Bowers and Wilkerson B&W 802 D3: an impolite Brit?

+1Jimmy and Eniac. Well said - why indeed if you have a history like B&W would you not put your speakers in a "commercial" environment to allow potentials coming into a shrinking industry the experience of high end. There is always the danger someone might buy them! Yikes!

I live in a metro area and have several brick and mortars near me and I never feel comfortable going in unless I plan on a purchase and I have made many from them all and still feel like I am getting a TSA evaluation when I walk in.....not intending to open a new can of worms or high jack the thread. But at Magnolia as a consumer I feel the ball is in my court for a change.

Back to B&W I have always admired from afar and liked what I have heard demo wise. I am a 20 year Thiel user so I can appreciate the robust discussion and different opinions.

"The fact of the matter is that it's unlikely that the sound you hear while demoing a pair of speakers at the typical high end dealer will be anything like how it will sound in your own home so one needs to take what they hear with a grain of salt in either demo room."

I wouldn't say that is a fact. There's a lot you tell about a speaker by listening to it, even if its not in your system. Also, I don't follow your logic because you go on to say this.

"I can't knock them for a minute for wanting to take advantage of putting their gear in the face of the average Joe who shops at Best Buy who probably doesn't even know what a high end speaker is supposed to sound like."

If your first statement is true, then I don't see how this one can be either. If there is not going to be any consistency, then there is no reason to expect a B&W speaker to be any better than a less expensive alternative.

"It seems logical to me to think that if ones chooses a B&W 800 as their speaker of choice and listens to a track created by some of the big name studios who use the same 800 series as their reference then at least they can rest easy knowing that what they are hearing was close enough for the recording engineer who made it."

Again, I can't follow the logic. If you can't expect the B&W 800 to sound in your home anything like it does at the dealer, then why would it sound the same as the ones in the recording studio? All 3 setup's should sound completely different.

Forgive me being non-technical, but isn't it just a matter of taste? I had some 801 s3, I didn't like them because to me they sounded good on just a few CDs. I told the buyer I didn't like them and played several average CDs for him and he loved them. Then I played a cd that sounded great. He is still listening to them after 7-8 years.

I agree with the audition them yourself camp, the saddest situation I can think of is buying something for any reason other than YOU liking and enjoying them. However, I do appreciate opinions, but in the end I do what I want.

Going to see Jackson Browne tonight. I'll let you know how the crowd surfing goes. Hope I don't tear my sweater vest..,

No....
Either not fully broken in or wire in the system that is not a neutral wire.

Years ago as a dealer for Meadowlark I got a lot of inquiries about the Herons and Blue Herons from guys with the 802, 801, and 800S, their main complaint being that they made their ears bleed.

My first question was did they have at least 700 hours on them, if not that is a problem. Second question was what interconnects and speaker wires were they using? It was an easy sale to get them to try 800 interconnects and $1100 bi-wire speaker cables, problem fixed and very happy campers.

B&W has the same reputation for being ruthless as any monitor caliber accurate speaker like Wilson Audio, because the Watts are 25,000+ those buyers tend to be willing to spend more on cables, in fact they are told upfront by most dealers that they are going to have to.

Mid range cables by the big mainstream culprits have made more people's ears bleed on these speakers than they would like to acknowledge. Many dealers attribute it to needing better cables or higher end electronics, they want to sell components

I had just posted and made the point that the ruthlessly accurate speakers like Wilson Audio are system and wire dependent. If you can't figure out the neutral wire needed you aren't going to like this kind of studio monitor quality, you want politely altered presentations.