No bass on B&W 800D2

Curious.

I remember auditioning these very speakers in an audio store and was astonished at the challenges in bass they had in the audition. The speakers were interacting with the room to cause serious phase cancellations in the bass region. The owner of the store acknowledged the challenges in set up he was having. They are capable of great bass - but there are challenges.

A couple of thoughts:

Are you sure both speakers are in good working order as I assume you purchased them second hand. Try listening to 1 speaker at a time - do they sound the same (and bass deficient) on a mono recording? If they don’t sound deficient, it’s a phase cancellation and room interaction. If they do, see my next point.

I’m not familiar with the particular Classe amp - are they up to the task?  Even at low power, current matters a lot. If I recall correctly, these particular B&W models had some challenging impedance curves which make them hard to drive. It’s not watts, but current.

Sorry if this seems a dumb question - did you check the polarity of your speaker cables to make sure they’re correct? That would certainly cause a cancellation. 

Good luck.

Check to make sure that each speaker is wired with the same polarity.  On rare occasions, speaker leave the factory with mismatched polarity.  In addition to lack of bass, the centre image will be ill defined.  To test, use a 9v battery and touch the positive and negative speaker cables to the corresponding battery terminal.  The woofer cone should move forward.  Check each speaker. 

@mgrif104 thanks for your reply. Yes, I’ve run them individually and confirmed they are in phase. The drivers all work. Speakers are cosmetically and mechanically in like new condition. 
 

they’re in the same spot as the 802s and since the cabinet geometry and location of the bass port are so similar I’m surprised the difference is so big. They just sound anemic in the main listening position without subs. 
 

while I partially made up for it by crossing my subs higher and dialing them up, they only fill in below 80 and I’m also noticing some lack of authority in the lower octaves of voices and instruments above 80hz that I cannot compensate for with subs. 
 

I think the amp is fine, it’s faired very well in reviews. They produce bass and are cleaner than the 802s, but sound pressure wise it feels like half of the bass output the 802s produced. Unfortunately I had to sell them before the 800s arrived, so I could not A/B test. 

I think @testpilot makes a great suggestion to check to ensure the speakers are internally wired correctly.

It’s most likely a room interaction issue, but I also think you should explore your amplifier choice as those speakers are hard to drive. Do you have an option of borrowing a different one? 

By way of example: I personally know of someone who had a large Bryston (lots of watts) stereo amp in front of his also hard to drive T+A speakers which were completely lacking bass despite being well regarded full range floor standers. He replaced the Bryston with a T+A integrated amp (reference HV series - lots of current) and the bass difference was astonishing. It all fleshed out and reached down low such that he could hardly believe the difference. So, worth exploring before you give up. They’re great speakers.

What cables are you using?