, which, depending on the characteristics of your room can be a great match. The Sophias tend to be "revealing" in the high frequencies so careful matching is the key to the phenomenal realism they are capable of producing. Listen to many amps and the proper choice will be obvious.

I think the X250.5 is more than enough for the Sophias power wise. Sophias are much easier to drive than my B&W N803 and the X250.5 absolutely handles the N803s without any hint of running out of juice. I listen to music on loud levels. The Pass amp is effortless, clean, zero strain and keeps great separation of instruments at high levels. Be it rock, jazz or the large scale orchestral.
I do agree though that a tube preamp is a good idea with Wilsons if the amp is solid state.
Good Luck

Try the new VTL-450s - they're a great combo with the Sophias.