A brutal review of the Wilson Maxx

Arthur - interesting site that I was unaware of. I'm hesitant to take sides in this dispute, however I can certainly concede that the language used in Mr. Fremer's correspondence (if accurate) is very unprofessional. While he's not a professional athelete, I'm sure some folks, young or old look up to him in his position and I would expect better.

High end audio is a business. My guess is that it's neither as pure as MF suggests or as corrupt as you do. Thank goodness we all have the opportunity to listen/audition equipment ourselves.

This makes interesting reading, but please, except for Fremer, for whom this IS his life, everybody needs to get one. Sit, back enjoy your equipment, and stop looking for external validation for how you spend your hard-earned dolars. All we nned to round out this thread is Romy the Cat.

David Shapiro

Grooves - Questions Stereophile never answers. Could you be so kind as to let me know?
RE: coloration in speakers. In the interest of defining "coloration":
1) Why can't Stereophile measure / publish speaker distortion? The on-line mag SoundStage does.
2) Why can't Stereophile measure / publish right & left speaker matching in dB output?

RE: Ethics:
Even this month, JA says Stereophile has a "5 dealer rule" yet turns around and does a review of UpScale Audio's Prima-Luna amp. Stated number of dealers: 1.
Same thing when M-F gear was an Audio Advisor exclusive. What's up with that?

BTW:
My $17 Tang-Band W3-871s drivers (ELF 1.0 speakers / Denon UD-M31 mini system /Marantz CD-500) are so uncolored when a fire siren came on during a song my girlfriend came out of the bathroom - door was open - and asked where the firetrucks were going. This has happened to me numerous times with telephone ringing and a noise sounding like my kitchen timer. Even when I KNEW it was coming up on the CD, still got tricked.

So every speaker is colored. And every step I take causes the earth to changes its direction of rotation too.

I understand your point, just expect a lot more from a $20,000 speaker than a $200 speaker.

Arthur welcome to Audiogon.
I will sidestep with a question.Which store did you own in Toronto back in the day?I was puzzled and had a conversation with a fellow audiobuddy regarding this a while ago,he didn't know either.I am asking just out of curiocity.I was around when Adrian Low had a basement store on Spadina I believe before he made big with Audio Excellence on Bathurst/#7 and of course I knew Angie since she was at National Sound on Queen St,before she moved to Yonge north at American Sound.Where your store was located?
E-mail directly if you want.
I do find Fremer a little aggressive as well espesially since he is an industry personality.IMO.
No opinion on the Wilson's I can't afford them even used.
Regards
George

Arthur,
I've enjoyed your site for some time. It's important that SOMEONE points it out when the king,indeed,has no clothes. It's ok for people to spend their money anyway they want but they should be informed when a product is selling at a profit margin an order of magnitude above it's competitors. This actually is a marketing strategy to attract wealthy custumers who equate expense with quality. I believe that reviewers have an ethical responsibility to point this out to their readers. They may still want the " Wilson sound " but they should know that they are not ,infact, expensive speakers to produce. Reviewers should not underestimate how important their ratings are to potential customers. Look at what Parkers ratings do to wine prices. The subjective opinion of a single reviewer can quadruple (or more) the price of a bottle. If Stereophile gives a class A then it is included in the companies marketing campaign and MANY people buy based on this.Check out A-gons dicussion forums and see how many relate to the latest "buzz" created by magazine "reviews". This is acomplished because we are dying for someone to tell us what is good rather than doing the hard work ourselves and we are addicted to ratings so that we can compare ourselves to others. It seems to me that Wilson epitomizes this. If you truly love them by all means buy them . I just think you should be more fully informed. Jim