I would second Estrong's comment about the 602's. I run the Series 3's with the matching sub and am very happy with them - mostly jazz, but plenty of acoustic rock and hip hop as well. The looks (yellow kevlar cone) take a while to adjust to, but have even earned the WAF in my house.
B&W 600 Series or PSB Image?
Hey all. I recently began the overdue process of upgrading my stereo system. I'm moving from mass-market junk into an entry-level hi fi system. I recently purchased a used NAD C 340 integrated amp. Comparing this against my old Kenwood receiver, it sounds much better. I also have a Sony DVP-NC685V SACD player on the way. I'm currently running this all through a pair of Optimus LX5 bookshelf speakers (not bad at all for the price). I'm coming down to a very important decision, and that is which pair of speakers to buy. After doing some research, I now have a few considerations. I'm thinking of going with a pair of the B&W 600 series, most likely the 603 Series 2. I'm also considering a pair of the PSB Image speakers, possibly the Image T45 or T55; I've heard the previous series of Image speakers had a few problems, so I'm trying to avoid them. I had a chance to hear the B&W 603 S3's at an audio shop, but there were a few problems. First, the amplication was not correct; it may have something to do with the speaker switch he had hooked up, but I had the unit at -10 dB and it was still not playing loud (I believe it was a NAD C 743 receiver). Also, speaker placement was not good at all, so it was hard to get make a judgement on the speakers' imaging capabilities. All in all, I wasn't too impressed with what I heard because of these faults; I did, however, notice that the speakers had a very natural sound. Has anyone matched these speakers with the NAD C 340? Or can anyone else make suggestions on good budgets speakers that would compliment my current setup?