B&W, Dynaudio, Dali or what else?

It all depends on what you are trying to accomplish.

I have the Dali MS 4 with a really terrific subwoofer and the speakers are amazing setup that way!

The B&W are bland and don't soundstage as well.

The Dynaudio's are very good but the Dali ribbon tweeter is amazing!

The other speakers out there that are the next level are the Usher BE 20 which is in reality a $40k speaker for less than $20k and the Escalante Freemont.

The Usher uses a pure Beryillium midrange and tweeter and offers amazing resolution and speed, the bass is provided by dual 10 inch Eton woofers the same that Kharma uses!

The Escalante Freemont is a radical new design from the brilliant Thiery Budge. Thiery was the head engineer for both Wilson and Talon. The Freemont's are explosivly dynamic and offer terrific bass. The soundstage is very wide as well. This is a fascinating design.

I am a dealer for all three depending on where you live you may want to pop in for a session.

Thanks a lot guys. This is a lot of info that I have to chew on for a while. I kind of stumbled into a small Audio Show last year in Norway and had chance to listen to the B&W 802D, plus some of the larger Usher speakers. I wasn't to impressed with either of them but part of me thought that it had something to do with the environment and the music they were demoed with and that is why I in the end included the 802's in my short list. I've owned several smaller Dyn's and always liked them especially their imaging, until I went to several live(unamplified) music events only to realize that the imaging was a bit over the top. I was certainly thinking about auditioning the speakers before buying but that is the very problem. I live in norhtern VT and the next dealer is about 3-4 hours away. This is there very reason to involve the help from you fellow Audiogoners. I don't want to drive for hours just to listen to something that is not up my alley. Thanks for all the help so far.

I've owned several models of the B&W and they are fine speakers. I now have Merlin VSM MM and they are entirely different league IMHO. If you are going to spend this kind of money I would at least try to get a demo. They are the most revealing speakers I've heard. Give bobby a call at Merlin for more info.

Hello Jimcrane, and thank you for the welcome to audiogon. I've been reading posts and perusing auctions and classifieds for years, but never really felt I had anything of value to say until I picked up these BRSE speakers and just had to tell you guys how great they are. I'm so pleased that I don't have to keep looking for the right speaker, and keep spending tens of thousands of $$ to get there. I've got it!
Nope, don't have any relationship with the guys at BRSE other than being a happy owner.
It's rare to find something so totally superior that costs next to nothing, just wanted to let you guys in on what's got to be the best deal going anywhere!
See Ya,
Ken

Yes Avoid B&W's. But also not sure if you should stay with the ARC stuff. From my experience its beena grainy, smokey sound. Heard 2 different ARC systems.