Are Bowers and Wilkins speakers overpriced?


I see a lot of negative commentary on B&W. Why? Are they overpriced? Do they not sound as amazing as they look? Are they too “main stream”? - I love my 805 d3’s but curious why they get such a bad rep. 
paulgardner
dsper - They are overpriced because the tweeters are fatiguing

This is the most common complaint I have read about on many speakers. It is important to understand how any speaker was designed and tested (the type of room that was used, and associated gear ) - compared to the room and gear in which speakers are planned to be used.

Some audiophiles like to play roulette with their speakers; keep bringing in different ones, keeping the room and gear the same. Hoping to get a match.

I think the better approach when the high frequencies are fatiguing is to do one of two things.

1) Turn down the treble, or, 2) Turn up the bass.

You need equilibrium and both can be done by speaker room/angle positioning, different amps/preamps, etc...

Just angling the speakers outward a little may be all that is needed.

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Many audiophiles do not incorporate an EQ in their system so just adjusting the highs and lows is not an option. 
I wasn't referring to EQ. Turning down the treble, or turning up the bass is done first by speaker/room mods/angle positioning. If after that its still not working, look into appropriate gear (amps/preamps)  etc...

Many try to run B&W with amps that can't do 4 ohms well. Look at the amp's specs. The amps struggle and you get lean sound output - which makes the Highs dominant and fatiguing.     



.....and at the listener end. Your ears need to be the close to the same horizontal level as the midrange/tweeter. 
Raise/Lower speaker height or get a proper height chair.   


@ct0517 " Many try to run B&W with amps that can’t do 4 ohms well. Look at the amp’s specs. The amps struggle and you get lean sound output - which makes the Highs dominant and fatiguing."
The problem with that statement is that every time I’ve heard the 800 D3 series at either audio shows or dealers, the treble has been irritatingly bright and edgy, and they are no doubt using optimal amplification in those settings. I wish it weren’t the case, since they do sound good otherwise. Perhaps it’s just a matter of room reflections, but I don’t hear that same degree of treble edginess with other speakers, even the B&W 700 S2 series. Maybe it’s just that the 800 D3 series need sizable rooms in which to operate.