Upgrading from Wilson Sophia 2's?

i have been reading speaker reviews for the last 15-20 years or so, and i am always struck by the models that sound good right away with little or no set-up issues, VERSUS those that take forever to place/break in/modify the room acoustics/change the wires-the cdp-switch to tubes, etc. guess what? go back to the eggl.andra review and read how nice it sounded right off the bat. this also was the case with the sonus faber extremas. i personally compared the andras to the wilson X-1's (same room), and they sounded much more natural. at the stereophile show in miami, the watt-puppy 5.1's sounded horrible, WITH tube amps AND vinyl, while the sf extrema's, in a similar untreated room, sounded spectacular. while these are my own subjective impressions, when people are spending 5 min. or less listening to the W/P's, and staying for 20 min. or more just so they can move to the center seats to better audition the sf's, i must not be completely crazy. in still another room, the sf electra amators, driven by carver gear, were placed practically on the floor facing my pants' legs, and THEY sounded really good; even playboy magazine praised them in an article.
i am looking at the system above and it is composed of sota components. the sophias should by all rights be fine tuned by peter mcgrath himself (of wilson audio) FOR YOU so they finally sound the way they should, or your money back. after all, he does it for mikey fremer... speaking of which, i am SHOCKED to read in the sept.stereophile that vanderstein quattros ($11k) had a more transparent midrange than his highly lauded MAXX-2'S ($45K).
oh, one more sore point. the dealer i go to has a "disappointing" listening room even by their own admission.
i went to hear the maxx-2's twice with different front-ends, and the tweeeter was too hot. BUT, when they rolled out the alexandrias (the originals) the room was no longer an issue. everything sounded "fine" (okay, extraordinary), with just the very slightest edge reminding you that they were still wilson speakers. which bugs me even more- for $125k, you get speakers that approach the ideal, and can handle virtually unlimited volume without the bass turning mushy or the upper mids getting screechy- IN a "lousy" room. SO i "think" i know what's going on here, but i'll let others chime in with their own impressions.

A used pair of Vandersteen 5s would be a fine choice
Perhaps later upgrade them to a pair of 5As
which offer a deep natural sound stage,seamless coherence & frequency balance of course at a higher price.
Both speakers feature self contained bass amp and a neat in room bass tuning that delivers a far smoother in room bass response this allows your music to sound more natural
in your room.
Cheers Johnnyr

French_fries

"listening for 5 min vs. listening for 20 or more..."

Perhaps that's why my local Wilson Dealer only allows for listening to a couple tracks they select at a time, when auditioning Wilson or Ayre gear.

No matter though. Detecting speakers which are predisposed to being more on the articulate side of the coin than that of the eufonic side is no hard task. I simply can not, as another posted here, see Wilson with any power train other than one comprosed of tubes.... but that's just me.

Just heard the Magico V2 again today at my dealer. Compared them to Rockport and Verity at the same price point. The Magicos were extremely involving, detailed, nuanced, not fatiguing and simply a joy to listen to. Compared to my Egglestons, they are more articulate and have much better, deeper and clearer bass with no overhang. They are musical. Best I've heard.

So you went back for more, huh, Peter? You getting serious?

Thanks again to everyone for their thoughts. I agree that a tube amp would probably curtail the edge a bit, but I'd be worried about bass control. I have a VTL ST-150 (that I use in another system) that I tried and the bass was just plain sloppy. I worry that with a tube amp I'd need to have speakers with built in amps for low frequencies (like Vandersteen or Genesis).

Dave, interesting about your experiences with Monster cable. I've done a fair amount of cable swapping. Part of my challenge is a 50 foot speaker run. At this length, the cables make a huge difference, but tonally and grain. I'm currently using a high gauge cable from Paul Speltz (anti-cables) that are working out well and have seemed to reduce the glare a bit.