B&W 801 vs 803s

Palermo,

The 801 has a more open midrange (much less box coloration) and a lot more bass. Your room size is fine but they will need to be off the front walls a good bit. The down porting of the 801 can really over load the front corners...

Anyway I like B&W speakers (still own a pair of 703s) and have auditions both the 801, 802D, and 803D at length. But there are better and worse speakers out there.

In their price range I find the Thiel 3.7 out classed the 802D in all most all aspects for the same money. They are more coherent, dynamic, with a more natural midrange with AMAZING sound-stage (time alined...). They also look very good too. They can be had for 9,000 here on audiogon.

For me the down side of the larger B&Ws is they lose the punch and jump factor over the smaller B&Ws. They were hit or miss, some days I loved them and some days I wanted more bass punch and more midrange energy.

All in all if you likes B&Ws and can get a good deal buy them. I like them much better than the JM Lab line of speaker but not as much as Wilson's sophia... with the Thiels coming out as the clear winner for me.

As always use your own ears!

Well nothing wrong with marketing... think about all the berillium bs these days. Nothing wrong with berillium just saying every band has it's own niche in marketing.

Well I think it is some what fair to compare Wilsons to B&W. How much do N801 cost use $4000-$5000? On audiogon there is a pair of Wilson Audio Sophia 1s for just under &6,000 right now.

I think for most people a grand either way is doable.

My point is that even though the WP8s are 15,000 used he might be able to get a similar "house sound" for 6,000 with the sophia 1s...

I have never compared the two. I have only heard the Sophia 2s and never heard the WP8s. I do know that I personally would by the Sophia 2 over the 802D. Used the 802D is around $9,000 and the Sophia 2s go for around 11,000 (both in the 10,000 +or- price bracket)

Back on track with the OP. There is nothing wrong with B&W's sound and they look GREAT. Where the Wilsons look like sin IMO sitting beside other hi end brands (Focal JM Lab, B&W, Sonus Faber).

One thing that is often forgotten on these sites is that we all like different music which have different points of interest. I was demoing the 803D (different but similar rooms) and Focal 1037B about a year back. I only took two CDs, Metallica's Black album and Nora Jones newest CD (not sure the name).

I started off listening to Nora Jones. The mids of the 1037B had more inner detail than the 803D and delicate highs. I was really liking the 1037s. Then I put on Metallica and things changed very quickly. The 1037s did not have the scale or coherence of the 803D. The 1037s burped out odd bass notes (in the given room) while the 803D's bass was great with no weird corks. On Metallica highs of the 803Ds filled the room while the 1037s were more directional and loosing scale on the big rock and roll tracks...

All is all I like the 803D much better because most of my music is hard rock. At the time they were $8,000 MSRP and the 1037s were $11,200 MSRP. But the my real point is not to compare speakers in this post but to show how musical taste affect speakers choice. If I only listened to soft Jazz the 1037s would have been my choice.

My point is that even though the WP8s are 15,000 used he might be able to get a similar "house sound" for 6,000 with the sophia 1s...

I have never compared the two. I have only heard the Sophia 2s and never heard the WP8s. I do know that I personally would by the Sophia 2 over the 802D. Used the 802D is around $9,000 and the Sophia 2s go for around 11,000 (both in the 10,000 +or- price bracket)

Back on track with the OP. There is nothing wrong with B&W's sound and they look GREAT. Where the Wilsons look like sin IMO sitting beside other hi end brands (Focal JM Lab, B&W, Sonus Faber).

One thing that is often forgotten on these sites is that we all like different music which have different points of interest. I was demoing the 803D (different but similar rooms) and Focal 1037B about a year back. I only took two CDs, Metallica's Black album and Nora Jones newest CD (not sure the name).

I started off listening to Nora Jones. The mids of the 1037B had more inner detail than the 803D and delicate highs. I was really liking the 1037s. Then I put on Metallica and things changed very quickly. The 1037s did not have the scale or coherence of the 803D. The 1037s burped out odd bass notes (in the given room) while the 803D's bass was great with no weird corks. On Metallica highs of the 803Ds filled the room while the 1037s were more directional and loosing scale on the big rock and roll tracks...

All is all I like the 803D much better because most of my music is hard rock. At the time they were $8,000 MSRP and the 1037s were $11,200 MSRP. But the my real point is not to compare speakers in this post but to show how musical taste affect speakers choice. If I only listened to soft Jazz the 1037s would have been my choice.

"Ive never heard anyone choose B&W over Focal...or Wilson"

I do not really want to get off topic but the Focal 1037 are really not that good. They look nice but in no way do they sound like 11,000 dollars. Focal might make some nice drivers but the speakers as a whole came up way short. The tweeter did not integrate well with the midrange and the narrow dispersion of the tweeter did not help the situation. The bass was very room dependent and needed boundary reinforcement to have any bass.... and then it was muddy (because of the boundary). Put the focal in a room with Thiel 3.7, Wilson, or speakers of your choice and the short comings will be very apparent. They chose form over function... I love the look but the sound/price ratio is terrible.

I know Wilson owners have some special place for Focals because they use their tweeters. But look at the most common complaint about Wilsons, the tweeters.

As for the wilson I have only spent a few hours during a demo with the Sophia and Duetts so I can't really comment on them. But the demo was MUCH better than the focal demo.

I stand behind my original statement, 803D>1037be.