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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
vinton2b15
5 posts
 
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.
arthursmuck
451 posts
 
I have N802's in front and N804's and HTM1 for HT. I'm not sure that it matters if anyone else thinks they're mid-fi. I auditioned a ton of speakers, and don't waste any of my time trying to determine if any I didn't select have an undeserved reputation based on my not owning them or liking them. My ears, my room, my wallet, my choice. I believe all of us are entitled to that, and to our opinions until they are made in such a fashion as to denegrate another person's choice. There is no better or worse, there's only what each of us hears.
distortion
571 posts
 
Amen Arthur.

I imagine this post will make it past the moderators since the one were I said how I really feel didnt.

I auditioned quite a few speakers and I bought what sounded best to me as well. Furthermore, B & W obviously has many products at various pricepoints, isnt it obvious.
joeb
121 posts
 
Some of you guys are trying to use "a live performance" as a yardstick to measure or categorize the quality of sound reproduced by a speaker. I for one have never liked most "live" performances. The accoustics in most halls, amphitheatres, outdoors, clubs etc. stinks! The background noise, itself detracts from the quality. A good studio recording is difficult to reproduce live. There are very few recordings of live performances that do justice to a good band. Pink Floyds "Pulse" live in Europe is one of the few, and there are others. Also, we all have differences in musical tastes, and there are physiological differences to our ears themselves, and of course our brains are all wired differently, so this argument about speaker quality seems awfully strange. I personally love my BW N803's, but I think the N805 is much too bright, and the lower line of BW is more suited to HT, but not critical listening.
My 2 cents.
jb
psjulian
99 posts
 
Great post Joeb. I prefer to taylor my music. If you hear somthing mid-fi on a Nautilus its not the speaker, its something upstream. The Nautilus is not forgiving, its a quality speaker with different voices(models)you can use to suit your taste and room. They will expose a systems weakness. What is the case more often than not is the matching of the size of speaker to the room. We tend to over-size and over drive the room. Just my 2 cents. Peace and Good Listening, Pat.
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