Any feedback on the new B&W 802D's

Having spent a little time with the 803D and 802D, I did not hear it the way Ez2hear did. The diamond tweeter is very smooth and very nice, the new Rohacell bass drivers give a nice tight bass and the speakers were seemless top to bottom, once they got some hours on them; I greatly enjoyed listening to both.

Compuman99,
They sound excellent, but i'm selling mine to buy a pair of Watt puppy 7s. I'm not sure how they compare to the Sophia though, that is a cheaper speaker than the Puppy 7s. The 802Ds do sound excellent. I have a classified up for them if you are interested...

Ez2hear,
What you are experiencing is valid and you can solve that problem in a few ways or in a combination of ways. One is to remove the wheels and buy the optional spikes for your carpet, or the plastic stumps for your floor. Two is to move the speaker out 4 feet from all walls. Third is to buy a room conditioner and let it fix the problems without you having to move the speakers or change the wheels.

I think the third solution is the best, but it is also the most expensive, but if you change speakers you can use it with whatever new gear you use, and it is pretty cool that you can change your speakers' response to the room at any time to anyting you want, even just for fun. You use a mic and a computer hooked up to the room conditioner equipment to get whatever response curves you want for the room. I believe there have been recent reviews of one by TacT in magazines.

I auditioned the Wilson Sofia's and the B&W 802D's. At first I was very amazed by the Sofia's and was leaning toward buying them. However, the more I auditioned, and the more I compared the two, I came to the conclusion that the B&W is (IMHO) the better speaker. The Sofia's began to sound very bright...and sort of gimmicky. At first, I was lured into the bright sound of the Wilson's but after more and more listening they just didn't hold up (too bright). I had a chance to compare the B&W's side by side with the Sofia's at three different locations and with many types of music. In the end, I bought the B&W's and they are wonderful, especially with lots of clean power they love. To sum it up, the sofia's had a sound of their own (very bright and tight), the B&W's seem to simply reproduce exactly what was fed to them. They are great speakers and I am not sorry I chose them over the Sofia's...in fact, I feel I did my homework and worked my way through "initial" reactions and the political hype. You should buy what you like but give yourself time. A few years ago I would have bought the sofia's right away. I am glad that I spent the time and work to find, for me, what I believe is a speaker I can live with in my home for a good number of years.

I agree with Jppenn,

If I had taken my time and auditioned the Watt Puppy 7s more with other equipment, in particular Ayre equipment, I would have saved up and bought those instead of impulsively buying the 802Ds.

I love the 802D sound, it is very neutral and thus true to the recordings you play on them (also very revealing), but that same neutrality causes them to play a little flat and one dimensional, whereas the Wilson Audio Watt Puppy 7 has a deep 3 dimensional soundstage in comparison. The Watt puppy 7 is almost twice the price of the 802D though.

I did however look into trading the 802D up for a 800D, but I found I experienced the same problem with the 800D even though it had more detail and precision of image it still lacked dimensionality, and this was with it connected to an expensive Halcro amp and the expensive dCS stack. I have not tried the 802D or 800D connected to Ayre gear though, and perhaps that would make a difference, but I doubt it since Halcro is noted as having a very large 3 dimensional soundstage. This is why I am selling my 802D almost brand new and in mint condition, to put the money towards the Watt Pupp 7...

I have not tried the 802D or 800D connected to Ayre gear though...

If your going to purchase the Ayre gear no matter what, why not try them on the 802D's?