Wilson MAXX II gets 'slammed' in the German audio press... - Tom Schuman

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Wilson MAXX II gets 'slammed' in the German audio press...

Posted by Tom Schuman (A) on December 18, 2006 at 14:45:04

The latest issue of the 'everyman' German hifi mag 'Audio' reviews the Wilson MAXX II, and they give it 91 points - not bad, but not good either for a speaker that sells here for 56,000 euro ($73k).

For comparison, the magazine's top rated speaker is the Alexandria X2 for â‚¬140k at 109 points (the JM Labs Grande Utopia BE is 104 points and 70k). At 91 points, most of the 'recommended list' of speakers retails around â‚¬5k, so the MAXX II is definitely not a bargain here.

The problem? While the panel review found the bass unmatched and the detail world-class, they just couldn't get around the response dips between 1 and 4 kHz, especially around 2,5kHz. All of which contributes to a lean, harmonically threadbare sound that the panel simply didn't like very much.

Even all the tuning possibilities that Wilson supplies with the speaker didn't fix the issue (spikes, height adjustment of the mid and treble unit, resistors) and the problems remained through different amplifiers and speaker cables.

Oops!

Is this what they call 'west coast sound'? Needless to say, it doesn't go over well over here in Europe. However, the Alexandria, the Watt Puppy and the Sophia do really well in the tests, so the MAXX II is a real anomaly.

Anyone want more detail from the test, just let me know and I'll do my best to translate from the German.

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Topic - Wilson MAXX II gets 'slammed' in the German audio press... - Tom Schuman 14:45:04 12/18/06 (14)

hifi+ in the UK were not that impressed either - Shane from AUS 10:07:18 12/22/06 (0)

these speakers do sound threadbare, but..... - jeromelang 01:48:07 12/20/06 (3)

how about non-anechoic chambers that people actually live in? (nt) - stuck.wilson@gmail.com 15:21:54 12/21/06 (0)

the measurements are room independent i think - Tom Schuman 01:55:04 12/21/06 (0)

Re: these speakers do sound threadbare, but..... - Ozzie 09:54:52 12/20/06 (0)

Lean and threadbare sound (can't resist commenting)... - docw 09:32:30 12/19/06 (2)

having heard the same setups - hifitommy 20:27:03 12/19/06 (1)

agree with hifitommy about the environs... - docw 09:48:47 12/20/06 (0)

I've always been amazed how American eviewers can hear everything but massive frequency response deviations (nt) - John Ashman 16:59:32 12/18/06 (4)

I think it's because.... - JimL 19:52:03 12/20/06 (1)

You could be right... - John Ashman 18:28:38 12/21/06 (0)

Boy, ain't *that* the truth. nt - markrohr 14:41:40 12/19/06 (0)

ROFL - Pat D 17:38:58 12/18/06 (0)

Re: Wilson MAXX II gets 'slammed' in the German audio press... - stuck.wilson@gmail.com 16:12:09 12/18/06 (0)

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