I owned a pair of 10Ts for about 8 mos. in 1997. I don't know if they have changed since then. I liked the bass, but found the speaker someshat closed in and veiled like there was too much crossover or wire in the speaker. I also had a pair of Dynaudio Contour 1.8 Mk. IIs which I ended up preferring because they simply sounded more open and alive sounding. I was driving them with Bryston 7BSTs. Perhaps the amp was not right, but the Dynaudios sounded good with them. Of course the Dynaudios have their problems which led me to keep looking. I tried the Gallo Solo which was wonderfully transparent but tonally thin to my ears in the upper bass and lower midrange and then the Merlin VSM SE all the while thinking I needed to stay with a 2-way design to achieve the clarity and liveness I wanted. I played with subwoofers for the bass. The Merlin just is ment to be driven with tubes if the tonal balance is to be right and I didn't want to have a tube amp. I tried many amps, wires, cables and tweeks but ended up selling the Merlins. At the time I had a Joule Vamp amp and a Clayton S-40 amp. The Merlins sounded best with the Joule. I have a Joule LA 100 Mk,III preamp. This was the first of this year and my tech funds were doing well so I thought I would throw some money at my speaker situation. I was interested in the Vandersteen 5 speakers and the B&W 802s. I took a trip to Atlanta to hear the Vandys and was quite impressed with the clarity and particularly the bass. The best bass I have ever heard. I felt there was a sterility to the sound however which of course may not have had anything to do with the speakers, but the demo did not overwhelm me. I then went to a B&W dealer to listen to the 802s if I could. He had to rearrange things a bit and did rather a sloppy job setting them up but from the first thing I listened to I was blown away by the tonal beauty. Instruments sounded just right. I love big band music and Basie and Kenton reed sections were extremely convincing. Granted they were set up with Krell 250Ms and Krell CD player, but that was the sound I wanted. I came back home and went to my local B&W dealer who didn't have a pair of 802s to listen to, but did have 803s which I took home to try. I really liked them and almost bought them but in the end couldn't resist the 802s particularly when I found out that the tweeter and midrange drivers are not the same in the 803s and 802s. The 801s and 802s share the same drivers. I was sceptical that the 802s would sound better, but they didn't disappoint. I am thrilled with them. They Have the clarity and liveness of two ways with enormous loudness capability. I did not think the bass was lacking at all but since I had a REL StadiumII sub woofer I was using with the Merlins I put it in and found more and better bass. The REL is an amazing product.I didn't like the 802s with the Joule amp but I did with the Clayton although not nearly enough power. I tried the Plinius 100 Mk.III and that had great bass, but was really boring--just no life to the sound. I tried the new McCormak 225 which was good and very good in a vertical bi-amp configuration, but just didn't have the life and tonal verity of the Clayton. So I traded the Plinius and Clayton s-40 for a pair of Clayton M-100 monos. This is the best so far and where I am now wwith Analysis Plus silver speaker wire. I still know I am not getting everything the speaker is capable of. Maybe if the market comes back I will get into even more serious amplification. Sorry to bore you but high end audio is tricky and quite complex. Probably if you hear the two speakers you will immediately know which you prefer. Let me assure you that the 802 is a great speaker and you should hear it before you buy a 10T.
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- 14 posts total
- 14 posts total