Are Bowers and Wilkins speakers overpriced?

One thing I will say, the 804 d3 is the most beautiful speaker I have seen. Overpriced? Only you can answer that, to me they are not.

some components seem to have more extreme responses than others...some love the B&W sound, some not at all...I think Magnepans and Vandersteens are similar in that regard...all great speakers if you like them...I don't particularly prefer B&W but don't think they are any more or less overpriced, or overall have a "bad" rep...

For the record, I’m not looking for a stamp of approval nor am I second guessing my purchase. Just interested in multiple views on the product/brand. 

Here’s what I mean by "quirky:"

https://www.stereophile.com/content/bowers-amp-wilkins-804-diamond-loudspeaker-measurements

Now keep in mind, I don’t care what speakers you actually buy, but if you want to know what makes B&W stand out, this is a great example.

Take a look at the frequency response in figure 4. The peak at 100 Hz and rolloff below is quite common, helps fit many rooms, but the dip at around 2.5 to 2.7 kHz. Accentuates imaging, but also reduces the overall smoothness of the response. Next, take a look at the peak at 10 kHz. Accentuates detail at the cost of neutrality.

Now, these may be the best speakers in the world for you, I don’t care. I am just going to use this FR to answer the OP’s question.

Now lets compare to another British speaker, the Monitor Audio Platinum:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/monitor-audio-platinum-pl300-ii-loudspeaker-measurements

Above the bass peak, this is a much smoother, and objectively more neutral speaker. It’s not perfect, there’s a strange dip around 15 kHz, but overall the response between the bass to treble is much more tightly controlled.

And yes, while I have a very strong preference for Monitor Audio, that doesn’t mean you should. Buy whichever you like, but don’t call them both neutral speakers. :)

Also, over time B&W has revised their curves, so it is another reason to call them quirky. They’ve often experimented with the market and the voicing. Nothing wrong with that, again, but they get too much credit in my mind for being neutral reference speakers, when that really varied over time. Of course, there are other features such as dispersion,  distortion, stored energy and compression which is not discussed here.

Having typed all of this, I make no statement about whether or not B&W is priced correctly. That’s for the market, credit should be given them their drivers and the quality of crossover components they have moved to.

Before one year ago when I bought my Spendor D7’s, my most recent previous speaker purchase (20 yrs ago) was B&W. Thru 90s had lusted after B&W sound and told myself when I get out of school and can afford B&W, that’s what I’m doing and that’s what I did.

Last year going into what turned into a many hundred hours of research and demoing over 20 speakers (heck probably over 30 come to think of it), I figured I’d probably still like BW best at the outset.

But I didn’t any longer. Maybe in 20 yrs I changed, maybe BW did, maybe both. As to their cost, I do think they cost somewhat more than comparable quality speakers but that is sooo much a personal opinion and others will differ of course. One BW dealer even confided he thought they are “little” overpriced for what you get vs competition.

But everyone should always buy what they like and can afford no matter what others think. (But since you asked for opinions, there’s mine on the topic along with my relative experience with the brand ...)

for the record, my previous speakers were front stage of CDM1NT’s and center channel. Those i listened to extensively one year ago were 702s2, 804d3, 805d3, and too lesser extent 802d3. Electronics ranged fro Arcam S30 to Anthem separates to Elektoacoustic (forget exact name of that brand) up to hi$ Mc separates probably across 3 dealer settings/rooms. So at least 4 sets of electronics. Source usually some LUMIN streamer/ dac or cd from what I can recall.