A brutal review of the Wilson Maxx

I have read this thread with much amusement. Look, choosing a speaker is like choosing a mate. They are all different and most of us cannot understand anyone else's tastes, with a few exceptions. Fer instance: I don't find Angelina Jolie all that hot, so what? That's my taste. Who's gonna argue and why bother?

EVERY speaker is "colored." Every single one. Go to a hifi show and skip room to room. They all sound different. Some are less colored than others and some are just plain bad. They sound and measure so. And guess what? Every recording and every mastering job is "colored" one way or another. Speaker design like recording, is part art and part science. Always has been, always will be. If you fixate on either one, you'll probably end up with a bad design because the recordings aren't perfect. There is no standard as there is in say television.

That said, some of the posts here are intelligent, and some are truly idiotic. The ones claiming that I or any other reviewer is somehow 'interested' in who's advertising in the magazines for which we write, or that somehow what we write is 'tainted' by the advertising, are truly imbecilic and insulting. I don't give a rat's ass who's advertising in the magazine and who's not. When I read that, I think back to VPI on the cover of Stereophile with "product of the year." VPI has never spent a penny advertising in Stereophile. As for the poster who called us "hucksters," you buddy, are an IDIOT. I'm not trying to sell anyone anything except the fun or being in this hobby. We need more people in it not fewer.

My capital is my reputation and that is what I protect, not the magazine's advertisers. Any poster who who thinks otherwise about me, or any other reviewer in this is an IDIOT. PERIOD. I don't like being called corrupt by some IDIOT who doesn't know me.

On the other hand, no doubt we are people, and people make friends in a very small industry and it is very important to be able to separate the two when writing a review. For instance, I am friendly with the owner of Musical Fidelity. I don't hide it. And I own his products. I BOUGHT THEM. I could buy whatever i want and get the same reviewer accommodation from any company. But I reviewed these products before knowing the guy and was impressed. I still am. I still own them. That didn't stop me from writing that Krell's Standard SACD player SMOKED my MF Tri-Vista, or that MF's CD Pre-24 digital preamp downconverted 96k/24 bit inputted digital. I was the only reviewer in the world who found and noted that. I didn't have to write that, since no one else noticed, and the guy is MY FRIEND, but I DID write it, because it's the truth and it's what I found.

That's the kind of honest professional I like to think I am. I try. So when I read some jerk-off questioning my honesty, I don't like it. Question my hearing? I don't care. I am just a guy listening to hi-fi just like you. I make no pretenses about having "golden ears" or better ears than anyone else. I do have a great deal of listening experience live and recorded and I try hard.

As for the MAXX2s, I bought them. I love them. I didn't buy them to kowtow to Wilson or Dave Wilson. I bought them because they blew me away and they still do. My wife INSISTED I buy them, she liked them so much--and even at at accommodation price, they set me back plenty. I haven't heard any speaker deliver the bottom end extension or dynamics that they do, and the rest sounds pretty damn good too. Perfect? No. And that's what I wrote. I've heard better HF resolution and air, and somewhat better imaging. In fact, until a speaker I just finished reviewing, I'd not heard better imaging than what I heard from Audio Physic Virgos, which cost 5 grand. Yes, I gave something up sonically to own MAXX2s, but I got some other things no other speakers deliver.

Believe me, when speakers parade through your room almost monthly , you come to understand that they are ALL colored, and all are compromised one way or another. One friend of a friend was dying to visit my room so I let him come, having the feeling that he was there to "prove" that my system was no good. I had WATT/Puppy 7s then---the first Wilson speaker I liked. After five minutes he said "Your system is COLORED!" I replied "Of course it is! So is yours!" "OH NO," he replied, "I have NAIM speakers. They are not colored." RIGHT!!!!!

Anyway, the Wilson MAXX2s do NOT have "sizzling" highs, and yes, they do have "slammin'" bass, as in, it's what I hear live. I'll take that over flabby, anemic bass anytime. That's my preference.

I found it interesting that one poster says he heard the MAXX2s driven by Halcros to sound drab and uninvolving (or something to that effect). I couldn't agree more! But driven by ARC or Musical Fidelity electronics they sound anything but, as another poster wrote. That's one reason I bought them. I consider them a useful reviewing tool. Perfect? No, but the inroom response measurements proved to me that they make a reliable reviewing tool while being endlessly enjoyable to listen to.

I just spent three days driving them with a $600 Outlaw Audio stereo receiver!

