Bi-Amping Options B&W 801 Series 2

@xenolith Let me assure you, I am enjoying my new (to me) speakers. I bought the speakers used from a dealer in northern New Jersey. I won’t give their name because previous posts on this forum that referenced them were removed silently. Suffice to say that they would have been perfectly capable of replacing the original, if what I have is not original. I have seen some crossovers on eBay that are much heftier than mine, but I think I will hold what I’ve got for now.
I find your configuration interesting. I haven’t, as yet gone the mono-block route, I was already on the dual-mono path before I found out about it.
Your knowledge of this speaker ‘system’ (it’s really more than just a speaker, isn’t it?) far exceeds mine, but you seem to know what you’re talking about, and I like what I hear about it being easy to drive. The original designer, from accounts I’ve read was trying to correct the ‘muddy’ bass of the original series by going with a an intentionally stiffer material for the cone. The function of the optional bass alignment filter was to boost the signal to the bass and ‘wake it up’ as it were, as well as provide 6th order Butterworth filtering. Most people were happy with speaker as it was. B&W also offered 11” stands for them, but again the original designer said that was just to lift them up over furniture found in a typical recording studio, they weren’t necessary for use in the home.
Anyway, as I said, I’m enjoying them, and I’ll try driving them with the Rogue Stereo 100 and see what I think.

Thanks for the response, and that goes to everyone who has responded thus far. I really appreciate it.

@oldrooney  I'm so sorry for your loss.

I saw the pic of the crossover network, perhaps you can ask the dealer to explain the design. They are impressive speakers and it's great that they sound as good as they look.

My earlier comments were about adding the Rogue to drive the highs/mids where an external crossover or gain control is needed. You would need to verify that the internal crossovers are truly discreet; top and bottom drivers are separate.  

Yes, so sorry for your loss. May your memories of her remain vibrant and detailed for all of your days.

My best advice with these speakers is to give them tubes and the best of those that you can; yes, this means to disregard the advice to give them big solid state power; I’ve done both; with respect to sound quality, the former far exceeds the latter.

And most importantly, give them the cleanest path between them and their power...magic is then possible.

@xenolith Thank you. I just hooked up the Rogue Stereo 100 to the ‘High Frequency’ taps and the sound is so sweet. I prepared a long post to update everyone on this thread, but lost it all on an errant finger click trying to preview it. Oh well. The 2nd MC252 has Ben removed from the temporary system downstairs to drive the McIntosh XRT20s that are being installed on the ‘New System’ upstairs. If the XRT20’s need another MC252 to get off the ground they’ll get it. Testing the XRT20‘s revealed that they need a lot of juice to move the woofers; haven’t hooked up the tweeters yet: we’ll see. Again, thanks for the sympathy and advice. 

@lowrider57 Thank you for the kind words. As best I can tell, the crossovers are, and always have been separate. From the response I’m getting on this thread they may well not be stock. In any case there are others for sale, so I’m not as worried about the ‘Bass Alignment’ option as I once was. The bass is powerful and clean without any additional equalization. Thank you for your concern.