B&W N800 vs Wilson WP7 vs Revel and others


I plan to upgrade my N802's in the near future and have a few speakers on my short list. I an interested in hearing everyone's thoughts or opinions. My short list includes:

B&W Signature N800's
Wilson WP 7
Wilson WP 6
Wilson Sophia
Revel Studios and Salons
JM Labs Utopia
Sonus Faber Amati

My current system includes Krell FPB 350 mono's and 7.1 processor. I will be using the latest EMC 1 cdp. Thanks
Bill
wvick
Well, YOU better check again. Focal is only the tweeter. And nothing wrong with them either. Scan-Speak 8545 is widely used mid/woofer. Seas Excel is another "cheesy" off the shelf driver that was succesfuly utilized by Joseph's (20K) Pearl. Quality of the Individual parts doesn't mean much, but the sum of the whole. 'Till recently Dynaudio drivers were also available off-shelf to DIY-ers. That didn't mean that they were "cheesy". If you want "cheesy", try opening-up your Dynaudio Countour 3.3, and take a look at the $20 crossover parts!
Also, i do not believe (ANY) speakers should cost $20K either!
Actually Wilson uses focal for all 3 mentioned drivers, depending on model of course. As for the sum of the whole theory, I actually agree. I also agree that no speaker actually is "worth" $20k plus. I just feel that Wilson is one of the biggest offenders when it comes to cost/quality ratio which in all honesty kind of sucks. Companies like Revel,Arial,B&W are all also overpriced just like ANY speaker, but when you have a chance to actually take apart the speaker(s),you can see which mfg. took more time and care in the quality of parts used and selected. One reason why Ive always been a fan of Revel(and why I bought em for my own personal system). THey dont just sound great, but they look great, and their parts quality across the board is excellent.

I also have to add that my feelings on their sound is nothing more than an opinion so if any Wilson owners feel offended, it wasnt meant to be voiced that way.
I guess, we agree more than the initial posts would suggest. I own Dynaudio 3.0, and after the x-over upgrade took the sound to the new level. Bennic mylar and Solen caps were replaced with Mundrof and Hovland. Very disapointing finding that relatively expensive speakers would use very cheap parts. My friend did the same with his 3.3. I would hate to be owner of the >$20K, and find less than premier parts in any way!
Yeah, see I feel the same way. =) When we first got the Watt puppy/6 versions in the store, we set em up broke em in,and also decided to take em apart(if the owner ever found out we would have all been fired!)to see what they are "made of". With the nice binding posts and decent decouplers we were hoping to see the same goodies inside, but were a bit dissapointed. First cue to me was the focal tweeter. My longtime friend had a pair of them in his car that the previous owner put in. They were very harsh no matter what tuning we did. Even with the tweeter's tamed they had a really bad "mettalic" sound to em. Seeing these come on the WIlson's didnt help my feelings any. Nor did the bass drivers. When we took em out of the cabinet, we werent fully impressed. Xover boards(in a casing that must attrack RFI or EMI no doubt) were populated with iron core coils. Dampening was ok. Bracing was decent, nothing special. Drivers had really short coils of marginal quality, frame wasnt too impressive either. Just wasnt impressed, especially with its pricetag. Floor spikes were flashy and of good quality, as were binding posts as mentioned. Im sorry even the cheesy velcro used to hold on the grilles.Plastic ports, Get my point?Geez, even the paint job, they used like 1 coat primer,1 thin coat of paint and a coat of clearcoat that doesnt bond well to the paint. Really easy and prone to chipping. Big time dissapointed. To the trained eye this is bothersome. Couple this with less than stellar sound, at least to my ears. Some people call it musical, I call it EQ roulet. Im sorry but when you buy a speaker in this price range, it shouldnt just sound good, it should abound with quality components throughout too.