Saw the Stereophile review of the B&W 800 Diamond

Link to the review

http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/Downloads/Product/Review/800D-Stereophile-May2011.pdf

Interesting that Atkinson speculates the 800D was voiced by ear, and KR mentions sparkly highs compared with the Salon 2s (a classic trick for getting attention at dealer auditions). Since I have a dealer a couple of miles from my home that displays 800Ds I always listen to them first, and my impressions mirror JA's, and KR's complaints. How KR came to the conclusion about how wonderful the 800D is I can't understand. There are few things in high-end audio more annoying in the long run than "ruthless" high frequencies, as KR calls them.

Unfortunate, because I think B&W has the technologies to build a really work-class product, and yet they seem to focus more on marketing and tuning for auditioning than accuracy. That's strike three for me.

Well, we all hear differently and of course personal taste comes into play. I haven't heard that many speakers but I find the 800 Diamond to sound very natural and has the best tweeter I ever heard in any speaker regardless of price. I don't find it "sparkly" but very natural. The only real downfall the speaker has in my opinion is in dynamics but I find all passive designs compressed compared to true fully active designs( where there is an active electronic crossover and the amp is hooked directly to the driver).

Thanks for reading but:

I have never reviewed or auditioned the Salon, only the Studio.

The sparkle was appropriate and, as I said, the ruthlessness only an issue with poor source materials.

Kal

Kal
I just read your review of the B&W 800 Diamond. I have been living with these speakers for about 6 months now and I think you nailed it perfectly. We all use different adjectives to describe things but in the context used I agree 100% with your assessment. I would also like to mention they are very sensitive to what's upstream and they definitely become more liquid as the crossovers break in.