APOGEE CENTAUR MAJOR VS B&W MATRIX801S2 WHICH IS T

Digital3 - Too very different speakers with different requirements with different camps as far as owners go.
I like both types of speakers which is why I have two listening rooms.
Have you not listened to both to hear the different presentations - panel versus cone ?
Its very obvious.
I don't think you are going to base a decision on a public chat forum?... so go listen to both as others have recommended.

11-11-13: Dave_72
The B&Ws *can* offer superb sound to this day, but again, imo, it will fall just short of the 801Ds and 800Ds.

.......and you know this how Dave ? Have you heard them together to compare ?

they are very different designs - matrix during John Bowers years and those that followed - two different sounds.

I've have heard the 800d's
I prefer my matrix 800's. If you want to know why pm me as this if off topic.

zd542 -How do you deal with the tweeters in those old B&W's? The midrange is excellent. Its clean and fast; no problems at all. I found the tweeter to be painful. I tried all different things to fix them, but could come up with no reasonable solution short of just getting a new pair of speakers.,

here is a clue

Stereophile review of the S2.

"Higher in frequency, the response trend (averaged across a 30 degrees lateral window on the tweeter axis) is basically flat, but with a slight excess of energy in the presence region and a corresponding lack of energy in the top octave. All things being equal, this will make the speaker both a little too revealing of recorded detail and somewhat fussy when it comes to the quality of source and amplification components, just as LL noted in his auditioning comments."

What were you using as a pre and amp, source ?

It wasn't clear in your post that you already owned the s2. Are you using the bass alignment filter ?

http://kenrockwell.com/audio/b-w/800-series-bass-alignment-filter.htm

Hi Digital3 - I don't know how familiar you are with the B&W BAF. All the 800 matrix series speakers 800, 801, 802, 803, 804, 805 followed John Bowers vision as an active design.
The BAF - basically an equalizer is inserted and boosts the low bass as well as getting rid of of sub sonic nasties that make woofer pumping a problem.

Here is an frequency response graph plot from B&W with the 801's - filter and no filter.

http://cgim.audiogon.com/i/vs/i/f/1368548585.jpg

I listen to music that has material below 40 hz so the filter is important to me.
I also found the bass boom around 100hz in my room without the filter was eliminated making placement easier.
If you are going to keep the S2; I recommend at least
searching on ebay or here at audiogon for the filter.
they come up for sale. This way you can at least hear the speakers as designed.
You can always sell it later if it doesn't work for you.
They are always in demand because the BAF's were all originally shipped with the speakers but they got misplaced and lost as speakers changed hands.

Dave - if you ever get an opportunity try to hear the matrix 800's.

Cheers