Am I the only one who thinks B&W is mid-fi?

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.

Sometimes I really wonder if most of the "audiophiles" who frequent this board and many like them have ever heard any type of real live music. If you base what a speaker is supposed to sound like on different recordings than you are missing 100% of what an audio system is supposed to be doing. And I don't mean going to a concert either, I mean real live instruments up close and personal in a room that may be not too different from the size of most listening rooms. I know that disqualifies most classical music (I am a jazz fan), but in listening to actual instrumnents in a real space weekly I have come to the conclusion that even dealers have no idea what real music should sound like. Most systems sound like hi-fi and nothing more, including some very well regarded and expensive speakers( B&W, Wilson, and many others.). And to me the argument that you have to hear a 20k speaker system in your home with the perfect components to match in order to really hear it makes absolutely no sense. Dealers are trained to set up the equipment they sell and in the case of my local dealer, a rep from Wilson actually comes down there to set the speakers up. Why are you selling speakers if you don't know how to make them sound great, especially at these prices? To my ears Wilsons are good but not great speakers, I have never believed I was hearing anything like an actual performance. And B&W speakers don't sound anything like music to me, and I have heard ( on too many occasions to count) not only the Signature 800s but the actual Nautilus speaker driven by 8! Mark Levinson Reference 33 monoblocks, an all ML Reference front end, and a Goldmund Turntable all connected with Transparent's top cabling! And I have to say that I was truly impressed by the sound, just as I am when I hear the Watt Puppy 7s driven by all Levinson electronics and amps but it never sounds like real instruments to my ears. And that especially goes for the Signature, I don't know who voices those things but music is not what they sound like in the least. Granted it is almost impossiblt to find a recording that captures music truthfully (try a Mapleshade recorded saxaphone), but still I just don't hear real music when I hear these systems. This is all just my opinion, but I say go out and hear real music in a real space and come home and listen to your system and especially your local dealer's system and do the math.

I'd much prefer to see The Ring Cycle, to pick an extreme example, live at Bayreuth. But the waiting list for tickets is 25 years. Yes, it's a noble goal to get all your musical experiences live when you want it where you want it. A hi-fi system and the related media allows one to defer ones enjoyment, or otherwise in your case apparently. This, for most folks, has a high value-add. Extremely high for some here.

So now, for those of us who are prepared to compromise and listen to 'music' via our systems, the goal is to attempt to reproduce that 'music' from available media sources as accurately as possible. Sure it's a compromize. But it's just like going to Bayreuth and having a Brunnhilde who can't hack it all the way through Gotterdammerung. It can get ugly. My B&W (N803s) enable me to come relatively close to what's layed down on the media. Whether it's music or not is subjective. It's good enough for me.

You are not only not the only one who thinks that B&W is mid-fi, you are one of many who make blanket statements about audio products from this or that company. Maybe just this company-B&W, in this case, but nonetheless a huge faction.

I see much B&W bashing on this site. I had to respond. I have been in audio for many years ~30 years to be exact. I've heard many speakers; Dahlquest, Avid, Proac, Dynaudio, Infinity, Advent (yes I'm 50), Paradigm , Thiel, JBL, Sonus Faber, ...etc. When I decided to upgrade from my Avid 103's and Proac Super Tablettes. I listened to B&W, Dynaudio (1.3SE, 1.3 MKII, Audience 52) and Paradigm Studio 20's, Sonus Faber Concerto/Concertino. I found that the Dynaudio's are much overrated. People go on and on about how B&W are expensive for what you get, but Audience 52's for $900, not even considering $3500 for the 1.3SE's. I found the Dyn's somehow mistifying, bloated bass and at the same time too much mid/high end. The Concerto was much to laid back and the Paradigm had a similiar (to my ears sound as the Dyn's, yet I liked the S20 better than the Audience 52. It seemed more balanced. Understand, I was expecting great things from the Dynaudio line, based on what I've read hear and at Audioasylum. I ended up with the B&W N805, because for me in MY ROOM, it was the best of the lot.