B&&W 802 Set Up In A Small Room

Sorry to hear about the difficulties with the 802's and 804's. I just bought a pair of 805's on Friday and wonder if anyone has any suggestions regarding their placement in a 12 X 20 room. This is for 50% home theater & 50% music.I use a REL Strata II for the low end and A 40" TV sits in between the mains. Any suggestions on what crossover frequency is best?

They are Matrix 802's Series II

Are you talking about the Nautilus 802's or the Matrix 802's?

Tried 803 Nautilus in my 14x24x8 room, but setup in 7.5' triangle like what you're probably doing, and found that because the lower crossover is a highish 350Hz, the speaker wasn't coherent in the nearfield. I vaguely remember a British review warning that the Nautilus only work 12-14 feet from the listening position minimum. Indeed I preferred the sound from adjacent rooms, where the problematic tweeter/mid integration doesn't screw up the standup/sitdown test. So I guess the power response is really good, but only listenable in the farfield on axis. Sounded like great home theatre candidates, but not terribly musical. Try Revel F30 or Aerial 7b...Thiel 2.3, JM Labs 820? I settled on V.A. Parsifals: great nearfield, AND phenomenal jump-factor. (Don't bother with 804, either...worse!)

Alternatively, you can try the RPG Acoustics software package that Audio Advisor is now selling for $ 99. Pretty decent for the task if you have a "cuboid" room, and let's you play around with lots of options. I've used it to set up SF Guaneri's in my small (12X14) room. Mind you, you'll still have to tweak by ear, but it does help you rule out the worst positions.

Cardas has his room set up proceedures on line. I have indeed found this setup to be sublime. Click on "Room Setup at this address: http://www.cardas.com/insights/index.html

Joey I followed the Cardas set-up procedures nand went from there. You can call or email George Cardas At George@cardas.com howard