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
Hi, Mikez!

I agree with you when saying "B&W is mid-fi".
There are some very good models but only in the very high price regions (the "bigger" Nautilus models). The one, and perhaps the only I really liked, was the B&W 801 matrixIII loudspeakers-they were truly great speakers in their time (and very good even these days, i believe).

The majority of their speakers over the past years are left behind many, even smaller, speaker brands soundwise. Where I think they excell is finish and especially marketing. They allways look very pretty(what is a good thing but don't make them sound better) and impressive.

But thats my oppinion (and oppinions are just that - nothing more)... I'm sure there are people out there who like their B&W speakers and it's good so.

Best regards to all of you,
David.
Had my N803's FR for nearly 2 years. Not happy at all. Started off with N805's but they were no good so relegated them to being back speakers in my surround system. Thought I'd give some time to like them but really couldnt. Good for Home Cinema but awful for music. Currently in the process of selling off all my Home Cinema gear since I listen to more music know. Will buy Revel Studios instead...will sound good when I get my Cello Performance II amp!
Nice to hear an honest owner of B&W speakers. Good luck and happy listening with your new speakers.
Cheers!
So the only 'honest' owner of B&W speakers is the one that doesn't like them ? Or does it just conform to your point of view ? I like my N803s. Honest !
WOW!..looks like you touched a "chord" here with Audiogoners! Indeed B&W must sell lots of speakers by the response they got here.