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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?
mikez
poloman's avatar
poloman
96 posts
 
I think everything is relative. If youre worried about the price vs. performance ratio on speakers i.e. B&W you can do what I did, and wait a few years and get a mint used pair at a much lower price. Hey, its the same with cars, would you spend a hundred grand on a Ferrari that gets you from point A to point B When a Chevy or Toyota Will do the same For a lot less. It's all about what the market will bear. Although B&W is expensive the sound quality is what matters. The R&D that goes into the speaker insures the technology will be cutting edge for years to come. Look how long the Matrix 801 has been in class A. And now the silver signature. Yours in audiodom, Poloman.
bigkidz
3,373 posts
 
Asa and Unsound, B&W speakers in general do not mate well with tube amps. Mostly the speakers require a high current amp (not wpc but current) to make them open up and sing. See the Enjoy the music review of the Pass X-250 amp where they feel the high current amp really makes the 803s sing. As always, what sounds right for one does not always sound right to another. I own a pair of 803s and know there are better speakers out there. I also know that I need a very good components and system matching to get the best performance that I am looking for from my system.

Peace.
aball
2,016 posts
 
For my $0.005 I agree that they seem bright and not too involving. I had N802s for a while and was glad to get rid of them (now I know why I got such a good deal on them from the last guy!). For their retail price, they were not good. For the used price, they were ok. I have only auditioned the N801s and N804s with the latter being like the 802s and the former pretty good but at what price? I am basically finished with having my ears strained by B&W. They do look darn good however. Arthur
cdc
1,757 posts
 
Aball, what was you pre / amp / and CDP?
So what's better than N803 Bigkidz? I'm still searching. Only ATC so far. But if you're into tubes the new Coincident Victory really kicks butt. Or maybe Von Schweikert DB100 (haven't heard them)
subaruguru
1,375 posts
 
After NOT reading all the above posts, I must agree that I found the N803 WAY too bright in my room in the nearfield.
Interestingly their power response was superb, as they sounded GREAT from an adjacent room! Yeah, that damned tweeter's awfully hard to tame, the midrange is too shelved, and the woofers cross too high, so coherence in an issue, as well that seringly-bright tweeter EQ.
Interestingly their DM602S3 is darned good for the $ if you can stand their awkward industrial look.
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