Thanks for the confirmation, guys.
I have no problem w/ VTL amps, I'm sure in the right setup they can be magic.
I really posted this because the mfgr and dealers could be harmed with this crap making it out into the public eye.
I've heard the M&Ds once, at Phil's rave, and I was very impressed.
-Mike
Hi Mike. I brought the M&D Maximus to Phil's may rave. I thought Phil's room was under damped, which negated some of the mid-range to let the Maximus really shine. I had borrowed them from the manufacturer, along with their smaller Topaz monitors to demonstrate at several tri-state audio club meetings. At one of the club meetings, I asked Roy to review them, to which he agreed. He initially had them toed in, but found they had too much treble energy on some recordings in his room. He then towed them out as he expressed in his review, and preferred them that way. After the two week audition, I went and got them back. I listen to them for about two hours before we packed them up. I thought they sounded pretty good with his VTL monoblocs. The sound staging was very good and I didn't hear any excess treble. After the audition, Roy stated to me that he generally liked the speakers, especially the bass. His only real reservation was that the treble could be a little ragged on some recordings, depending on the source material. I suggested that maybe M&D could install a tweeter control, to which he agreed. I conveyed this sentiment to the M&D USA president in an email. He forwarded the email to the designer in Shanghai, who responded by thanking me for the suggestion and in fact is thinking of installing the feature in some of their models.
After the audition, Roy even said to me that if they were cheaper, he would buy a pair to use as a reviewing tool, as the Maximus is very revealing. Every time he substituted a different component, the Maximus revealed the difference. About a month later when the review came out, I was surprised to read what he had wrote. It didn't matched his comments to me. I thought the review was disjointed, rambling and generally negative. I called him and told him I didn't read any of the positive things he conveyed to me after the audition. He replied that he referred to his notes when he was writing the review and that's how it came out, and once the review was published he couldn't change it. I've known Roy for close to 20 years as members of the same audio club, and it seems out of character to me that he would write such an incoherent review.
I have listened extensively to both the Maximus and Topaz monitors in both my systems with different components and found them to be generally good speakers with the exception of the ragged treble on some recordings. The problem to my ears when this happens is not excessive treble energy but a bit of grit in the upper mid-range and lower treble. My room is well damped and I used mostly tube equipment for the audition. I heard enough good things at CES to ask for a loan from the manufacturer.
Anyway, a friend called and told me he was looking for new speakers as he was dissatisfied with his Thiel CS2s. He hadn't listen to his system for a year because he didn't like the Thiels. I told him I had both the M&Ds on loan. He asked to borrow them and after two weeks of listening, he called to say he wanted to buy the Maximus. He's very happy with them and is finally listening to music again. He told me the bass on the Maximus is much better defined than the Thiels. Also, the treble is clearer. I put him in touch with M&D. Two months later, he called again and said he's listening to music more now than he ever did with the Thiels. I'm not endorsing M&D speakers in any way. I'm merely pointing out that what's sour to one person is sweet to another. Sorry for the long post.
Paul
