How about B & W 803S

Dear Hifineubee.

Thanks for your detail expression of your idea. You have caught my taste in audio & music almost like a tighten rope.  I haven't menioned the experience I had about 1 month ago when I paid visit to a Harbeth dealer and then went to the B & W dealer in Taipei with a hi-fi friend. We are astonished to find the new discovery on 2nd store, a pair of Maserati, made by B & W with the components of B & W 805 D3 together with the mark of the famous sports car.  The price (with stand with Maserati on it ) is US$12,000.  Generally, the 805D3's selling price is US$ 8,000 without stand. My friend ask the staff of the shop for a short listening with his CD disc, we were astonished to find how good the pair responsed.  The intergrated amp. is Macinitosh M8900. I forget the CD player brand, but the importance was the reproduction of very musical sound with the short listening experience. You can easily find out the good stuffs with a short listening with so many years of being an audiophile.  Many years ago, I also had shocked by a small pair of speaker name as Magico, a new Amercian brand when Hifi is still hot then. The book shelf speaker was shown on a rather small space, but the sound quality was the best I ever experienced. Of course, the price was pretty expensive either. I can't remember clearly, but it's priced beyond the imagination of the book shelf speaker.

I have heard 805D3 for a couple of times in the local dealer which the boss have almost 30 years experience in handling hi-fi gears and also he is a concert goers often. I have impressed by the sound it produced transparency, very good penetration, very fine instrument defination, and clear sound without muddy, very detailed, and the high frequency is beautiful and harmony in all the spectrum except the slight shortage of low frequency which is not solid or responsive. But that doesn't matter for the speaker protrayed very splendid sound reproduction with almost every kind of music (electric or heavy metal are exception for these are not my tastes).

The same shop also has 803D2 which I have listened for many times, but I have reservations for the coherence of the spectrum. I mean the intergration from low to high is not so well connected. 聲音的連結性不是很好, Maybe it is a good speaker, but I can't feel it's special features. Maybe I will call the shop next time if the speaker is still available. Last time, I take a short visit and find that the boss has changed to a pair 802D2 for demo. Generally, the boss uses Burmeister pre (expensive one) and the power plus the Burmeister CD player for audition demo.

Burmeister is a solid design, but it sounds like analogue, esp. in the hi-end.  It is interesting that the boss himself went to his shop to listen to Berlin Phiharmonic digital hall (he subscribed at 160 EU. as annual fee) with the equip. in his shop for better A-V effect. (He uses Sony's 9400 75" Hi end LCD TV as monitor.).

After many years of experience, he is quick in finding out problem with quick solution always.   His opinion about England speaker is the short of high frequency response. In another words, it is a bit dark in tweeter.  That is why Tannoy is selling super tweeter which is capable of enhance high frequency response with more fresh air..

I think I will consult with the boss's idea because I bought Accuphase A47 from him but in the begging period of time, the sound is so so. After 2 years of run in , it sounds much better now.  Generally, it still takes 2 hours of run before you can get better sound.

It is a long experience, though fun, but it is kind of money and time spending...

Best Regards,

You

Hello, hifineubee,

I have attened a music appreciation class at Taipei National University of Arts for almost 5 years at the suburb of Taipei city. There is around 10 students or so in class, most are ladies who are fond of classical music appreciation.  On the last weekend, the teacher, a Julliard school graduate and a learned vocal music in Belgium for 2 years with the winning the 3rd award of Elizabeth vocal music contest, she told us that the boss of the radio, wanted her to terminate the program where she acted as a program hostess for more than 20 years. We can fell that she got hurt by the stopping of the program where she worked so long.

In now days, the people are changing fast, tastes, knowledge, preference, fashion, news, event............  I suppose she must be petty sad for the losing of the long time work which she devoted so much of her effort upon it. I know that some of the words she lecture on the class is unable to compare to the phrases or sentences she disclosed in the radio program for the audience are much difference at least in the sum.  We are just a small group, but tho konws the No. of audiences in the radio program......

