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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
david_d
83 posts
 
Uh...sorry!
What i meant is an honest person. Honest enough to say that it's not satisfied with it's component/s. Many people can't or will not admit that they aren't happy with some gear/system - it's always: what i got is best.
Please take no offence.
Sorry for the wrong choice of words!
Cheers!
lucynbarney
45 posts
 
Very little offence taken. Just the tiniest bit actually. But it's Friday and I'm over it now ! Think I'll put some Wagner on and enjoy my speakers. Actually it's the music I enjoy and the speakers are just part of a enabling tool. Tough to have an emotional attachment to something inanimate. Even if they 'sound' good. But the music ...
david_d
83 posts
 
Enjoy the music
and
Happy listening
to all!!!
sdube's avatar
sdube
3 posts
 

Let me confess to not reading all the posts here. But I have heard numerous B&W speakers, which spread enormously (like Measles?: remember we need to have had the stuff once) in Mexico City, where I write from. In my auditioning experience, for example, Dynaudio beat the B&W hands down -- the latter sounding very ordinary(mid-fi/lo-brow?) at diffrent price ranges. This might also be because the B&W stuff tends to be sold here through chi-chi superstores, which have minimal discrimination (though now AND AGAIN excellent sales-folk). It was the the last who led me to what I do own by way of speakers and amps, Margules Audio, indigenous to Mexico -- super stufff I find, but at least I am not bashing any mark/marca.
blackie
221 posts
 
I used to work at a dealer that sold both B&W and Dynaudio and I have had ample opportunity to compare these brands. They are both excellent but they are different, one is not "better" than the other. What cannot be stressed enough is that system matching is what makes or breaks the sound and usually if the match doesn't work the speakers get blamed. The old joke is a guy walks into a demo room with unfamiliar gear and says "Nice preamp". If you haven't heard the gear in a familiar context you are judging blindly. The B&Ws are more revealing of any harshness in the electronics while the Dyns can be little more forgiving. We also sold Sonus Faber, which was easily bested by these brands in the lower price points, but once you got up the Signum and above they were on par. On that note, it really just amounts to whether you prefer chocolate or strawberry.
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