Saw the Stereophile review of the B&W 800 Diamond

James63,

I think that the 800 Diamond's were right up there with the Quad 2905's in naturalness. The 800 Diamond's also disappeared like the 2905's, and then played as loudly as you wanted with slam and realism as good as I've ever heard. I was sitting in the large dealer's showroom and they had them cranked.

Chuck

Many years ago I heard the diamonds - I believe 801D. (but could be wrong) The tweeter was oh so nice, airy and resolving, but nothing else in the spectrum gelled with it. Has that improved? Anyone else notice that artifact from the early diamond addition?

Off topic but has anyone ever heard a speaker with the Accuton or other diamond midrange? I was supposed to hear a speaker that claimed to use it, but the DesignKner never allowed me to. But even that didn't use a diamond tweeter. Any system use both? That I'd like to hear.

I don't feel that the new 802diamond's tweeter is any better integrated than the older 802D. It was a little less forward. It is the best tweeter I have heard but it stands out to me too.

I had the B&W 802D and traded up to the latest 800 Diamond. If I were to rate them on a scale of 1-10 I would say the 802D would score a 6 and the 800 Diamonds a 9 .
The 800 Diamonds do a lot of things very very well. I can't say the same for the older 802D .

I think Gshepardbuster is right. I listened to the older 802D and the new Diamond version at length, same room, same electronics, same music same levels, and the differences at best were minimal. Even the salesperson thought they sounded almost identical. As far as the comparison between the 802D and the 800 Diamond, I would tend to think a 24k speaker system should be an improvement over a 14k loudspeaker. IMO.