B&W 703 - How to tame the highs?

Judy426 is entitled to his/her opinion. But I respectfully disagree. B & W produces some magnificent speakers. I've been very, very impressed with the Nautilus and Signature lines (a bit less so with the new diamonds). I have heard a lot of speakers that I would never choose over B & W, including the Paradigms, Vienna Acoustics, and even ProAc. And I also quite liked the Krell gear that I've heard with the B & W's. My ultimate preference is tubed electronics, but when you listen to EAI and noise, these so-called "non-musical" components do quite nicely. I prefer JM Lab to B & W, but I still appreciate B & W. I think their products are well-crafted and sound superb.

Seriously. Give the Martin Logans a try.

I like the vein of this thread...many intelligent responses. Though it has got somewhat off topic, I like where posters like nrenter are going with this. Thoughts...

A softer warmer amp will help if you already have an amp that is slightly bright like a Rotel. The Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista would be a wonderful alternative that would soften the highs a little but still sound incredible. If on a lesser budget, go with a NAD amp or even a cheaper yet Harman Kardon 2 channel which has a warm sound. Of course, if you don't like bright highs but still want detail, get some Dalis or even smoother yet Dynaudio speakers instead.

I also have 703's and I'm experiencing the same problem as the original poster.

For certain types of music that don't involve too much high frequency information these speakers play wonderfully. A good example would be Eva Cassidy's Live a Blues Alley. For other recordings such as any Rock album that involves wailing guitars the music just starts to hurt the ears after couple of songs.

When it comes to using these speakers for HT purposes, I honestly can't find any fault - even if I try. It makes me wonder if designing speakers to reproduce movies and music requires a compromise in one to benefit the other.

But getting back to the original topic, I'm thinking of giving a pair of 805's a listen to see if their top end is smoother. I think the 703's are clinically revealing as opposed to musically revealing, that's how I justify the day&night difference the present on movies vs music.