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Am I the only one who thinks B&W is mid-fi?

I know that title sounds pretencious. By all means, everyones taste is different and I can grasp that. However, I find B&W loudspeakers to sound extremely Mid-fi ish, designed with sort of a boom and sizzle quality making it not much better than retail quality brands. At price point there is always something better than it, something musical, where the goals of preserving the naturalness and tonal balance of sound is understood. I am getting tired of people buying for the name, not the sound. I find it is letting the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. In these times of dying 2 channel, and the ability to buy a complete stereo/home theater at your local blockbuster, all of the brands that should make it don't. Most Hi-fi starts with a retail system and with that type of over-processed, boom and sizzle sound (Boom meaning a spike at 80Hz and sizzle meaning a spike at 10,000Hz). That gives these rising enthuists a false impression of what hi-fi is about. Thus, the people who cater to that falseified sound, those who design audio, forgetting the passion involved with listening, putting aside all love for music just to put a nickle in the pig...Well are doing a good job. Honestly, it is just wrong. Thanks for the read...I feel better. Prehaps I just needed to vent, but I doubt it. Music is a passion of mine, and I don't want to have to battle in 20 yrs to get equipment that sounds like music. Any comments?
mikez
subaruguru
1,376 posts
 
Cdc, At the time (2001): Modded Rotel 855 on Neuance through Pass Aleph P and 2 monos. It wasn't the upstream chain, as other speakers sounded better, and equally detailed...and imaged better (better pair-matching and coherence in the nearfield). Yes, Triangles and Thiels (exc the new 1.6) are too bright for me, too, but the Nautilus tweeter is just insufficiently padded, even in my very damped room....
BTW, sitting slightly OFF-axis exacerbates the brightness with the Nautilus 803-5 as the upper cross is at 4kHz, so the wider-dispersion tweeter REALLY flares out off axis as the already-recessed fine midrange driver further weakens in the upper mids as it progressively gets beamy.
Maybe putting a couple of grillcloths over the tweeter could take it down a dB or so? Would be a good start, eh?
Good night. Ern
kalan
185 posts
 
Just because Thiels, Triangles, and (I'll add) Chapman T-7s might all be bright, does not mean the B&W Nautilus 803's are not bright. All four could be bright. Some manufacturers seem to favor a bright-ish presentation.

Brightness and detail don't necessarily go together--as others have pointed out. Some of the more revealing speakers I've heard are also relaxed sounding: Ruark Solstice, mbl 101, and Maggie 3.6.

I spent an afternoon with the N 803's. Amplification was either Chord or YBA. "Bright" did NOT come to mind. Somewhat dull and uninvolving did. They seemed to need lots of power to come alive. Both rooms were large--no near-field listening. Cabling, rooms, and associated equipment could have accounted for my impression.

Nothing about the N 803's seemed worthy of their price nor the notice they seem to garner. Perhaps another audition under different conditions would prove otherwise
keis
176 posts
 
I had the same reaction. I listened to 803s powered by a Mark Levinson integrated amp and was terribly unimpressed. Muddy, confused sound stage, and no high end were my first impressions.
blackie
221 posts
 
I agree, personally I find the B&W + Levinson (383, etc.) combination very bland and uninvolving (and I own and am very happy with N803s). Remember that system matching is probably THE most important aspect of good sound. It isn't as simple as good speakers + good amp = good sound.
dannylw's avatar
dannylw
172 posts
 
I have listened to various B&W for over twenty five years, including the original 800's 801's, 802 etc. I also listened to the one that looked like, and it may have had an electrstatic element in it. Most of the systems I have heard that had B&W in them sound veiled and cloudy; this observation included WFMT's system in Chicago.

Then I heard a friend's 801 system that consisted of Roland Amps, Basis Table and Cal CD Player. This system had depth, imaging and transparency. it sounded like no other B&W system I had ever heard. It was truly impressive. I Have subsequently only heard one other B&W system with the new 801 Series or whatever its called sound spectacular. This system was an all Meridian system.

I have heard newer systems that again had the veiledboomy and cloudy sound. I can only say these speakers must be very picky about electronics. The sound was that dramatic from great to mid-fi.
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