Room size & choosing speakers

Mksr , After reading your original post , It made me curious as to how your local dealer answered your question concerning room size with the 802D and associated equipment. What did they say when you asked this question? Since it is a local dealer, would they be willing to allow a home audition to help you make your choice?

In 2000 I met a person who bought the 802N. His room was too small for this speaker. He had a lot od acoustic problems with it. I never would have sold him this speakers in that room. I got really irritated and phoned with B&W in my country. I said you need to be more careful and honnest to cleints about speakers in this price range.

I auditioned the 802D's at a local dealer and did not like the sound at all. The imaging was constricted and the midrange was muddy and hollow. I think the problem was the room was too small for these speakers. Other speakers sounded much better in that room. Therefore I tend to agree with the others that the 802D's really need a bigger room to perform to their potential.

Many shops do not understand audio and acoustics. In my country it is the same. The problem is knowlegde. First you have to understand and know all the properties of the 802D before you can Judge in which room and how it need to be positioned. Then you also need to know which amp will get all the properties out of the speaker it owns. With speakercable it is the same. They often just place them somewhere, pick an amp and some cables. Audio and music does not work like this. It is that simple!

Mksr, given the dimensions of your room and the fact that your room is a bit
square-ish, it is best to go with monitor speakers that do not have a lot of bass
(e.g. B&W 805D, Focal Electra or Utopia) and complement these monitors with a
good subwoofer. Being able to move the bass source around the room is very
important for archiving a good bass response. When properly integrated with a
subwoofer, the 805 will sound much fuller than the 803Ds and should have
significantly more impact.

Regarding the Dynaudio C1 speakers (mk1 or mk2), when set up properly they
sound much better than any B&W 805 modeI. However, they require a much
more careful set up, i.e. they need a very good power amp and also require
careful placement in the room. Also, because they put out a lot of bass it is
imperative that you try them in your room to make sure they will not overwhelm
it.