B&W 706 S3 vs 705 S3

So today I was able to compare side by side the 706 S3, 704 S3, and 703 S3. Unfortunately no 705 but the 703 has the same tweeter pod… all were powered by a pioneer elite receiver using hi res flac files on a flash drive.

the highs all sounded similar. I was hard pressed to hear a difference between the tweeter on top and the ones in cabinet. So maybe the 705 isn’t worth the extra cost for me and my ears? My ears aren’t audiophile enough I guess? 

some other takeaways… the 704 sounded by far the worst of all three. The bass was loose and woofy and just not great. There was a lot of bass but it wasn’t pleasant. The bass on the 706 was tight and quick and the 703 was just as tight and quick but with a bit more body. The mids and highs nothing really stood out as being overly better or worse on the three. Overal the 703’s were the best balanced and sounding but too big for my room and wallet. 

A Pioneer receiver???  Where were you that they didn’t at least have a decent integrated amp to demo those speakers? That’s embarrassing. Lemme guess — Best Buy? 🙄 Find another store. 

Yeah it was Best Buy… so what.

You tell me another store that’s going to have all those speakers setup, and able to easily change back and forth between them.

There isn’t one. Jump off your high horse pal, you aren’t being helpful.

Nothing wrong with Best Buy. My nephew just purchased a pair of Martin Logans from Best Buy and he could not be happier. Save yourself a grand and get the ones with the enclosed tweeter. BTW, many moons ago I had B&W and they were very boomy sounding in my room!!

Because Best Buy absolutely sucks.  I worked at Magnolia for a bit.  They don’t know what they’re doing, their speakers are all pushed up against a wall not cause that’s where they sound best but because it’s easier for them and are hooked up to low-rent receivers.  You wanna buy from Best Buy, be my guest but you’re being totally ripped off.  The fact that you’re not even curious about other speakers than B&W tells me this is just a waste of my time anyway.  Look at Fritz speakers cause the Carbon 7s will blow the mediocre B&W speakers you’re looking at outta the water.  Or look at these Ushers that use a proprietary diamond tweeter B&W doesn’t offer until you spend north of $9k. I’ve heard the speakers you’re looking at and you can do much better with either of the above alternatives.  I’m not on a high horse, just decades of experience and am just trying to help you choose better speakers for your hard-earned $$$.  But if you’re hell-bent on overpaying for very mediocre B&W monitors have at it.

https://soundapproach.com/usher-dancer-mini-x-7-2-way-diamond-bookshelf-speakers-pair.html