B&W 801 vs 803s


About to finish my home theater room have B&W 803s right now and have a chance to upgrade to 801. both are nautilus series.. my room is 13 feet by 24 feet with 8 foot cieling. do you think the 801 are to big for my room. thanks for your opinions in advance..
palermo100
well said Dylanhenry

HEre it go the prices MSRP
N801 - USD11K
801D - USD18K
WP7 - USD22,5k
WP8 - USD27,9K

The 801D should play less than WP7 as it cost almost USD5K more. So thereĀ“s no way to compare or judge a speaker that have different price.
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.
yes dude. But in this case THESE 2 models cost the same price used or NEW.

We are not discussing about marks but SPEAKER PRICES. THe most important is compare speaker at the SAME price range.
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.
Mpit - your statement "its like comparing a Chevy to a Porsche. Its eassy to live with a Chevy if you've never owned a Porsche, becasue you don't know what you are missing". Analogies and generalizations such as this don't make sense, nor does comparing speakers at different price points. By the way - a friend of mine has a Chevy - a Corvette Z06 - you are welcome to bring your Porsche any time.