Wilson Maxx3 vs Avalon Isis

I have heard both Maxx3 and Isis in dealer room recently, both driven by SS amps....Goldmund Telos 200 and Pass labs 350.5 for former, and Ayre MX-R for later. With the amps used, Maxx3 had more slam and weight and scale, Isis was more refined and holographic and sweeter treble extension.
I would guess both should sound better with tubes. But for Isis, the need for big, powerful tube amps and the heat and all that would be something to consider.

I heard the Max 3 at a dealer recently.What I noticed is that the speakers are still a little slow sounding to my ears. Perhaps due to the fact that Wilson persists in using what I consider to be outdated drivers.
I haven't heard the Isis but at least they appear to be more advanced in their driver technology.

Hey Alec,

Rtn1 referred to a review of the Isis in HiFi+, which was done by Roy Gregory, (my favorite audio magazine, and my favorite reviewer, btw.) It is a very good article. He also names the Isis as his speaker of choice for that year.

Also, just be chance, Roy also reviewed the Maxx 2 (not the Maxx 3, but I would imagine that they are probably very similar in sonics). That was a really interesting article in some of the things that he brings up.

Have you had a chance to read either review?
If not, and if you don't have access to those issues, (Numbers 46 and 48 I believe), drop me another line, and I will scan both as pdf files and send them to you.

Good Luck in your search.

Hi Rob,

Yes indeed I have read both articles. Thanks.

I auditioned the Isis again yesterday and for fun brought my Lamm ML2.1 SET amps (18w) along. Not surprisingly, the Lamm was insufficient power for complex music. However, when we cranked up the pre-amp (Ayre KX-R) all the way to within 80%-90% of the maximun, the Lamm was as loud as the Ayre MX-R (a 300 watter), and harmonically richer even though bass was flabby. And on simple vocals, there was no comparison..Lamm ML2.1's did better. Obviously, driving the Lamm this hard will shorten tube life, and not recommended. But the Isis dealer took his hats off to a 18W SET.

After two rounds of listening, I feel the Isis has a lot of potential, but associated equipment need to be well matched as well as top rate in order to bring out the true magic of these speakers.

Hi, Kurt_tank:

I have owned maxx 2's and now maxx 3's. They are pretty different speakers with the maxx 3 having more beauty, more resolution, more coherance, wider deeper stage and (much) more transparency.

Janeb: certainly everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But I would never chartacterize the Wilsons as slow...really any model. I have a good fried in Dallas, with Dali Megalines with 6 foot ribbon tweeters as point of comparison. Wilson still has state of the are treble, regardless of the "time of technology" they are currently using. The new Maxx 3 is really close to the Alexandria series 1. It's really the comparison to make on this speaker...