Am I the only one who thinks B&W is mid-fi?


I know that title sounds pretencious. By all means, everyones taste is different and I can grasp that. However, I find B&W loudspeakers to sound extremely Mid-fi ish, designed with sort of a boom and sizzle quality making it not much better than retail quality brands. At price point there is always something better than it, something musical, where the goals of preserving the naturalness and tonal balance of sound is understood. I am getting tired of people buying for the name, not the sound. I find it is letting the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. In these times of dying 2 channel, and the ability to buy a complete stereo/home theater at your local blockbuster, all of the brands that should make it don't. Most Hi-fi starts with a retail system and with that type of over-processed, boom and sizzle sound (Boom meaning a spike at 80Hz and sizzle meaning a spike at 10,000Hz). That gives these rising enthuists a false impression of what hi-fi is about. Thus, the people who cater to that falseified sound, those who design audio, forgetting the passion involved with listening, putting aside all love for music just to put a nickle in the pig...Well are doing a good job. Honestly, it is just wrong. Thanks for the read...I feel better. Prehaps I just needed to vent, but I doubt it. Music is a passion of mine, and I don't want to have to battle in 20 yrs to get equipment that sounds like music. Any comments?
mikez

Showing 2 responses by bigkidz

Asa and Unsound, B&W speakers in general do not mate well with tube amps. Mostly the speakers require a high current amp (not wpc but current) to make them open up and sing. See the Enjoy the music review of the Pass X-250 amp where they feel the high current amp really makes the 803s sing. As always, what sounds right for one does not always sound right to another. I own a pair of 803s and know there are better speakers out there. I also know that I need a very good components and system matching to get the best performance that I am looking for from my system.

Peace.
Lots of responses to the B&W question. I own the 803s and have not compared them to that many other speakers. They do require specific equipment to make them sound magical and I do not mean big $$$. First a good high current amp is necessary, second, silver interconnects and cables open them up quite a bit. All of the other speakers everyone mentioned are also great but it all comes down to personal preference, etc. My 2 cents worth.