A brutal review of the Wilson Maxx

Aldavis: Excellent posts, thats all I have to say, and a good number you threw out for the speakers you own, and would say Definatly at 23,000 I could take the Wilson maxx 2 at a much more serious consideration which is in the wheelhouse of what you own and comprable, but double that cost at 45,000? Come on there is a point of Gouging guys, Anybody can justify How to buy anything, I could tell you that buying a 400.00 electric self cleaning super duper Toothbrush is Worth it, but does it really do a bottom line better job than the very efficient 1.99 special from walgreens, thats the point here, not who can spend what, and why they would spend it. Basically I see the Watchdog thing this all started out with a wake up call to find some Common sense back into the audio world is all. Not that I agree with all of the excessive bashing or calling out reviewers but who cares, its simply developed to open your eyes.

John Atkinson's measurements of the MAXX II reveal nearly a +/- 10db differential in frequency response. There is a 6-7db boost in the bass. How many of us would accept these large abberations in our amplifiers, preamps, cd players, or even our phono cartidges?

Opalchip's right on point.

Not only are none of the people here are willing to address the specific performance/measurement issues raised by Hardesty, but the responses from John at Wilson and Michael Fremmer completely ignore those tough questions. Is anybody who wants to defend Wilson capable of addressing those issues. Also, some of these issues apply to a majority of other so-called "high-end" loudspeaker designs.

Issues:

**Steep-slope crossover causes time/phase distortion and requires that midrange driver be wired out-of-phase with tweeter and woofer.

What if you had purchased a new high-end power amplifier and found that it inverted the phase of the midrange frequencies in relation to the rest of the spectrum. This would be laughably unaccceptable. Why isn't the same true in a loudspeaker?

How can a design like this accurately reproduce the waveform?

** Frequency response is less flat than many inexpensive designs. Why?

** How can a 7" woofer reproduce subtle detail in the upper midrange?

Geez, a lot of responses about a speaker only 10 people in the country will buy. (O.K., maybe 15.)

I'm waiting for the educated here to tell me that the VR9's at $60K are worth that or the Kharmas at $85-115K are worth it? Or how about the X-2's at 4135.

As I said it is all about our ears and our wallets.

To me the Maxx ll blows away the VR 9 at less money. But of course that is my opinion

Now as far as John Giolas from Wilson not answering direct questions, I say "give me a break"--he invited Hardesty to Provo to tour the plant and make decisions afterwards.What more would a thorough reviewer want?