A brutal review of the Wilson Maxx

I agree with Honest1. Did he even listen? Doesn't seem so. But after reading the whole diatribe I can't help but wonder just what kind of speaker he would deem acceptable. He rags on ported enclosures, d'appolito designs, Focal drivers, dual 8" passive drivers.....he doesn't seem to like much. What the hell does he listen to music with?

Oz

I am willing to bet that Audioperfectionist is a fan of time/phase correct designs (drivers aligned spatially to have an identical pathlength to a single point in space and utilizing 6 db/octave crossover slope). He also seems to require a small midrange and/or mid/bass driver (low mass/inertia and better dispersion). In other words, probably a fan of Vandersteens, Green Mountain, and maybe, Thiel.

Just a guess.

He has a "measuring stick" that obsesses about 6db octave crossovers. No speaker manufacturer need apply without 1st order crossovers & good step response. "Set in stone" beliefs will always color perception. Like in the stereophile review, little of the text describes the sound. This a very large speaker & most set-ups & reviews I've seen (soundstage/stereophile)have the speaker in very normal sized rooms that I would think were much too small for the speaker...

http://www.vandersteen.com/pages/Pdffiles/Model%205A%20Reprint.pdf

I'm not a big fan of the Wilson sound either, and Hardesty doesn't SEEM to have an agenda. Who knows for sure, but I think he's just telling it the way he hears it. Only way to tell for sure is to listen for yourself. I thought the review was pretty well done, but in kind of an "expose" style. I've heard the Maxx2s a few times, and IMHO they're way overpriced for what they offer. But one man's turd is another man's gold nugget, so go figure . . . .