How about B & W 803S

Dear Hifineubee,

Thank you again for your kind response.

According to your opinion, I have to re-arrange my system either in hardware such as DSD DA and software such as high resolution software which cost a lot. 

I can't deny that splendid recording would be able to add sparkling in the music appreciation, but I do not want to drop up what I have now except some poor or sleeping stuffs ( I mean software). When I visit to the audio shops, some times I can discover something unknown before.

The key issue is that I can't afford to spend much to re-tool my current gears.  What I can do best now is to find out the way or to squeeze the best C/P on my current system. Or with limit budget such as US$3~5000, make some improvement investment  even though my ear are pretty not bad on music appreciation and audio comparison.

Do you live in Taiwan, if you would, we can change Line for easier communication.  My Line is:faust061168    and my name is Mr. You.

Thanks a lot once more.

Hi faust,

     Unfortunately I'm not in Taiwan, I'm located in Seattle, USA area.  But if you ever visit my city I welcome you to drop by for a demo of my budget setup.  =)  I don't use LINE but I use WeChat.  You can private chat me for my WeChat name.

    Back to music and speakers.  First of, my apologies I forgot to ask if you're a computer, CD or vinyl person.  If you can tell me more about your setup, I can give you more advices from my experience to help you spend the least amount of money (I personally am very frugal as well, haha).

    My goal is to try to help you listen to the B&W speakers with a guarantee baseline.  Based on my experience with B&W, I can help you demo these speakers with gears that guarantee to sound good with the 800series, then you can decide for yourself how the speakers perform under ideal circumstances, hopefully by using common consumer audio equipment available at good audio shops.  You don't necessarily need to buy any of the gears I recommend.  You just need to know how the speaker sound at their best while demoing at the shop, then you can slowly upgrade your own equipment over time at get to whatever level of C/P you deem acceptable.

Below are purely my personal opinions:

    #1 reason contributing to people complain B&W speakers are bright sounding is because they listen with equipment and speakers that are not warmed up or not broken in.  My 805N and 805S were both HORRIBLE to listen to until they're broken in.  Once broken in, they're so transparent that they sound cold and brittle if an amp has not properly warmed up.

    #2 reason contributing to people complain B&W speakers are bright sounding is because they pair the speakers with wrong amp.  B&W 800 series require amp, like your Class A Accuphase, that can double down power.  Most amps can only do x1.6 (ex: 100watt at 8ohm, 160watt at 4ohm).  There's scientific math behind this, but in layman's term, in order to maintain quality sound across all frequencies an amp must provide stable 'quality' current across the entire ohm range that the speakers perform at.  For the B&W800 series, it means using amps that at minimum double down in watt from 8ohm to 4ohm and preferably further double again to 2ohm (a Mcintosh with autoformer while expensive to many, is actually among the cheapest amps that can double down from 4ohm to 2ohm) because the 800series dip as low as 3.7ohm which is below 4ohm.

   #3 reason contributing to people complain B&W speakers are bright sounding is because they use cheap speaker jumpers while directly plugging into the upper speaker terminals.  B&W 800 series are built to be bi-amped at best (which most of us wont ever be able to afford), bi-wired at minimum (recommended by factor) and jumpers as last resort.

And the list goes on as we go up the equipment chain... =)

Dear Hifineubee,

Thanks for you to take so much precious time in replying my inquiry.

Though, I have long time of music listening experience. But I am in short of technology knowledge about audio except the listening. I can tell the difference with the changing of the wire or toe in angles, but I don't know the change of ohms such kind of technical terms.

I have 1000 pcs. of LP before, but long time ago, I switch to CD. The player I am using now is Quad CD99 player which was made in China, but it sound is quite OK (thickness, details, sound stage, positioning of performer...).  Also,  I use an optical output for the D/A converter which brand is California Audio Lab, a bankrupcy old brand with one 12AX7 tube inside. 2 years ago, I went to consult with an audio shop, the boss told me that even I switched to use the one he sold, Naim, the sound improvement is quite limited. So, I just kept on using my old D/A.  Generally, I don't have much time for music listening for I need to spare some time for watching satellite business news from Japan for I am still at work.  It is kind of my hobby to learn new business management stuffs either in the library or in the video media. Also, some of the Japan's satellite programs have advantages: They spend money to produce good programs and you can enjoy them on free basis. Of course, they have paid channels either.  But since I don't have much time, it won't bother.

As the Amplifier, I have an Accuphase C275V (15 years, I bought a 2nd hand one) which is a mid level pre, and the A-47  (2 years) which is also a middle A class power.  The wire I am using is mainly Onix (an England brand but sold to Taiwan audio distirbutor boss who also acts as German's MBL's distributor in Taiwan.).

In fact, I do listen to the satellite news mostly on earphone, Grado open air for comfortable consideration and won't bother other family members. I spent lots on earphone system with good wire, powerline, headphone amp. (Sara Lee, England brand) and Senheiser HD 600 with the Mobius wire (1.5m) for clarity sound. The power line for earphone is Telos (local brand, but expensive).  Once I try to change the power line for the earphone with a cheaper wire, but my ears won't accept the changing of sound.  

Yesterday, I visited a audio shop who is concentrated on the expensive LP system.  The boss is selling LP player around US$150,000 & the Swiss cartridge cost US$25,000. He told me that I might unable to accept the speaker sound other than Dynaudio such as England's PMC, Tannoy, ATC, except B & W which has Diamond tweeter. He regards that England speaker's high frequency response is a bit dark. That is why Tannoy sell super tweeter to cover it's shortage.  He suggests me to consider Dynaudio Contour 30 which is the successor of Dynaudio's mid level speaker system with standing floor design which can reproduce better bass when compare with my current 1.3SE which is a bookshelf type. At current, I just try to listen more in comparison, I have not made any decision yet for it might be my last speaker in my life..............

Tks. for your reading my long expression........

Best Regards,

faust