A brutal review of the Wilson Maxx

Jaybo,
Great response ! You hit alot of interesting points. I agree with your opinion that the the goal is to faithfuly reproduce the recordings. If you want a "live experience" buy better recordings. I hope people really think about what else you wrote. As an aside, the one "reviewer" who(IMHO)seems reliable is John Marks.- Jim

Arthur,
I've enjoyed your site for some time. It's important that SOMEONE points it out when the king,indeed,has no clothes. It's ok for people to spend their money anyway they want but they should be informed when a product is selling at a profit margin an order of magnitude above it's competitors. This actually is a marketing strategy to attract wealthy custumers who equate expense with quality. I believe that reviewers have an ethical responsibility to point this out to their readers. They may still want the " Wilson sound " but they should know that they are not ,infact, expensive speakers to produce. Reviewers should not underestimate how important their ratings are to potential customers. Look at what Parkers ratings do to wine prices. The subjective opinion of a single reviewer can quadruple (or more) the price of a bottle. If Stereophile gives a class A then it is included in the companies marketing campaign and MANY people buy based on this.Check out A-gons dicussion forums and see how many relate to the latest "buzz" created by magazine "reviews". This is acomplished because we are dying for someone to tell us what is good rather than doing the hard work ourselves and we are addicted to ratings so that we can compare ourselves to others. It seems to me that Wilson epitomizes this. If you truly love them by all means buy them . I just think you should be more fully informed. Jim

Hey Karmapolice,
Yes everyone is entitled to enjoy music as they see fit and yes Wilsons are used in lots of setups. My only point is that they have attained status because of their price and because of their particular controversial colorations. A budy who is a highend retailer(> 30yrs) has a sideline of cloning speakers. After pulling apart Wilson WP's I can tell you that they are kit speakers being sold at a very high markup.( yes I know they aren't max2's but Wilson continues to use kits) So,does this matter ? I think it does. Consider almost any other purchase of yours. Would you be comfortable paying $700,000 for a $200,000 house ? How about $1800 for a suit that is not made as well as a $800 suit ? Most people shop with an idea of fair value. In the case of audio equipment this means a retail to cost ratio of about 5/1. Where luxury items (cost no object)vary from this is that there is an assumption that the most expensive is the best and people are willing to pay for this luxury. Unfortunately this is not always the case. Certain "manufacturers" take advantage of this fact and price accordingly.If you like the sound,fine. Who could argue with that ? I think its "dumb" to pay these manufacturers anything when they are clearly taking advantage of your need to own "the best" by selling at multiples of 5/1.

Cytocycle and bigjoe,
Now thats funny ! My undergraduate was in economics. I spent time in sales. Now I am anethesiologist having trained at one the the finest U.S. programs. 11 years into private practice and dealing with the business of medicine on a day to day basis after having seriously studied world economics I doubt that you can teach me much about healthcare economics OR capitalism.
Ordinarily I don't mind manufacturers imposing a special "tax" on rich people seeking what we euphamisticly call "pride of ownership". In this forum ,however, I was trying to point out that Wilsons price is way above any sane intrinsic valuation and that better can be had for much less because I thought it might be HELPFULL to someone. Bigjoe - My "system" includes Wilson-Benesch Chimera speakers(burled walnut) $23,800 retail , Gryphon Antileon signature amp $24,000 retail, CJ 16s2 pre $8500 (soon to be Act 2 14'000 retail) hardly a "chinese integrated" from ebay. I chose these because I loved them.Other than the CJ there was precious little marketing and no reviews to "guide" me. As an aside, these are all real manufacturers. Also, as an aside, I think the tone of this discussion (calling people you disagree with socialists or denigrating their gear when you have NO KNOWLEDGE of either) is beneath us .I for one am here to help and to learn -period. If I have offended any I am sorry - Jim

Bigjoe,
I hope in reading these threads you will see that I was responding to cytocycles direct implication about my lack of education regaurding capitalism and medicine. I have never before on this or any other forum given any personal information about my "education". For the most part I feel its irrelavent. I dont think your an uneducated moron but I do think you wrongly jump to conclusions. This thread began about a "review" which brought up some interesting points and taking a position does not constitute "bashing".How can we have a real discusion when others emotionaly respond with calls of "socialist","go to Canada for your health care","strutting peacock",'bashers' if their positions are challenged ? To me its all a kind of childish bullying which contains no useful dialogue what so ever. This is a DISCUSSION forum -Jim

Chanliz,
My "mommy" is dead. I buried her three years ago. As per my last post I was responding to a personai attack which in effect called me ignorant of capitalism and suggested that I investigate socialized medicine just because I held a position which dissagreed with his. I hope you can understand how that would strike a guy whos in medicine and who was an econ major.Perhaps I should have resisted the urge to respond but I did not and thats that. As for your "comment" which appears to be written to hurt me personaly I guess I just feel dissapointed in you. Please, no more personal attacks . Lets stick to dissagreements about music reproduction and treat everyone with respect.-Jim