What are your general thoughts of B&W speakers

Wow. What a topic to pick when you ask what people think of B&W speakers! This has to be the most "infamous" topic in the speaker forum. Yes, I like B&W. No, they are not the greatest speakers on the planet. They deffently have a "house" sound. But that can just about be said of any speaker system. Going out buying and selling speakers on A-gon at will is not as easy as one of the posters said.

I have listened to alot of different and expensive speakers and yes some sound better than B&W. But the one thing that impresses me is B&W has great value. Alot for the money. This is important to most of us that is unless you already have to much money. Some of you say the speaker sounds like it has a blanket over it. Ok, you like brite sounding speakers. Others say "blows the doors off of B&W" or "blows it away." I'm really leary of people's discriptions when they use terms like this.

There is a reason why B&W sells many thousands of speaker systems and I will tell you right now it is more than just their marketing strategy. Once again. Great speaker, and great value. IMO.

If you are living somwhere near Pontiac, MI then I would recommend you to give Salksound soundscape 8 an audition - one of the best in $10,000 price range. If not, just call them or email them to find out where you can get an audition near where you leave.

I would describe them as clinical (I had CM series). They didn't have the "soul" I was looking for. They are like Volvo, they're safe, they get the job done, but they're kinda plain....IMO.

Gwng8,

what amp were you using to drive them? Being devils advocate... Could it have been your source or amp that was clinical?

Which speakers would you say are the opposite of clinical and what did you use to drive them?

I progressively traded up from the 804S to 803D to 803Diamond over a period of 5 years.

I continued to enjoy their unique combination of musicality and looks. I found in particularly the 804/803 visual design is timeless, though I also like the 802/800 avant-garde looks (not as much the 801).

Both the 803D and 803Diamond have been the most satisfying loudspeakers I owned in terms of combination of good tonal balance, bass weight, transparency and smooth sound.
The 804/803 does not necessarily require high powered amplifiers (I successfully drove them to satisfying levels with 60W) – but they demand the highest quality transparent low noise amplifiers you can afford (think Class A).

Their slightly warmish, smooth sound and relatively low cost (at least compared to the boutique brands) tend to result in music/gear lovers pairing them with less ideal front-end equipment. Interestingly, although they are fairly forgiving of less than high-end equipment and top-notch recordings, they reward any upgrade in equipment and increase in recording resolution. They will sound a bit flat if you scrimp on the equipment quality. However they will reward any tweaks to mains conditioning, vibration isolation, cables, synergistic equipment combinations, room position adjustment to millimetres (similar to the care that a Wilson Audio loudspeaker is positioned). That is why most hifi store setups sound less than inspirational.

So any significant weaknesses (other than if you think fanatical setup hygiene is too much hard work)? I will rate the Kevlar midrange as good rather than exceptional. It is not as adept as e.g. a Seas magnesium midrange at micro-dynamics. However it tracks overall macro-dynamics very well without compression and the sharp break-up nodes of the magnesium cone. On balance I think the midrange compromises of a 3 way are well judged. Any significant advance will likely require a 4 way design using a pure pistonic midrange design (as per the Nautilus design) or a significantly more advanced cone material.

I listen to my 803D / 803Diamonds probably around 350 out of 365 days every year. They faithfully provide me listenable and enjoyable music and continue to surprise me on a good recording.