B&W 801 s 3 or????

I guess your talking about the Matrix 801 series 3's? I had a white pair for 3-4 years, which almost drove me insane! Now I spent well over 10 years as the B&W posterchild, so I always thought it was something else in the cable trail other than the speakers? Afterall 90% of all classical music is recorded with them. Abby Road, & George Lucas at the Skywalker THX ranch, so it must be me? Tweaking with different crossovers, stands, cables, scraping the entire system a few times to build around the speakers. They weren't bad speakers, yet I am totally suprized that the new LSC Sacd's where mastered with 3 series 2's! I doubt that I would even enjoy Hi-Rez on them today? All I can say is I went with Talon Khorus's and never looked back at Bowers, & Wilkins! I did run a pair of N802's prior to totally shunning the B&W family! We still get together for a yearly picnic to see what's new ;0)~

I like your comment "I like the way things are sounding right now"! The Krell must be the magic, I never tried? The funny part about this hobby is can you truely find ever-lasting happiness? I'm overly satisfied with my system today also, however tomorrow is another day! And IMHO Numismatist if starting to have a better ring to my ear than Audiophile? But then whom am I kidding this hobby is like a drug Soundlab! It was a nice Pipedream, for a moment......

Enjoy The Music!

I've had B&W M802 S3's for about 6 years. They too drove me crazy for a long time. I finally learned that they like lots of power; but it sounds like you might have that with your Krell amp(?). How good is your pre-amp, & front end (I don't know those components you listed)? That could be one place to look. Most speakers that I know of that would be good for orchestral music at full volume would also need lots of power (like Theil 3.6's). "Maybe"--& this is just a guess, different power amp(s) would do it. Seems a shame to give up on 801's.........

once upon a time l.lipnick of stereophile concluded that in so far as the b&w 801's, the limitations are set by what electronics you feed them. the ab.sound raved over the 802's. there are better speakers out there, but 20-20, unlimited dynamic range, one of the best midranges ever made, all for $5k? in your dreams...

As an 801 S2 owner for about 6 months now, I am having a hard time replacing mine. Ive been all over the map in 24 years from Planers, E-stats, boxes big and small. But the 801's do many things well and are not too offensive to my ears. Ive slowly built my system the last few months around the speakers for sure. Going to a Plinius SA250 amp the biggest difference from the SA100. Upgraded pre amps to LS25 and Bi-wired the woofs with Analysis Plus Oval 9's.Ridge Street Poiema!'s on top. Sand filled and spiked stands are a must. Ive even used a small amount of Dacron Fiberfill lined in the port. All with notable improvements along the way. They are sounding the best Ive' heard them and better than any dealer show room when I first heard them back in 1991. Yet, There is a self effacing quality and the I feel I have attained the best I can reasonably expect in my room with my equipment thus far with them. Now, they do sound very good, but the limitations of the 801's become more apparent as you show them better quality front end equip. I think the limitations of the design are fairly well documented over the years. Easy to listen to, but lacking in state of the art resolution and low level detail. A cross over that is far and away nowhere near what is out there some 13 years later in quality parts, and a port that needs a better box design and cross over points to work so that the bass doesn't "bloom" to excess. Attack could be better and they are not the most dynamic and require tons of current to get going, but dont have the breaks to stop cleanly. Yet, I do like them ! Lovely mids and smooth highs in the TS26 tweeter. The Nautilus Tweet is cleaner and detailed, but the Matrix TS26 non fatiguing and smooth .I had a fellow member over this evening who thought they were smooth also and had excellent imaging and a great big soundstage( a lot to do with assoc. equip and cables to be sure) and a room big enough to support the B&W's. We both agreed though it's time to move on, and so I will be looking this week to replace them. Ill say this...It's hard to get a speaker that does so much right if properly driven and set up in room for what you pay for them used. For about 1.5-1.9K someone is going to get a pretty good speaker!