B&W 801 S2 Fatigue VS. 802 S2 No Fatigue?
I recently purchased a pair of beautiful 801M (series 2) that are in
near-mint condition. For the past 6 years I've been enjoying a pair of
802 S2. I always wanted the 801's and a pair became available at an
incredible price- so I jumped on them. I wanted deeper bass extension
in addition to the wonderful soundstage, dynamics, attack, and imaging
that I loved about the 802's.
Upon setting them up and listening
for a few hours, I was very impressed. Besides the bass extension
(although sometimes flabby, depending on the recording), they have a
larger soundstage than the 802s. They are also more revealing, which I
find interesting because I believe they share the same midrange and
tweeter units.
But the more I listen to them, the more shrill they
sound. The midrange and treble sound as if an EQ is bumping them by
5-7 dB or so. The resulting glare turns me off after about 10 minutes. I
find myself turning the volume down time and time again. This is the
opposite of my experience with the 802's. With them, I found myself
turning them up without any hint of fatigue, even after hours of
listening.
I'm using the same setup with both of them. I have a
Threshold S500/II being fed by a Yamaha Aventage HTR (not the best
preamp for the system but it sounds very good, at least with the 802's).
Does anyone have any explanation or advice?
I'll be
installing a newly purchased Anodyne bass alignment filter tomorrow.
The speakers are currently sitting on their factory casters until I can
find a used pair of Sound Anchors.I thought about swapping the heads
between the 2 models but then thought it may not change anything.
I've
done lots of reading here and on other forums and haven't found anyone
else that experienced listener fatigue with the 801 S2.
