Sonus Faber of Wilson Sophia for McIntosh

Looking good is always important.

These are two completely different sounding speakers.
You really need to go and listen for yourself to decide if you like the warmth of the Sonus Faber or the detail of the Sophia. Both are good speakers so you can't really go wrong with either one, IMHO. The Wilsons will be very slightly harder to drive, based on the specifications, and will go a little bit deeper.

Also, if you have a significant other, aesthetics might need to be considered as well. The looks are radically different as well, so you need to figure out if the modern looks of the Sophia or the classic lines of the Cremona fit better in your room. (If you have a dedicated listening room (Lucky Dog!), this may be less of a concern.)

If it were me, I would pick the Sophia, as I like the Revel Studio, a very similar speaker, as I prefer the detail, since I listen mostely to analog, and pick up my warmth that way.

Good Luck in your search.

I don't think you can go wrong with either.
But each speaker (SF/Wilson) has their own sound signature and it's very listener's specific. Some likes it warm and some likes wide etc...Therefore, before putting out the dough, it's highly recommended that you listened to both.
Best of luck,
Tim

If you like the air of your ML's but want more dynamic's the Sophia is your speaker, it is not diffult to drive. My friend uses a ARC VS55i Integrated with 50 watts a channel to drive his sophia's you can see his system online 'Goten1969'

I just listened to the Sonus Faber Cremonas and the Wilson Audio Watt Puppie 7's as well as the Max's. The Wilsons were driven with a Krell 400w amp, Rogue Audio Tubed Pre-Amp and an Esoteric SACD digital front end all Transparent cabling. The Sonus Faber were drive with all Linn electronics and I believe Audioquest cables. For reference I have Thiel 3.6's driven by all Conrad Johnson electronics, Audioquest cables and SCD-1 front end.

The Wilsons were very nice good presentation laid back on mid to highend frequencies. Not what I would call detailed given that I regularly listen to Thiels. I did not listen to the sophia's but feel the Wilson line has a similar sonic signiture at least the watt puppies and the maxx's did. Just that the maxx's were on a much grander scale. My first experience with Wilson Audio was with the watt puppie 6's driven by all Levinson electronics and I did not care for them at all. No soundstaging or depth to the music; it was almost lifeless. The watt puppie 7's were much better but still not worth the price of admission IMO. Same goes for the maxx's. I felt I had to give these a listen as they are highly regarded and recommended and maybe with the right set-up they are great; I just didn't hear it. If I were considering buying a pair I would want to bring them home first as I felt they were good enough to at least consider a home trial again because they are so highly regarded.

Which brings me to the Sonud Faber. Now these speakers I could live with as they were very balanced with no frequencies overpowering the others. They threw a large and deep soundstage with good timbre (air) around the instruments. They are definetly less assuming than the Wilsons and my Thiels for that matter in their sonic presentation. We did not play around with there placement and I would need to do so as I do not know if this is a characteristic of the Sonus Faber line. Again I would need to bring them home for a listen prior to purchasing if possible.

The music I listened to was all classical: Hilary Hahn playing Bach Concertos, Mozart Symphonies #31 & 38 and Mitsuko Uchida playing Schubert solo piano sonatas all were Hybrid SACD's of my personnel collection and of which I am familiar.

Of the two speakers you mention given my short listening session with the two manufacturers and given that I could not bring them home to listen in my enviroment I would pick the Sonus Faber. But thats me and as someone mentioned you really need to listen for yourself if at all possible as they are two very distinctly differnt sounding speakers. Sorry for rambling but you did ask and again this is just my opinion.

Chuck