A brutal review of the Wilson Maxx

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.

People, who cares what the speakers cost. It is up to the person who is buying the speaker to determine if it is worth the price or not. If I buy a speaker for 1,000 and I think it is worth the money fine. If I buy a speaker for 100,000 and I think it is worth the money fine. I am the one who is determining what value it has to me. Why do we care that Wilson can sell a speaker for 50K and people buy it? Sure a lot of it has to do with marketing like everything else sold in the US. Just because one person writes a "bad" review who cares. I hope you are not buying gear based on what someone says! How about going and listening to the gear and decide for yourself. You know you are the person who will have to live with the gear, not the reviewer. There have been tons of gear that have gotten wonderful reviews in the mags and even here on Audiogon that I thought sounded like crap. Guess what I didn't buy it because I listened to it for myself.

SO are you saying that all are EQUALLY colored, or do you agree that some are MUCH less colored than others? ANd what would COLORED mean, if not flat freq response, distortion and phase? Assuming you agree that some speakers are LESS colored than others (and I doubt very much you will even agree to that) should we not term the LESS colred speakers as BETTER able to reproduce the input signal, and hence as having GREATER FIDELITY?

Wow, you really are full of baloney aren't you Mr. Fremer?
YOu make it sound like all speakers are equally colored, and it's really all about subjective impressions. But then I suppose that is the mantra of most of the highend advertising copy magazines today.

Note: I am not questioning your honesty and am not saying you don't believe what you say. I am merely questioning your intelligence and perspicacity if you REALLY hold the opinions expressed in your post above, after all thes eyears of reviewing.

Long Time Stereo DIYer.

PS I will be interested to see how quickly the Wilsons are sold by you at a proce HIGHER than your "Accomodation price" on audiogon or some such forum.

first of all, no wife in history ever 'insisted' that their audiophile husband buy 'another' pair of loudspeakers. secondly, the commercial publications don't really believe that reviews are any more than a means to an end. advertising dollars 'first' and entertainment 'second' are the only two criteria that serve any real purpose. reviews of a manufacturer's products in publications (that use advertising dollars from those very manufacturers as their lifeblood) are not completely objective-ever. the day the tough questions are asked about 'real' value, and adjectives like 'so-so' appear, the advertising stops. the hi end companies and the magazines/websites are in a business climate where they need each other like they need oxygen. the only two golden rules in this hobby are "your opinion is the only one that really means anything", and the second is "rule number one still applies, even if you're an idiot who wastes your hard earned money on an ubber-expensive 'anything' that hastens this industry's demise.

Matrix, according to the Hardesty review the Zu cannot possibly reproduce the midrange properly using a 10 inch driver!! Maybe Mr. Hardesty is too hung up on theory and not using his ears enough?

Mr. Fremer, very nice response. But why go to Avery Fisher when you have an excellent orchestra in your home state in a much better-sounding hall down in Newark?