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 spluta

It funny you asked that question.
I am looking to upgrade speakers. I have middle
of pack Infinity's they have done a great job
for price point but im looking to get to next level.
I specifically had four speaker brands in mind
before i heard the B&W'S now i have three. Revel,
Martin logan and Infinity MTS series.
I recently had a chance to listen to the 801's
they were being driven by a Macintosh something
i was told about 200wpc. The first thing i noticed
was a Velodyne sub parked between them so i asked
the salesman to turn off sub and re-direct all bass
to 801's. I was shocked how they sounded. The only
thing that stands out in my mind was a haze that seemed
to cover music and a real lack of low end. It took me
a total of about 60 seconds to take these of my short
list. VERY DISSAPOINTING. I will say that the room
was not ideal and I would guess my Bel Canto EVO6 would
do a much better job of driving them but there was just
nothing that appealed to me about them. Sorry i dont
mean to flame anyone who has purchased B&W's just my
opinion.
Cdc..

I definetly was not impressed with Mc and 801 sound.
My expectations were very high for 801 and i was really
dissapointed. I looked for pwr conditioner.. They did have one hooked up. So i couldent blame that. If i get the chance
i will listen closely to B&W's with some different amps.

I also had a much different take on the F30's and M20's. With different amps. The F30's were paired with Proceed amp and pre. The M20's were paired with Rotel gear (yeah i know).

I was really impressed with both especially bass and midrange on F30's. But the M20's really stood out as much better than I expected. Especially with the gear that was running them. Overall i would rate them both very high on my list. Im very confident my amplification could really get them where i want to go.

I do understand the effect's different gear can have on
any good speakers. I always try to take that into consideration.

I will check out Paradigm's also...

Thanks,

Steve