Awful sound from B&W's: Break In needed?

Hi Chazzbo,

I bought the entire system recently, so I am just supposing that the harshness is not caused by the A80 or the CD120...do you think it is possible that the problem is in the amp? I am sure that I am not psychotic about the bad sound. I had a good system in Brazil, before I came to the US, and the sound was more open, warm, and pleasant to my ears. I had a rotel 965 CD, a Pioneer A400 amp and B&W 804 speakers.

I own several pairs of B&W speakers, and all of them required quite a bit of break in time. The 602 S3 is a nice speaker for the money. Give it some time, and I think you'll really like it.

Eben.

remember also that b&w speakers are very sensitive to speaker placement. try playing around with that. also, what kind of cables are you using? i used to run nordost blue heavens to my 804s which made them sound a bit harsh. after I switched purist audio cables the sound smoothed out and sounded very nice. finally, it could be your electronics are not a good match with b&w.

i have the 601 s3 in my bedroom and to me they sound very full and rich.

I'm using Kimber kable 8VS for the loudspeakers, bicabled in this economic way: 2 strands for the tweeter and 6 strands for the mid--bass...these cables are not cheap and were well rated by Hi-Fi choice. I use Van Den Hul The Source Interconnect.