B&W 802 N vs. D

Kodg,
GM has been in business for years. So much for your longevity argument. There are far better values at every B&W price point IMO.

And I've owned more speakers than you've heard.

You have a B&W love affair? Fine, it only shows your complete lack of inexperience.

Stop yakking and start listening.

Good luck.

Make that "lack of experience".

Need coffee.

:-)

I would like to "take back" my thread. I wish you folks could turn the emotion down a notch.

My favorite all-time speakers (that I owned) were M-L CLS, I spent many years with them and a variety of subwoofing options. When I wanted to change to something more practical, I went to Wilson W/P 3/2's, which definitely did not suck, but were among the best small ultra high end speakers available at the time. Remember, at the time to buy something more expensive than W/P 3/2's, you had to go up to the really "big" speakers like the top of the line Wilsons or IRS V's. The IRS V's that I heard at Lyric were the best speaker that I have ever heard, but a little impractical for us folks. When I got into SACD and made the transition to multichannel, around the time that the Pio 47a came out (you remember, the first "universal player"), I bought 5 identical B&W Nautilus 805's. That was somewhat random in choice, it all started when I saw a single 805N for sale on Ebay. Obviously, I then upgraded to 803N's to get a full range sound.

I currently have a Theta Dreadnaught II, which is a wonderful 5 channel amp, and an Anthem D2V prepro. I still have my Esoteric DV-50, but more I am using my Oppo 83 to take advantage of the Anthem ARC room correction software. I don't feel the need for a subwoofer with the 803N's, but I would like to get back to the more precise imaging and "true" upper-echelon sound that my Wilson's had. Around the time that I sold my Wilsons, a good audiophile buddy bought a pair of 802N's (he got a spectacular deal) and even my wife agreed they sounded more natural than my Watt/Puppies.

Unfortunately, Stereophile hasn't had a show in NYC in several years, I didn't enjoy the environment of a stereo show, but it was a good way to quickly get a taste of a large number of different components. From those shows, I always wanted to try and create a surround system from MBL speakers, but they are really expensive and I think my wife would kill me if she saw them in our house:)

3 802D's for the front 3 speakers is lot of cash, which is why I started this thread. The idea of going to a new company for the system is not out of the question, but then I would probably be looking at eventually purchasing 5 new speakers.

There's my story. Don't beat me up too much...

By the way, I should mention that one of the key issues for me is getting a center channel which is identical to the Right and Left front speakers. Not that easy to buy a single "uber-high-end" speaker. So if anyone is willing to sell me a single Wilson, Kharma, etc., that could send me down the road of a new manufacturers' speakers!

If people will just stick to the mans question the thread will be more enjoyable....let's check the ego's and subjective opinions about this is better than that, none of us is any more correct about what sounds good than the rest of us...