B&W are, and IMHO, will always be a great speaker company. How many companies went under? B&W are still around just by making speakers. The N802 which I happen to own, has to be about three feet from the wall, (many people just dont have that much room to spare), and toed in correctly in order to sound their best. This takes many days, weeks even, to get them to sound properly. The room has to be taken into consideration as well, such as, furniture, carpet, drapes or curtains, not to mention interconnects, components etc
These speakers arent for everyone, most individuals prefer to plug their speakers in and listen right away. Most will not, and can not match components together properly. Others just cant afford certain things hence the bashing. The sizzle and honk goes away in time when broken in, this also, takes a while. These speakers have to be driven with adequate power. If you starve them they sound horrible. If you have enough juice under the hood of the amp they sound heavenly, even at low volumes, no honk, no sizzle, just musical bliss. Are there other companies that make great speakers as well, absolutely. Choose what you will, but Ill keep my N802s.
Am I the only one who thinks B&W is mid-fi?
I know that title sounds pretencious. By all means, everyones taste is different and I can grasp that. However, I find B&W loudspeakers to sound extremely Mid-fi ish, designed with sort of a boom and sizzle quality making it not much better than retail quality brands. At price point there is always something better than it, something musical, where the goals of preserving the naturalness and tonal balance of sound is understood. I am getting tired of people buying for the name, not the sound. I find it is letting the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. In these times of dying 2 channel, and the ability to buy a complete stereo/home theater at your local blockbuster, all of the brands that should make it don't. Most Hi-fi starts with a retail system and with that type of over-processed, boom and sizzle sound (Boom meaning a spike at 80Hz and sizzle meaning a spike at 10,000Hz). That gives these rising enthuists a false impression of what hi-fi is about. Thus, the people who cater to that falseified sound, those who design audio, forgetting the passion involved with listening, putting aside all love for music just to put a nickle in the pig...Well are doing a good job. Honestly, it is just wrong. Thanks for the read...I feel better. Prehaps I just needed to vent, but I doubt it. Music is a passion of mine, and I don't want to have to battle in 20 yrs to get equipment that sounds like music. Any comments?
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- 180 posts total
- 180 posts total