I wanted to buy the 801d's, just because I love the big arse speaker and love bass. After researching the 801d to death (not may customers have the 801d and post about them), not hearing the 801d and auditioning the 800d's, I bought the Wilson Sophia 2's.
The Sophia 2's at that time were 6-7K cheaper and sounded better. I did not choose based on value or price. If the 800d's sounded better I would have went with them.
But my sidetracked point is this, I was upgrading the B&W 803d's (used with MC501 amps) and those speakers were power hungry, no doubt about that.
Just going by the looks of those 801d's, I would not pair them up with the MC501's, but would get more amp like the latest McIntosh kilowatt monoblock amps.
The 803d's I upgraded from really needed juice before they came alive and I had to wait for my neighbor (shared 1 common wall) to leave before fully enjoying the music. Then I would play a dance where I would crank it as far as the amp would go without it clipping (light turns on from PowerGuard).
With the Wilsons, even though the speaker specifications says indicate they are less efficient than pretty much any speaker in the the B&W line, I use less amp to drive them and never (not yet anyway) dance with the PowerGuard light. The Sophias are rated 4 ohm (just noting that).
The other thing I want to share with you is a suggestion, listen to the Wilson line if you haven't already (Sophia2, Sasha), especially when plunking down as much money as your talking. I would litterally take a plane trip to a store that has them on demo if you can't listen locally (or long drive, fun weekend, whatever) to hear the wilsons before spening 800d kind of cash.
The Sophia 2's at that time were 6-7K cheaper and sounded better. I did not choose based on value or price. If the 800d's sounded better I would have went with them.
But my sidetracked point is this, I was upgrading the B&W 803d's (used with MC501 amps) and those speakers were power hungry, no doubt about that.
Just going by the looks of those 801d's, I would not pair them up with the MC501's, but would get more amp like the latest McIntosh kilowatt monoblock amps.
The 803d's I upgraded from really needed juice before they came alive and I had to wait for my neighbor (shared 1 common wall) to leave before fully enjoying the music. Then I would play a dance where I would crank it as far as the amp would go without it clipping (light turns on from PowerGuard).
With the Wilsons, even though the speaker specifications says indicate they are less efficient than pretty much any speaker in the the B&W line, I use less amp to drive them and never (not yet anyway) dance with the PowerGuard light. The Sophias are rated 4 ohm (just noting that).
The other thing I want to share with you is a suggestion, listen to the Wilson line if you haven't already (Sophia2, Sasha), especially when plunking down as much money as your talking. I would litterally take a plane trip to a store that has them on demo if you can't listen locally (or long drive, fun weekend, whatever) to hear the wilsons before spening 800d kind of cash.