I wish people here would stop making absolute rules and regulations for others, and engaging in smear campaigns against people with whom they disagree. As for Hardesty's diatribe, I found it dripping with contempt and hatred. How can anyone find that review "objective," even though it was littered with "objective" ideals?

I responded to Mr. Hardesty's review with this:

Richard:

I enjoyed reading your review of the MAXX2s. I especially liked the way you put quotes around the sarcastic words "mystical and mysterious" to describe the cabinet materials, when I don't think anyone used those words except you of course, nor did the reviewers mentioned imply that there was anything about the materials that were the least bit "mysterious" or especially "mystical" other than the marketing expression "X" or whatever Wilson calls it, which I care little about.

Then, of course, in the next sentence you acknowledge that the accelerometer measurements showed "pretty good performance" from the cabinets (an understatement, of course).

That's just one example of your hardly "objective" "review." It wasn't really a review at all. You don't talk about where you even might have listened to the speakers or how actual music sounded on it. Or how that music differed from what you hear live. But that's okay because the tone of your review was so off the chart that no one reading it could possibly find it objective. So in the end you just hurt your own cause whatever that might be.

I can tell you that in my room, the MAXX2s sound more like what I hear at the symphony, which I attend once a month at Avery Fisher Hall (no need to dump on the hall here) than any other speaker I've had in my room and that everyone who's come down to listen---audiophile and non audiophile--- loves them. "Accurate"? There are none. All speaker have colorations of one kind or another as do all recordings as do most rooms.

In the real world, there's a reason people respond to the MAXX2s at hifi shows and in store demos and in homes. It has nothing to do with the "carriage trade," or with them being not as well informed as you. It has everything to do with high performance in many areas, perhaps some compromises in others, which all speakers have, that happen to work out very well in the case of the MAXX2s. Speaker design, and indeed recording music, has always been and probably will always be a combination of art and science. I'm not sure you recognize that.

People recognize the sound of music..they are not deluded. Your attitude is very poor and it sinks your cause, whatever it might be....

Sincerely,

Michael Fremer

This is a pretty silly description of the MAXX2s or any other speaker. It's like responding to an expensive car review by saying "It's just 4 wheels, a suspension and an engine." I realize the analogy is not perfect but look, if I take a given engine and put it in a frame made of noodles it's not going to perform as well as one that was super-rigid. Denigrating the MAXX2's cabinetry as "over elaborate" is pretty foolish. Speakers parade through here all the time and NONE in 20 years of reviewing have achieved the bass performance of the MAXX2s. That's just a measured and listened to fact. I get 20Hz response in my room, the quality of which is unsurpassed in my experience. The accelerometer test proves that the cabinet is anything but "over-elaborate." As with Rockport's Antares, going to extreme lengths to build a non-resonant platform for woofers pays big dividends. Getting really deep, tight, well defined bass costs $ and takes up a good deal of space to get it. Making these cabinets out of this difficult to machine material costs $$$. I saw how they are made. It is a time consuming labor intensive process and the auto paint finish is not what you're paying for.

So then after trivializing the MAXX2s, you change gears and write advertising copy for the speaker you like. Fine, have it your way. but I can't take what you've written seriously because it is transparently ludicrous.

Well another buncha "inneresting" posts. Sorry if I get exercised when my integrity gets questioned by folks who don't know me at all, but for those who object to that, tie your hands behind your backs and invite people to pummel you! I'm just not built that way, and I don't think defending myself means I can't take valid, reasonable and informed criticism. But when some people here and elsewhere just throw crap at people and institutions they don't know based upon their pathetic ignorance, I for one, either ignore it, or I respond strongly. That goes for Arthur Salvatore, who is a bitter little man.

One evening a few years ago, late at night after a few glasses of vino too many I happened upon his indictment of the entire audio reviewing community and I shot him a a rather pissed off email, which he chose to make public when it was not so intended. But I'll tell you this: if you choose to read and believe Mr. Salvatore's paranoid delusions, you risk ending up like him. My favorite part of his rant is where someone who I don't know wrote to defend me, and Salvatore makes it seem as if I had written that, using a psuedonym. If that alone doesn't convince of of how twisted, paranoid and narcissistic Salvatore is, then nothing will.

