As someone who went from the B&W 800 series to Thiel about 10 years ago I will be the first one to tell you that you're making a bad decision. I found the Thiels to be better in every area I cared about. The B&Ws will play louder and have more (lower quality) bass. The Thiels have more defined bass, clearer, more intelligible midrange, less peaky tweeter, better imaging, more realistic soundstage, better transients, and a difficult to describe relaxing quality that may be due to their better phase behavior.