Transparent Bi-Cable

I had never heard that B&W were difficult to drive in the accepted sense of the term, that is a difficult impedance curve. This certainly wasn't true when I sold them years ago and I haven't seen anything in the tests showing that the newer ones are that different. Which ones do you have in mind? The biwire configuration would have little effect on the drive difficulty in any case as the amp is still seeing the same speakers and crossover. B&Ws do like a lot of power and have for years but are not in my experience a difficult load for an amp to drive in the same way as my GamuTs or my friend's Wilson's.

Stanwal, I have 802D.

Actually, the 802Ds are an easy load, Looking at the recent test in HIFICRITIC they found that they had a sensitivity of 93 Db with a minimum impedance of 4 ohms and a 6 ohm average. They were 3 to 4 db more sensitive than the proceeding model. Compare this with my Gamut L5s, 89db sensitivity, 2.8 ohm minimum and 4 ohm average. This is a much harder load. ANY good amp, tube or transistor should have no trouble with the 802Ds. They do like power if they are like the older ones but they should play quite loud with amps of moderate size. 93 db for one watt, 96 for 2, 99 for 4 etc. Stan

Excuse me, wrong figures, the ones I quoted above are for the 802 Diamond. They are more efficient than the 802 Ds but have a similar impedance curve so will take more power to drive but also not present the amp with a difficult load.

Well, my Mcintosh 6900 certainly doesn't seem to agree that they are an easy load. Sounds pretty miserable most of the time.