Wilson MAXX


I had an opportunity the other day to compare Wilson MAXX 1 with WATT PUPPY 7 in a friend's house. Quite to my surprise, WATT PUPPY 7 was superior in almost all frequencies and I wonder how is it possible that MAXX which is almost 3 times more expensive sounded so dull compared to WATT PUPPY 7. The midrange was congested and tweeter lacked the icy impression and openness and bass was not tight and so on....
I am really confused how is it possible. My frinds who have MAXX and were present in the audition had the same feeling and I do not know if anyone has an answer since the set up and room acoustics were the same during the audiotion?
Thanks if anyone has an opinion!!
fpooyandeh
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
Not surprising 2 different speakers arent both going to cut it in the same room.Just a thought,cheers,Bob
for those w/ experience, what is minimum distance one has to sit away from maxx's in order to get proper blending of drivers? (and i assume this is for the MTM module, as bass is omnidirectional, yes?)
thx
As i said before http://stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/wilson_audio_specialties_maxx_series_3_loudspeaker/index6.html

here is the measurement of the 3 , he puts the microphone on 1 measurement on the same spot as the ear would be in a certain listening room( mike fremer ), as english is not mu first language i dont know exactly when he means degrees or distance , he probaly measured the MTM and also the total output including Bass unit "in a certain room "

For my own designs the minimum distance is 2,5 meters , bass is omnidirectional yes , i dont exactly know from which exact frequency , anyway i find the bass output fairly complicated to measure correctly.

You can also ask a wilson dealer , if you find somebody with a good frequencyresponse measuring tool he could then measure exactly what you hear on the hearingspot and what changes as you move the speakers , and the measure again