B&W 803S Speakers

Hmmm... I find the 803s much better than the 683. But it is a big price jump! They image much better and have tighter bass. The highs also have wider dispersion.

But for your room the 803s would be way too much. I had a pair of 703s in a 12x11room (during a move transition) and I could not get the bass under control. Plugging the ports helped. But the real problem is if you move the speaker far enough out from the walls to get the bass under control the sound stage would compress and not sound right.

Anyway you should add the 805s to your list too. They are very good and would be a good fit for your room.

James63, do you think that the 805s would require a subwoofer in my 12' x 14' room? If so, what would you recommend?

I have older 805s and they work well with REL and also older Hsu subs.

I run the 803's in a 12x19 room that opens into a second room with no problem. Have listened to the 683's but found a very big difference in imaging - 803's image much better in my opinion. I also felt that the bass of the 803's was more realistic - I just did not care for the bass of the 683's. I second the above recomendation as to giving the 805's a listen - very nice speaker. As to whether you need a sub that depends on your music choice and personal tastes - for my tastes the 805's would work just fine without a sub. As between the 805 and the 803 - the 803 is more 'defined' but the 805 is better 'integrated'. Language does not really work very well in describing sound, partly because of individual tastes and partly just due to language limitations and the lack of firm definitions. In other words, the only way to compare speakers is to listen to them in the same room with the same music and with very little delay (less than 1 minute) betwen listening to speaker A vs B. In summary, the 683's lack of imaging would wear on me after a while - the real choice is between the 805 and the 803 - If you want to stay in a lower cost bracket - find a pair of 602's used - a really incredible speaker - in my opinion just a notch under the 805 and 2k less.

Having owned the 803S (and now the 803D), the 803S was as previous posters have said and could be a bit much for that size room.

Whether you decide on the 805 or 683, both contain B&W's aluminum tweeter which is a little forward imo. I found that Audioquest's CV-8 dbs speaker cables is great at 'taming' the tweeter and producing a more relaxed and less forward high end without loosing any detail.

The diamond tweeter is another story and is not forward at all imo.

Just FYI.

Also, you'll need more power to drive the 803S given the Rochell bass drivers unique to the 800 series.