Wilson Sophia vs Aerial 7/9

Teajay, If your 7T's outperformed a set of MG20's, there was something dreadfully wrong with the ones I heard. I can't imagine what the deal was. My living room is my listening room, so appearance is important and the 7T's are stunning looking speakers. I listened to them first using a decent front end in a less than ideal room. After a few minutes I asked the owner to move them into his reference room. In both settings I pretty much heard the same thing. There was an inaccurate timber across the board on orchestral music in both systems that put me off right away. In the reference system, the low end was bloated, which could have been a placement issue. Also, the speakers did not distinguish themselves in terms of spacial information as compared to the maggies. I also sensed that the owner was somewhat less than enthusiastic about the 7T's. I had a couple pair of Michael Kellys ADS speakers prior to my run with Magnepan, so I expected great things from the Aerials. I'd love to hear from others who have had a chance to hear them.

Brownsfan,

Jusr wanted to share with you and the others on this thread:

1) Just took the 7T's out of my system, my auditioning process was complete for my formal review, and put the MG-20's back in place. Both of these are great speakers that offer similiar sonic virtues which is amazing to me because of the different approachs, planar vs box enclosure design, yet they both sing with a musical voice which is outstanding. The biggest diference between them is in the illusion of were you are setting in a concert hall or jazz club. For example, if you like about 10th row in a symphonic hall you would like the 7t's, if you rather be mid hall, about 20th row you would prefer the 20's. It's personal taste not what's right or wrong.

2) Went over to hear my friend's system, who after he heard the 7T's in my system sold his Magico Q-3s and replaced them with 7T's, who has much smaller room then mine. Yet, the 7T's were superlative in this acoustic space and still performed like they did in my rig.

Just food for thought. My hunch is something was going on, not with the 7t's unless they were malfunctioning, but with the setup or rooms. I struggled in my full length review on the 7T's to come up with flaws regarding their performance, so something was radical wrong I believe the day you heard them.

Thanks, TJ. In the end I will never know what was wrong with my audition of the 7T's. I wish I could have heard what they are apparently capable of, but in the end, I an so happy with my maggies there is no harm done. I'm still not sure that it is not just how I hear things. I auditioned a lot of very good speakers, ranging from 6K to 17K. The sophia and maggies are the only two speakers I thought I could live with. I am very sensitive to accuracy of timber, and if something is just slightly off there it is a deal breaker for me.
The dealer where I auditioned the 7T's is about a 2 hour drive away. Its probably the best run brick and mortar store I've ever dealt with. Next time I make the drive, I think I'll give the 7T's a second quick listen,