B&W 802D vs Wilson WATT Puppy

I owned both the Nautilus 801 using Krell FPB 600 w. upgraded mains & now the Watt Puppy 7s using the Krell & now VTL 750. It is an unfair comparisoin considering the price. But I will agree that the Watt Puppy 7s are a much better speaker. The 802D is a different question but I would guess that it will have the same problem as my 801s. The Kevlar midrange needs to be played loud to come alive. If it is played at low volumes it sounds muddy. In addition the Wilson is in an entire different league. The cabinet is sonically "dead" compared to the B&W. I love my 801s for years but am not sad to see them go. The bass on the Wilson is much more quick than on the 801s. I don't know if this problem extends to the 802D but the midrange is the same from what I am told & from the reviews. The midrange is incredibly musical at loud volumes. I hope this helps. I also found the Sophia to be an excellent speaker which sounded much better than a Nautilus 800 while listening at a Wilson & B&W dealer. I don't always trust dealers setups to demonstrate correctly the best of each speaker. Often it is too much work to move around equipment & optimize the system. Also, I have realized the you might hear an abused speaker or one that is not broken in. I was lucky to compare the speakers in my own house. It was no going back for me. I now just added the Watch Dog subwoofer. It wasn't a must but it definitely completes the package.

I want to, and plan to, listen to the Ds but no matter what will be biased to the 7s. My home system is so "there" that very few dealer systems will ever come close unless they let me set up the room. By the way I am not a diamond tweeter fan. I find it great sounding but not necessarily better than some of the great "old fashioned" tweeters. I still think the Dynaudio Esotar & the Focal are superior in areas that other tweeters are not. I also feel the diamond is superior. I do not like ceramic tweeters and love a great ribbon or planar for wonderful highs. It just goes to say, more money is definitely more money but not necesaritly going to result in a better speaker.

Benfmd,

What are you going to get? And my favorite recommendation is to listen. Sometimes if you listen several times you will realize there are some attributes that will wear on you over time. Just think of it like going to a restaurant & your best friend recommending the restaurant. You eat there & are very unhappy. You find out you ordered the wrong item off of the menu & go back. You still don't like what you were recommended to order & realize that his taste in food isn't the same as yours. How can you accept a recommendation from anyone on a speaker unless you know their listening biases by going listening with them together & realizing you have similar taste. Good luck!

Kw6,

To be honest with you it is a tough call. Bass is very dependant on the room. WP7s which lack in bass often excel in imaging. They need to be 1/3 of the way into the room (approx). Not much reinforcement from the rear wall. As for B&W 802D, I had my 801s on the Sound Anchors stands. It definitely immproved the 801s bass & midrange. But still my WP7s have better, faster more articulate bass with texture & air. But for the last bit of bass I just added the WATCH Dog subwoofer. It really does ad bass. Sometimes you don't even know it is on. The WP7s do go to about 23 HZ w. very fast & articulate bass. If you speak w. Wilson they reoommend the Maxx IIs for more bass but the WATCH Dog subwoofer really is only barely needed w. the WP7s. If you turn of the sub you really don't miss it. You just love it added presense. I really feel the B&W needs to be played loud to come alive. At medium to low volumes the midrange is lost. I am fairly certain this has not changed. The midrange unit is the same. I am also very sure that the bass is fairly similar between both speakers. They both require very good system matching.

Jungsan,

You might be right. I loved B&W in its time. It might be much better again. I know it is still a Kevlar midrange w. similar impedance so it might still should posses much of its original character. It might also posses a lot of new positive characteristics which should make it much better than the earlier generation. I did hear the 800s & it was not as I hoped. They were not the 800D but do contain the FST midranage as well.

I found the WP7 bass to have detail just not the last bit of bottom. A lot of it will depend on the remainder of your system. The WP7s will show off everything you put in. Currently I just put a lot into my system. I am "there" unexpectedly. All I have to say is I want more, but really don't feel that any genre of music or listening level is missing.

The Nautilus will be a fun speaker. B&W make a great product in their price range. They manufacture all their own drivers. A big benefit. Wilson,is not willing to commmit to their own drivers as they prefer to be able to choose from what is out there. Their cabinets are truly dead quite. The WP7 will sound great if set up right. If not, you will miss out. Hopefully you will get to hear it with tubes. Even better is with a very good CD player as anything bright will be bright, rolled off will be rolled off etc. etc.

Bass definition on the WP7 is something definitely not lacking. Actualy IMHO it excels in bass speed & definition.

The 802Ds not being biwired make no difference w. Transparent cables. They are not allowed to be used in a biwired configuration. The networks are voiced for full range. That is why they weren't biwired. In my opinion it doesn't matter at all when you use trasparent cables.

Don't worry about them being "ugly" they have a better resale value & wife acceptance factor because of the simplicity of design.

Order the Sophia in a custom color. It will look amazing & have a faster resale. I would go for Jaguar lime green or dark green depending on the house. Maybe even a metalic lilac similar to Porshe 911s.

You can have a lot of fun. PS they are voiced with grills on. Most speakers sound better once you remove the grills. Not the Watts. A huge plus.