Persona 3f vs B&W 802D2s

I'll second that....the Personas did sound great at RMAF.  The bass in particular was just outstanding.  They did have room correction employed thought so that is something to consider.

Oh yeah , The bass . Crazy tight bass in a tiny room . Most other "big speakers" in other rooms sounded boomy . Just amazing bass .

B&W have a few design principals and it makes their sound a specific taste. The first and for most important being they are a very mid range forward design and the intent being to create an immediate and palpable vocal performance.

They use their FST mid driver to cover the entire range and push the crossover at much higher point to the tweeter to ensure it covers the entire range. What is being described as beaming here is simply not and you would have to speak to the engineers on what is going on there. In the current edition, the acceptable point in which beaming becomes significant issue would be around 2.6khz (note the speaker seems to regain its dispersion in this area where normally it should continue to fall off and the falloff of the driver should begin in small degrees at 1.8khz).

This may be an effect of the FST in the mid driver or something done in the crossover that produces that forward sound and has the upper mid suck out. What it certainly means is the speaker setup will likely require more toe in to gain balance and that the sweet spot may not be very wide for that suck out range. I had seen an in room measurement if a properly set up pair and it was very flat across the entire audio band. I think setup would be key in getting proper balance from a B&W.

I can understand why they may use a B&W at Abbey Road. Studio monitors are often not entirely balanced and focus on the mids to give the engineer a clear picture on whats going on. A mid forward speaker as such might allow easier detailing of the midrange in the mix than a more forgiving design. You'll have to listen to it yourself to determine if this sound is for you.  I personally don't enjoy as it doesn't serve all recordings reasonably well. For some though, its right where its at for them.

Thank you all very much for all of the replies and helpful feedback.

I have decided to order the Persona 3f's with a dedicated 2 channel preamp processor and 2 channel amp.  If I add a center and rears later I will get the Anthem AVM60 and put the 2 channel preamp as pass through.  I have a blue sound Node 2 that I will use to stream music from Tidal and an Oppo blue ray player for CD's.  Given this setup which amp and preamp would you recommend?

Thanks again, it is much appreciated!

Not sure why you have to buy something that may require warmer cables, preamp, etc.  I have not heard those speakers personally but know the guys in NJ are good people.  I have not heard B&W's in a long time since my matrix days.  They always seemed to have a beautiful mid-range but to me lacked high frequency refinement and openness.  It has been a long time though.  I don't think you can go wrong either way and then you will have to do some electronics matching for optimal sound it seems like either way.  IMO WAF can be a big plus!  HA!  Happy Listening.