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So I heard some B&W Signature 805s today...

...at a local dealer, and to be honest, I wasn't that impressed. I listened with a goldmund amp to VTL pre from a Rega P9 with a high-level grado cart.

I'm trying to find a no-compromise stand-mounted monitor speaker that I can live with for a very, very long time. I don't think the B&Ws are it.

They did do some things right - imaging was superb, they do have a very big-spacious sound which I enjoy, bass was pretty good... but! there was something not right in the midrange, that I couldn't quite pinpoint. It was as though the sound got mushed in the middle, and didn't resolve right. It just wasn't a clean, clear good sound. When pushed to moderately-loud volume, the speakers were fatiguing. I just wanted to turn it down. The tweeter was a little metallic sounding and excessive for my tastes as well.

So that you understand my tastes a bit better... I think the Wilson Sophia (~$12k) sounds absolutely fantastic. Detailed yet smooth, excellent soundstaging, wonderful tonality. The B&W sound that I heard was much heavier in the middle, in a not good way.

Has anyone else had a similar/different experience with these speakers?

Do you have any other recommendations for a no-compromise (other than low bass) monitor for me to audition? I would LOVE to find one that sounds (to me) as good as the wilson Sophia, just without the low bass. I'll add a REL. I have a small room (14.5 x 13 ft).

Right on,

Todd
goatwuss
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
You heard it at the dealer. Unless you are very intimate with their gear, cables, their room placement, turntable alignment, etc, etc; don't be too quick to blame the speakers alone for what you hear. They could just as likely be accurately revealing a sonic problem elsewhere.

Both them and the Wilsons are good speakers..

Is your system at home the same as theirs?

If the rest of your system is pretty much complete at home, see if they will let you borrow their demo pair for a day at your house, before you dish out big bucks for anything.
mt10425
1,138 posts
 
Interesting experience. I find that midrange is the only strength that B&W speakers have aside from the other attributes you found.
stanwal's avatar
stanwal
3,147 posts
 
I have not purchased anything based on a showroom audition since sometime in the 60s. I can remember listening with a friend at Meyer-Emco in DC to some 801s driven by some very expensive electronics, we broke out laughing when we got outside. I was a B&W dealer and couldn't have made them sound so bad if I had tried. When I bought my Duetta Signatures they sounded horrible at the dealer, they are hard to set up. The moral is , showroom evaluation is almost useless, try to hear them at home or in someone else's home that knows how to set them up. Stan
cdc
1,787 posts
 
Try Focus FS-688's:
{url=http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/focusaudio_fs688.htm]Focus FS-688[/url]
Or Merlin TSM's.
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