Best MUSICAL subwoofer for Maxx 2's quality sound?

For what its worth I wonder that the issue with base may not be a function of your amplifier. The Mac 1201, while a great amp, has if I recall an autotransformer. A chap I know has the exact same set up and complained to me about not having enough base. Though i am not terribly knowledgable about this, I spoke with a friend of mine who is very familiar with the area and he was concerned that the amp would not work well with the type of load a maxx 2 presents. This is not said to stir up angst or anger but just an observation. The maxx 2 are great by the way. Good luck

Cytocycle,

Yes, of course that can happen. But I'd have to say that that's just poor room/speaker match. In that price range, one can afford the right speaker for the room, or even to build the right room for the speaker. He's already paid for bass -- of extraordinarily high quality and for huge $. To add a sub to an already full range speaker, diddling with crossovers, "reinforcing" what's not working right, is throwing money and compromise at a problem that should be addressed at its root.

Anyway, just saying "away from walls" won't explain why he lacks bass. Of course imaging is best away from walls, and $50k Wilsons are built to have great bass where they image best (I have to assume). So either his speakers are set up not just away from walls but in a particularly poor spot for bass -- in which case either move 'em to somewhere else away from walls, or they really are irremediably mismatched with the room -- or the problem is the amp/speaker combo, as Gajgmusic suggests (that's my bet).

Rmm4--read robert harleys article on the jl113 with the maxx in absolute sound--it may help clarify a few things

Ras422: Quote from March 2007 Review in Absolute Sound
http://www.avguide.com/products/product-3851/ if you have an account to download the PDF article or see below for the quote.

"So I added the Fathom to the mighty
Wilson MAXX 2 loudspeakers, crossing
the system over at 50Hz. In effect, the
Fathom replaced the Wilson’s bass below
50 cycles. This was a different kind of
torture test for a subwoofer; the MAXX 2
has an extraordinary bottom end in every
respect: dynamic coherence, transient
fidelity, extension, ability to play loudly
without strain, and resolution of bass
detail. Nonetheless, adding the Fathom
didn’t degrade the MAXX 2’s bottom end
and even extended the system’s response
in the very lowest registers (kick drum and
pipe organ territory). I was also able to
achieve a continuous transition between
the MAXX 2 and the Fathom; the bottomend
sounded “of a piece,” rather than as
if a weight were dragging down the rest
of the spectrum. I also ran the MAXX 2s
full-range, with the Fathom coming in at
30Hz with the steepest possible low-pass
roll-off (24dB/octave)."