Wcfeil, we really don't care that tatyana69 bought a pair of B&W 800d3 good for him if he liked them it is his money.
However, the discussion as mentioned by us as well as posters such a Ricrid1 is that you should form a composite of opinions by hearing a product under the same of similar conditions or at least comparable demoing types of rigs.
Do you think that a pair of KEF Blades or B&W 800D3 or Focal Sopra 3 or any super high end $20-35k set of loudspeaker is going to sound its best being driven by a:
$3,000.00 integrated amp and $300 speaker cables?
vs
a $10-20k amplifier and $3k worth of cabling?
Do you honestly think that all stores are going to demo with the same levels of equipment? It really comes down to the store, it also comes down to the products the store sells and their ability to put together a synergistic match of cabling, electronics and source components as well as the room that is being demoed in.
We demo our Kef Blades or Persona or Legacy on suitable gear, cabling and source components which means a $20-100k worth of products depending on the exact combination of which products we are going to demo, to think you can slap any old combo of anything on a true reference grade loudspeaker is madness, it is like buying a Porsch 911 Turbo, putting in 85 octane gas, and replacing its stock tires with some cheap glass ply tires and expecting the car to perform as intended.
Our Reference Rig:
T+A PA 3000 HV power amplifier $19kT+A P 3000 HV preamplifier $16kDigital from $8k Aqua Hifi Lascala to $35k Light Harmonic Davinci Dual Dac
Power conditioning Audio Magic Oracle $9k for sources and digital Audio Magic Oracle Amp $3kThat is not including cabling, room tuning etc.
We have played the Blades on much less expensive gear and yes they sound good but not the magical sound we get.
One telling observation of a well setup system was our setup at the New York Audio Show 2012 was $50k worth of Chord, $22k Dac lots of expensive cabling total system was about $150k with the Blades
down the hall
YG Acoustics Sonya $107K, Solution Monos $80k Solution Pre $40k cabling etc system price close to $400k
That system wasn't one bit better then our rig, verdict if you feed Reference grade loudspeakers properly the results can be spectacular.
We would say a properly set up pair of these reference loudspeakers from KEF, B&W or Paradigm, can easily do battle with a $100k plus pair of loudspeakers.
So yes setup is everything.
Dave and TroyAudio Doctor NJ
