Would like to get more bass out of my B&W 801 series 2 speakers

Is your listening chair in a null? Have you walked around the entire room to determine the room nodes: the peaks & nulls of the bass?

A drawback of a full-range floorstander is that the LF woofers are in a fixed position. That’s why some people choose monitors and freestanding subs - so they can position the subs anywhere in the room in order to have the bass waves arrive correctly by their listening chair.*

A possible solution could be the Distributed Bass Array, ’DBA’. Examples are: 'The Swarm’ and the 'DEBRA'.

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*A 30hz bass wave is 37 feet long. It’s bouncing off the walls, ceiling and floor. The goal is to have it arrive at your listening chair at the same time as the HF & Midrange.

If you’re sitting in a null, no amount of room treatment will add bass. It could help tame the HF, if needed.

@chessie

Simple solution: At  only 87db, your speakers are very low efficiency and hard to drive.  You need tons of power, with high damping factor amplification in order to bring out the best in your speakers, including the bass response.  Your current amp at approx. 185 wpc into 8 ohms simply doesn't cut it.  You're underpowering your speakers.  I suggest you replace your current amp with something that'll give you at least 300 wpc into 8 ohms.  Once you replace your current amp with something much more powerful, I guarantee, you'll hear miraculous improvements not only in your bass response, but also the overall slam and dynamic of your speakers, especially when listening at low to moderate volume levels.  Happy listening.         

Well, I have received lots of good ideas, thanks and keep the advice coming.

Acoustically this room is a mess, will be trying to figure out how I can improve it.

I am intrigued by the DBA method, wonder if four subs would be enough for my space.   

A friend is going to loan me a Crown XLS 1502 to see what 300wpc will do for me.

I plan to get the 801s up off the floor, get them some space from the wall, and close the curtains.

cheers!

That’s a large room with a lot of volume. I’d add room treatment and an active subwoofer or two for an easy increase in bass output.

Bi-amping could help. A big SS amp on those woofers should bring some life to them, especially if you go next level and bypass the woofer’s passive low pass crossover and replace with an active crossover. Found some online specs that put the crossover frequency between the woofer and midbass at 380hz, so the woofers are handling the lower and middle vocal range. Letting the subwoofers handle below 60-80 hz will relieve the woofers of low bass duty, which should help clarity in the vocal range too.

FWIW I have 801 S2 Mk IIIs. Currently in a medium sized, treated room. Formerly in a very large room. I have used various amps in biamped configuration- Krell, Crown and Mac.Since new I made sturdy pedestal bases filled with sand that must weigh about 35 lbs. That puts the tweeter at ear height when sitting.

Bass has never been an issue. Even though I have a subwoofer (VMPS) for extreme bass,  I can switch it out on my pre amp and on most music I don’’t miss the sub- the 801’s are very adequate .

Right now run they with Mac 250/w amp (un biamped) and never sounded better.

As always, YMMV but the consensus opinion is that for these speakers, large current has always been recommended. Amps are easy to swap in and out- if you can borrow from a friend or dealer and experiment. Let us know