B&W 802 Diamond Stands

Oh and 8' apart for speakers is usually about the norm. any feedback on distance between spkrs in other systems? Let us know. My room is 18x20 with another 13' behind it with a 10' opening so more like 18x33.

Update on the B&w Diamond 802s:

Well they are up on the Sound Anchor stands. My house is old and the music room floor is pretty dished (like a bowl) so leveling and ensuring that speakers were perpendicular to the floor was a trial. A lot of work but worth it as I discuss below.

I raised the listening chair about four inches using some risers so my ears are at the midrange level.

Oh and the other big changes was purchasing some Classe CT-M600s from a dealer for amplification (they replace the CAM 350s I was using).

16x 15 x 10 room with the speakers 6'8" apart and my ears about 8' 6'' from the midrange cone. I positioned them in room using the Cardas approach so they are well out and then adjusted by ear.

First of all the CT-600s are amazing. Any flabby bass, GONE. All the bass info is all there (depending on the recording) and it's always tonally accurate and complete. Never exaggerated, never deminimized. And no boom. I also struck with these amps at how sweet the midrange and treble are. Listening you are at serious tenitus risk as you just want to keep taking the volume up when there is no brightness. Soundstage and imaging are all there when on the recording. And to use a cliched term, the combo of the speakers with amps makes for a very coherernt sound.

The sound anchors improve on the tiptoes I was using by improving imaging and particularly the depth of the soundstage.

All in all a tremendously musical sound that sounds good on a much wider range of recordings than my prior Piegea C3Ltd/Cam 350 setup.

Thanks for reading. Otto

Try widening the speakers for a bigger sounstage, if you can. 8' on center is good. Go incrementally till you get there checking the central image with a good CD. Listen to Caverna Magica by Andreas Vollenwieder 1st track amazing soundstaging, and depth.

Okonrad, I agree that the big Classes have synergy with the 802s. When the good reviews of the B&Ws were published I auditioned them in a all Spectral system and found them too dry. Recently I got the same amplifiers and the dealer had set them up with the 802s which now sounded superior. These amps can produce powerful bass and at other times can be very delicate. They also allow you to follow musical lines of instruments deep in the mix.
BTW what type of cables are you using?