As for Hardesty's write-up, it was his tone that I most objected to. He was quite fair to me, and unlike some posters here, did not engage in personal attaacks. That level of bitterness and anger should set off a mild amount of skepticism in anyone's mind about his having an agenda of some kind. Why react with that level of intensity and vitriol? Dave Wilson doesn't make anyone buy his products, yet for some reason people do. Hardesty should have directed his anger at the "stupid public," and did a bit of that with his "carriage trade" remark. You know, I heard generations of Wilson products that I didn't like, but the recent ones I did. And that seems to be the general consensus.

Roy Halee, who was Paul Simon's engineer for all of the great S&G and solo albums owns Wilson Alexandrias. I believe he paid full price. He's a very good listener and has heard more live music and mastertapes than anyone reading this and I mean ANYONE. So I suggest you all put that in context of some of the comments here, and in context of Hardesty's dismissal of the MAXX2s.

No, I am not going to address every argument made by Hardesty about why a bumble bee can't possibly fly, er, I mean why the MAXX2s are a terrible speaker, in fact a fraud and why Dave Wilson is a charlatan, which is pretty much what that write-up says, but I will say this: if I were to rely solely on measurements, I would have chucked my turntable and my 10,000 records and switched to CD because using measurements, vinyl SUCK is INACCURATE, can't POSSIBLY sound like MUSIC etc. AND I can give you a dozen reasons why that's true. But you know what? I don't give a CRAP what the measurement show because when I sit down to listen, it's VINYL that sounds like real music, not CDs. In fact, vinyl despite the measurements always sounds more dynamic--even a guy like David Chesky who is in the CD business admits that.

And you know what else? Roy Halee, is a VINYL enthusiast. He has a Rockport System III Sirius. He's heard more master tapes and blah blah blah. Now that doesn't mean he's the last word or the final authority. I'm just suggesting to you that measurements are an important tool in assessing a speaker's neutrality and performance, but they aren't the END ALL AND BE ALL. The listening is that. And in the listening all of the measured and UNMEASURED factors blend together to create a sonic picture the ear/brain responds to.

So, for some reason, my ear/brain, Roy Halee's ear/brain and the ear/brains of all the other people who enthusiastically support what Wilson does, find the sound of his speakers enticing and worth the money. I tried to explain in my review part of what's involved in producing them and why they are expensive. Most of the money goes into producing the cabinets, it's true. But as with the Rockport Antares, something as seemingly mundane and sexless as building resonant-free cabinets does contribute mightily to performance.

I don't care if someone says the speakers sound like s....t to them. That's fine with me. What I do care about is if someone charges that I gave the speaker a good review because Wilson advertises in Stereophile and therefore I am corrupt. That person is an IDIOT. Excuse me for defending myself!

And if you go back and read my review, you'll see that I admit that other speakers have greater upper octave resolution than the MAXX2s and other speakers may image somewhat better, but every design, every scheme is a compromise in one way or another and the ART of speaker design, is how you arrange your compromises, and what choices you make. The science only takes you so far because the science proves that all designs are compromises.

It's funny, when I interviewed Halee back in the 80s, he listened for pleasure on Infinity IRS but owned WATT/Puppys too. "These," he said, pointing to the Wilsons, "tell me what's on the recording, but these," he said, pointing to the towering infernos, "are what I listen to for pleasure." Twenty years later, he feels Wilsons designs give him the pleasure.

Now, as for opalchip's follow up, you have every right to disagree with me, or think I'm deaf or whatever, but I'm sorry, you have no right, if you're a man, to hurl baseless charges as to my motives, my honesty or my integrity. Sorry, but that's the sign of a weasel, not a man--unless you have some evidence. If you think all audio reviewers are corrupt, then of course just don't read any magazines. And as I said before, if you think taking advertising 'taints' a magazine, well then you need to read Consumer Reports and take their audio reviewing seriously because they're not tainted. Enjoy your Bose system! But of course they are tainted! They are tainted at CR because they are wedded to their readers for total support and therefore you will find that they cater obsequiously to the demographics of their readers. They feed back to their readers' demographics and that creates a form of "corruption," though you might find it more benign than what advertising might or might not do to the integrity of reviewers. I'll state it again: I don't give a damn who does or does not advertise in Stereophile and the products I choose to review have nothing to do with advertising.

That said, let's get to the next distortion of what I wrote, I don't remember who responded to what I said about "all speakers being colored." That's all I wrote. OF COURSE there are different degrees of coloration and if you read my review of the new Audio Physic Calderas in the current issue, you will see that when a speaker sounds very colored, it cannot be denied and that's what I wrote and the measurements backed me up.

