Wilson MAXX

Ratings are just ratings, and should be taken with care, but some years ago a German magazine preferred the Watt Puppy 7 with the Watchdog subwoofer to the MAXX2.

I auditioned the Max 3 and the Sashas in the same room with the same electronics at a dealer in Scottsdale. While both of these speakers are a couple of iterations beyond your original question, both my wife and I had the same experience and we prefered the Sashas. The Max played bigger, with a taller soundstage, and more bass impact. But the Sashas were much more coherent with better imaging and better overall tonal balance from bass through the treble. The room was about 20 X 25 X 9.

Room and set-up obviously play a key role. In spite of what some folks at Wilson say, I think you need a very large room for the Max and need to sit far enough away for the drivers to integrate properly.

Maxx 1 ,....watt/puppy version 7 , are you getting the point?
Technical designs are a process.

MAXX 1's were a bit incoherent! When I owned them they sounded like separate drivers instead of a wall of sound; and the tweeter was a bit etched. They killed my Watt/Puppy 5.1's however. I agree that sitting too close they don't sound their best even with the time alignment system designed into the model. I find my MAXX 2's superior in every way; much smoother top to bottom; much smoother, musical tweeter, great articulate bass with excellent extension. I actually prefer my 2's to the MAXX 3's which I have listen to at three different stores; one with Lamm; another with Krell and third with Boulder system. For me the Lamm was most musical, but lacked low end heft and volume. Next favorite was with Krell, last was Boulder. I'd love to know the electronics others were listening to when they felt the bass was poor. Set up of Wilson's take time and patience and very small placement adjustments can reap huge sound gains or losses!

I measure also a lot on loudspeakers for a hobby / commercially and indeed you need a certain distance from a loudspeaker to not measure individual units but the som of the outputs , this is especially he case with larger models like the big wilsons , stereophlle has tested/measurements on a couple of maxx es if you look at those frequency measurements you have an idea if its corresponds with what you hear .
Speakerplacement is also very important ,you can see that in the measurments too