New amp for B&W 803s - Classe or Mac or ???

There's only one way you can fix your problem. And that is to get rid of your 803's. I'm not guessing on this. I know from experience. There's just no fixing that aluminium tweeter. If you try to find components that will be used as an EQ, plan on spending a lot of $. You'll still have the same problem with you are done.

Direct and to the point and you may be right. I've had other advice to move to a NAD Master series amp and dump the 803s for 803d (or re-evaluate my years-long liking of B&Ws). Thanks.

gordon

Maybe it's old age, but I'm finding that when pushed a bit in our new TV room (SIM2 Mico50 and Carada 114" screen) the 803s have a bit of an edge.

Hi Gordon
The biggest challenges I have had with this hobby is when moving gear from one room to another. I’ve had the exact same gear in 4 different rooms. 4 different sounds. Your new room sounds really cool. Based on the info in your post did the speakers work well in your previous room ? Without a “picture” we can only provide info based on assumptions and your post info. We are listening to our rooms even in a TV room.

I can't afford a full gear swap out and I've tried some interconnect and cable cable swaps with no luck.

Some speakers are more revealing of room/gear. Some are more polite sounding. No speaker is perfect. I have learned the following lessons.

a) spend some time and effort fixing the room issues if allowed (shared living space has constraints – is your room shared?) if this does not resolve the problem.
b) then try different cables/interconnects.
c) finally changing gear (amps/preamps/speakers). Maybe multiple times. This is obviously what manufacturers/dealers/distributors want us to do. Maybe you want a change and have cash. IDK.

So - I would take some time with (a) first and maybe you have already – your post doesn’t say. In the new room I assume the new screen is between the 803 speakers? Maybe you have already done this; as an experiment have you tried covering it with a blanket and listen to see how it affects the HF? This obviously defeats the purpose of the TV room but it may tell you where the problem lies. Resolving may mean moving the speakers into the room a bit – if allowed. The new room is close to being square as well which is more difficult. 800 series are very revealing of the room and the gear feeding them.
Good luck.

Room is 17 wide, 18 deep, 8 foot ceilings. Rear wall is actually not "flat" but imagine that each corner has a 3' wide by 4' deep chunk taken out and that recess has an 11 foot wide u-shaped sectional. Behind the sectional is a 96" wide window covered with a heavy curtain. The left wall (looking at the screen) has a 96" window with a heavy curtain. To the right of the screen is a door to my equipement room. Covering that door is a heavy curtain with a matching curtain on the left side. Room is neutral with only a slight clap echo no matter where you clap (no STD jokes please). Speaker placement was done with help of local sales guy prior to putting in the carpet spikes. Room eq done twice w/Meridian SW w/help from sales guy (who has about 20 years exp, about 12 w/B&W and Meridian). If you know Seattle you know who the dealer is.

So room is dedicated, dark (indigo walls/ceiling, dark gray carpet, reasonably heavy dark curtains - not that the color impacts the sound!). I do have a blanket that I can use to drape the screen - which, although not the solution of course - would provide another data point.

I've been messing with this stuff since Radio Shack in Chicago sold Scott and HeathKit recievers (yes, I'm in my 60's) and had a "high end" department. It never ceases to amaze me how many variables we have to deal with and how, even after the most studied efforts, "audio nirvana" always seems to have an element of luck that separates very good from OMG!!!

Again - thanks for the time you took for a thoughtful response. I'll futz with a blanket tomorrow (a rainy Seattle Saturday) and post results and whenever I finish this mini-journey I'll close out this thread.

gordon