In yet another turnaround, I found myself smitten by the $49k Wilson MAXX IIs—speakers that have not always impressed me in the past. Clearly part of the MAXX IIs’ newfound appeal (for me) was attributable to the source material—the great recording engineer Peter McGrath’s fabulous mastertapes (or, in this case, masterdata recorded to hard drive), including simply phenomenal recordings of the Copland Third Symphony, the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto, and the Brahms Piano Quintet and Viola Sonata. We probably could have been listening to Dixie Cups and strings, and I still would have been wowed by the McGrath sound. As it was—driven by very powerful but somewhat analytical $40k Boulder 2060 stereo amp, the $40k Boulder 2010 preamp, and the $37k Boulder 2020 DAC (fed from Peter’s hard drive), the MAXX IIs had tremendous dynamic authority and slam in the bass (and everywhere else, though they tended to be a bit bright, rolled, and clinical in the treble). Still, in a show where the sound was less across-the-board good than it was last year, the MAXX IIs stood out.

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