B&W 805 or Monitor Audio Silver for Creek 5350SE?

Thank you, Stanwal and Ryder, for your input. I suspected that the B&W might be a better speaker for my tastes, but that glowing review for the RS6 (powered by the same Creek amp that I own) got my hopes up.

Is anyone else out there running the B&W 805n or 805s with a Creek 5350SE, and if so, have you a preference for speaker cables that will bring out the best of both components?

I have listened carefully to all this gear, but none of it together.

Here are my impressions.

The Creek is a neutral to dry sounding SS amp. It does what you ask without fuss and has a surprising amount of power.

The RS6 is a very nice speaker for the money, no question about it, and can sound very good driven by even modest electronics. But it is NOT overly warm - more exciting.

I was frankly surprised when I read that RR loved the Creek/Monitor Audio combination. Dryish amp with mid-fi metal tweeter? I can't question what he likes, but I think RR has a love thing going with Creek gear.

The 805s are very, very detailed. Beautiful looking and sounding when properly driven and sourced. A classic. They can also push the resolution of your gear upstream. For example, I have heard them sound very unflattering when driven by an Arcam Solo, where the B&W 705s sounded great with the same. Sometimes too much information is not a good thing.

With that said, the Creek should have plenty of zip and finesse to run the 805s and the Marantz CD should round things out nicely. I would go with the 805s because they will sound very good now, and give you even more enjoyment if you decide to upgrade your electronics at a later date.

Try the Home Depot wire for starters - but I would lean away from silver wires with this set up.

Thanks for the silver wire tip: I'd come to the same conclusion myself.

As another speaker option, how about Dunlavy Audio Laboratories SC-IV loudspeakers? According to what I've read, they're pretty neutral, have decent bass, and they're in the same price range as used B&Ws. Will 85 watts per channel be enough to drive them?

I can't help you there. They are pretty sensitive (92dB/W/m), but will 85 watts command two 10" woofers?

Update: I finally bought the MA RS6s from a fellow Agoner last week (for a third of the price of 805n loudspeakers), and love them. I'd switched from Home Depot speaker wire to Anti-Cables a year ago, and was disappointed with the sound, so of course I switched back to them when I set up the RS6s.

Knownothing, those metal RS6s tweeters don't sound bright at all when paired with the Creek, so RR can be forgiven this time.

Next step? Maybe the MIT interconnects RR used in his RS6 review, too...