Intersting thread, having never heard the Max 2's so I would never presume to comment on their sound quality.
One of the things I learnt over 25 years ago when I got into this hobby ( that's what it is BTW, nothing more/nothing less) was to listen to the speaker or any piece of equipment for that matter before making any purchase decisions about it.
Without question, once a piece of equipment is acquired, psycholigically the customer needs to defend the purchase decision. Still, I have always believed that everyone has a different take on what sounds like music to them.. which is why this hobby is interesting.
Reading magazine articles is fun, but one would be idiotic( for want of a better term) (perhaps ignorant would be better) to make a large purchase decision based upon someone else's preference and beliefs. IMHO if a consumer cannot hear a particular piece of kit, then DON'T buy it till you do..Simple.
Now, fads in this hobby come and go, remember the clocks that were supposed to clean up wall noise...0:) But again IMHO what might remain a constant is the difference between the sound of live unamplified music and reproduced. Recently, I have been feeling that all the speakers I have heard are indeed colored as Mr. Framer points out.
This of course in contrast to live unamplified music. It never takes me very long to show a critical listener or even a non-critical listener the difference between my Taylor 6 string and a reproduction through a system of a guitar. A world and again IMHO a WORLD of difference. The question is what I feel makes the difference vs. what another listener feels makes the difference. Both are valid opinions and both are possibly right and both are possibly wrong.
One of the things that perhaps should be emphasized more in the magazines that are part and parcel of this hobby is the difference that the reviewer feels the piece compares to the 'Absolute Sound'
Oops, that term had to slip into here somewhere, but I really feel that Harry had the thing right all those years ago when he coined the term. Not so sure that today the readers or the writers in this hobby are so cognisant of the difference, but again maybe a small suggestion is to go out when you put together your ideal system and buy/borrow almost any decent real instrument and pluck/blow/hit/tap/whatever and see how close you feel you have come to this mark....Maybe not..
One of the things I learnt over 25 years ago when I got into this hobby ( that's what it is BTW, nothing more/nothing less) was to listen to the speaker or any piece of equipment for that matter before making any purchase decisions about it.
Without question, once a piece of equipment is acquired, psycholigically the customer needs to defend the purchase decision. Still, I have always believed that everyone has a different take on what sounds like music to them.. which is why this hobby is interesting.
Reading magazine articles is fun, but one would be idiotic( for want of a better term) (perhaps ignorant would be better) to make a large purchase decision based upon someone else's preference and beliefs. IMHO if a consumer cannot hear a particular piece of kit, then DON'T buy it till you do..Simple.
Now, fads in this hobby come and go, remember the clocks that were supposed to clean up wall noise...0:) But again IMHO what might remain a constant is the difference between the sound of live unamplified music and reproduced. Recently, I have been feeling that all the speakers I have heard are indeed colored as Mr. Framer points out.
This of course in contrast to live unamplified music. It never takes me very long to show a critical listener or even a non-critical listener the difference between my Taylor 6 string and a reproduction through a system of a guitar. A world and again IMHO a WORLD of difference. The question is what I feel makes the difference vs. what another listener feels makes the difference. Both are valid opinions and both are possibly right and both are possibly wrong.
One of the things that perhaps should be emphasized more in the magazines that are part and parcel of this hobby is the difference that the reviewer feels the piece compares to the 'Absolute Sound'
Oops, that term had to slip into here somewhere, but I really feel that Harry had the thing right all those years ago when he coined the term. Not so sure that today the readers or the writers in this hobby are so cognisant of the difference, but again maybe a small suggestion is to go out when you put together your ideal system and buy/borrow almost any decent real instrument and pluck/blow/hit/tap/whatever and see how close you feel you have come to this mark....Maybe not..