Someone else made the sweeping charge that reviewers never criticize strongly. What B.S. that is. Read my Caldera review or read my review of the Nottingham Deco turntable or the VYGER. It was not pleasant hurting those people but if you're afraid of doing so, don't be a reviewer. Sorry to defend myself again. That said, I try to steer clear of bad products in the first place. I'd rather write about good ones. I try to be selective but sometimes a bad one slips through and I don't pull punches. Of course if YOU think it's bad product and I don't, how about exercising a bit of restraint and chaulking it up to a difference of opinion instead of corruption?

As for the way the MAXX2s have been characterized here in terms of measurements, they did not measure as badly as some claim, and the measurements were done under difficult circumstances in my driveway. I suggest you go back and look at figure 5, which shows the in-room step response...it's pretty good if you ask me. The excess bass energy might look overwhelming in the chart but in the chair, the speaker's bass response in terms of quality is easily the best I have heard here and I will trade a slight perceived excess of high quality bass to anemic, bass shy performance or bloat (check out the 30K Caldera low end performance).

Measurements do tell you some things, but not everything. When I sit down to listen to my MAXX2s, I hear what they do wrong. After a while, you can hear what ANY speaker does wrong, and they all do wrong. At some point you have to make a choice. The problem readers and hobbyists have---and I've written this before---is that in order to make a choice, every other possibility usually has to be dismissed out of hand. That's just human nature. So the speaker YOU end up with is GREAT, and everything else SUCKS. Don't deny that because I read it here and on other forums all the time. This is insane partisanship....almost like politics.

I don't have that kind of relationship with any of the products I own, because I get to hear too many down here, and you easily hear the trade-offs in all of them. I don't get all "mystical" anymore and I certainly don't get like Mr. Hardesty, who could have made all of his points without going so far over the top.

Someone asked me to go through his charges and respond to them. Sorry! Not here. I don't see the point. He claims there's no midrange speaker because of the size of the two mid/bass-midrange drivers. Well, fine. Whatever, In the end I put on a violin record and if it sounds like a violin to me, I'm satisfied.

I tried to make clear in my original post that I bought the MAXX2s because in my room they sound more like live music than any speaker I've had here. Other speakers have imaged better, or perhaps resolved more on top, or whatever, but harmonically, and dynamically, the speaker/room interaction IN MY ROOM not IN A SET OF MEASUREMENTS, yields results that please my ears and don't suffer terribly when I get home from a concert and listen to recorded music.

As for the scale, which Hardesty says is all wrong, sorry, it sounds right to me, and judging by the responses of people at hifi shows, it sounds right to them too.

Finally to whomever wrote that he's waiting to see the MAXX2s for sale on Audiogon at a big profit to me. You know what? I should tell you to go back on Audiogon and find all the products I've bought and sold at a big profit. You won't find any. I'm not a "churner." What's more, Stereophile doesn't allow that. And I should go on and defend myself further. But I won't. Instead, I'll leave that person with the words of Dick Cheney to Pat Leahy on the Senate floor...and you know what those words were....

Love the Salvatore! He still thinks I wrote in as someone else to defend myself! Read his "reasoning" as to why it must so. But calling him "paranoid" is an insult. Now that's rich! over and out. Yes, I sent Phonogram the email I sent Salvatore so the subscribers could read it and enjoy it since most of the people there hold Salvatore in deep contempt. Phonogram is a subscriber based list, not a public website but these distinctions matter little to him.....BUT HE'S PROVEN THAT I'M A LIAR!!!!!!!

So yes, all of you, take the time to read what I sent Salvatore and yes, read his entire site. It's really a hoot. Now back to work. I have taken so many manufacturer bribes, and am so corrupt I must do my masters bidding or I might be rubbed out. No time to waste!

I am writing here as Michael Fremer not as a Stereophile employee. In fact, I am not a Stereophile employee. I write for the magazine but not as a salaried employed. I am happy to say that when I speak for myself I can use any language I wish and as between using words like "suck" and "crap" and having my honesty impugned and the rest of the insults some hurl here, I think "suck" and "crap" and the rest pale by comparison. AND GOSH DARN IT, balance twenty years of columns and reviews with a few 'craps' and 'sucks' and I get accused of not knowing how to write. Yo! Take the cork out of your butt two channel Ben and lighten up!