We feel it is such kind of shame that she was kicked out in the way like this........

In now days, the sustain of a media or platform is not easy while the economy and customer tastes varies from time to time.......   How about the tastes of your music preference?  

Hi faust,

    I sympathize with you and your teacher's experience.  Things come and go thought I'd say what your teacher is experiencing isn't necessarily the death of music appreciation but rather the slow end to radio as an entertainment and information media.  But that's a totally different topic of its own.

  My taste in music is a bit peculiar I suppose.  I like female vocal and large orchestral music as well as combination of the two which nowadays some call popera "pop + opera" (try Katherine Jenkins).  Ideally I want combination of lush thick warm sound of tube/analog plus the detailed, analytical and hi-resolution of digital music.  Sadly, it is very expensive to try to achieve the above and even then not easily achievable.

Hi faust,

Hope you’re still enjoying your speaker search. Now that I’ve 120hrs+ with the B&W 805 D3 and more side by side comparison with the 805S, I thought I’d give you a few pieces of interesting updates. I’m going to give you lots of generic ’funny asian’ descriptions that I think you would appreciate to avoid long boring technical jargons.

S vs D3 - listening

805S is more like the nice low sweet but flavorful desert you get from the boutique bakery. It has signature flavor, some may like the taste some may not, but at least no arguing what it tastes it.

805 D3 is like plain organic salad without salad dressing or flavoring of any sort. The salad will taste exactly like the vegetable mix you throw in so you better wish the vegetables are full of flavor you like otherwise it’s going to be a very bland salad.

S vs D3 - living

805S is like a sweet teenage daughter. Messy at times and no matter how many A reviews she gets from school you still can’t help trying to compare her with others. You get frustrated with trying to keep pushing her work harder study harder (hint, that low 3.7ohm impedence)... But in the end you still love her.

805 D3 is like a beautiful trophy girlfriend. At first all you and your friends all go ’oh how a lucky bastard you are...’, but quickly you realize that bossy nature. She wants everything perfect - her way; use silver plated cable instead of solid material she bitches, use jumpers instead of bi-wire she bitches, use a colder sound Class D amp she bitches, older poor music recordings she bitches,...basically she bitches at everything you do. You pay for everything yet she keeps reminding you’re still good enough. You get the point.

3 rings in life - engagement ring, wedding ring and suffer-ring

Ok I’m exaggerating a bit but I’ve literally sold almost every gear I had in order to start fresh with the 805 D3. All the gear that were ’good enough’ with the S are now unacceptable with D3. Good things about D3 is that it is a lot easier to drive, a lot less high current hungry and super high resolution. Sound coming from the D3 is like watch a 4k UHD movie while the S would be like DVD (I’m guessing D1/D2 would be more like Bluray level). Now whether seeing in high resolution all the arm and leg hairs on the young blonde model in the Samsung 4k TV demo disc is a good thing, I guess it would be fair to say it’s a matter of taste.

Suffering leading to bottling

Never thought I would do this but after our recent chat and seeing how the D3 has super high resolution, I got curious about tube amp pairing against the D3 to see if I can get that ice-cream melting voice of 蔡琴 from the original 2002 HK movie Infernal Affairs (無間道). I got a good deal online for an open box EL34 tube amp. I’m experimenting right now with just a DAC (bare minimal chip to decode digital music) then RCA directly to tube preamp and tube amp. So I’m literally as tube as it gets while listening to digital music. So far I have to say I’m impressed with the performance of the $600 USD tube amp but I’m not impressed with the tube sound which I would say very solid state like. I’ve further taken another step to see if using a 300B SET tube amp would change my mind.

Thought I’d share some good stupid laughs with you that only another hifi guy could understand.

*all you 300 other peeps reading this post, feel free to share your funny stories too. =p