What are your general thoughts of B&W speakers


What do you guys think of B&W speakers. Specifically, the 800 series diamond line. What are their strengths and weakness? I know I will get quite a few different opinions on this subject. If you had 8 to 10k to spend on a pair of towers, what would you choose? I prefer to buy new so, for the sake of this discussion to new retail products only and stay away from used. I have listened to the B&W 804 diamond quite a bit. I don't have any high end dealers near me but, I can make a drive to audition some brands within an hours drive. What should I sit down to listen to in this price range?
andyprice44
Really enjoying some 805D speakers currently. It's a toss up between them and my Gallo 3.5 - can't decide which I like better! The 805D with a Rel Strata is currently hooked up and sounding outstanding. Very textured, high resolution sound that is not fatiguing in the slightest.
I hold B&W speakers in high regard, i own a pair of 802D's and wouldnt trade them for the world, they are well rounded and reproduce voice perfectly. They can be considered sharp & dry which i would say is correct, thats not a bad thing. Consider what someone sounds like singing/ talking to you from 4 metres away then what it might sound like in your ear 200mm away. the dryness comes from the recording not the speaker. all the sharpness from s' and t's when people announce these sounds are sharp and dry beside your ear but smooth when your a certian distance away from them. when recorded the artist is right infront of the mic so all those details will be picked up. The fact your speakers reproduce that back to you is just a testamant of their accurcy and quality. If you dont hear tat in other speakers you not hearing what your supposed to.

Dryness and harshness is accurate representation not a lack of quality a bad trait. You can EQ out what you dont like, dont blame the speaker because its too good.
Cool, as long as you're happy. There's many happy users of the 802Ds. It's a good speaker, for all intense purposes. It not flawless, but what speaker is...
B&W was recently sold to a Silicon Valley startup, Eva Automation, and the company has undergone some big changes this year. Classe was shut down and Eva fired long-time B&W President John Henderson which, as rumor has it, ticked off a lot of dealers. I'm not sure where the company is heading at this point.


I ran B&W DM1800 speakers (with integral stands) as my main speakers for years.  They were great, and I didn't feel the need to upgrade for the longest of times.  B&W peaked with the Series III and pretty much went downhill since then.  Modern B&W are overpriced, don't do bass anything like as well as they should commensurate with price, and are finicky with amplification.  There are so many other alternatives out there, they are, frankly, irrelevant.  They are only front-and-center in so many people's consciousness because of the huge dealer network that they established years ago.  If they had the same number of stores in the US as do Spendor, Proac, PMC or ATC, no one would be talking about them.