I have the 803 D3s, and they are definitely NOT bright. Not even close. A midrange to die for! Ample bass (I use dual subwoofers anyways), and very balanced highs. Love them!
Note that B&W is often associated with Best Buy, simply because of their availability at Magnolia Design stores. As such, people likely look down at them, and go for more "exotic" brands. Don't pay attention, try for yourself and see if you like them. |
I have a good friend who bought them a year ago and uses the Mac 452 amps. I’ve heard them many times and don’t think they are bright but he has regretted the purchase. They just don’t engage him (nor me). The bass is ill defined and has no meat on the bones. I’d have to agree but listen for yourself it may be the sound YOU are after. |
Do you have an opinion on what speakers in the same price range are better? I did not want to add subs to my setup. |
It is interesting that a 22K set of speakers don't just blow everyone away!!! You would think that the popularity and experience of B&W would yield the best speakers for the price they are going for.
Does anyone have experience with Mcintosh XR100?
Thanks in advance.
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maxking OP
I have been looking into getting B&W 802D3 speakers since they were announced. I am now at a point to make that decision and I am finding that many people who bring them home, end up returning them because they are too bright
They are a great speaker, but if you drive them with an amp that can’t deliver "serious current" into this hard load in the bass and some of the lower mids they present to the amp, then yes they are going to sound bright. https://www.stereophile.com/images/616BW802fig1.jpg You need an amp that can "almost" double it’s 8ohm wattage, into 4ohms and then "almost" double again into 2ohms. To get the best out of these speakers, especially in the bass. They are 91db but " it is a relatively demanding load for an amplifier to drive. (Stereophile)" Cheers George |
@maxking agree these speakers shouldn’t require subs IMO.
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I have them and they sound really incredible. Can’t say I regret the purchase at all. They definitely not bright and have a wonderful mid range. The reason they pop up for sale more than others is simple. They’re a big company, with a very popular, well reviewed speaker. Some people will eventually sell them. Sometimes it’s just to move up in price category. You’d be hard pressed to find a written review that’s bad. Word of mouth I’ve found is always people who have never heard them and just hear from other people, or it’s that they heard older generations. |
The D3 which use synthetic diamond tweeters are not "bright" per say because the tweeters do not have any of the breakup distortion problems that metal tweeters do. However, they are very high resolution and very revealing. The people who state these speakers are bright are likely people who have more forgiving soft dome tweeters in their system and use a lot of silver or silver-plated elements (such as silver-plated interconnect, silver terminations, etc.). These elements can definitely make the D3 "too bright" because silver will tend to push hard on the upper mids and highs.
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Thanks, everyone. I am going to run this with some very big monoblocks so I should be fine on power. I am going to spend time listening to them and other options this weekend. Hopefully, I can classify the sound versus others and make a decision. |
Don’t listen to the Focal speakers in the same price range. You will throw rocks at the B&Ws! |
Do you own Focal Sopra 3s? Are those the ones you are referring to? |
It appears he has Sopra One. Nice Timbernation rack though |
Since you claim there are so many "trade ins", why not buy used and save 10k or so. If you don't like, just resell. I own 804D3s and think they are the "cat's pajamas"! I admit the bass doesn't shine unless you crank them up (6.5 inch woofs). Have you considered bi-amping? Put 200 watts on top and 300 on the bottom (per channel). You might like... |
@maxking. Best if you go audition them yourself and decide if you like how they sound and not just go off of the B&W name just because they have name recognition and are good looking. I know Magnolia Center inside Best Buy uses them with McIntosh mono block amps (maybe same amps you have). I, myself, have listened to several over the years and have tried to like them, but for whatever reason, the sound just does not appeal to me. They don't captivate my attention with a "wow, holly molly" moment. After a few minutes, my attention gets diverted easily, like there is nothing special about them except for the price. However, I do like how they look. I'm in the Focal camp, with their pure beryllium tweeters. The Sopra 3s are in the same price range as the 802D3. |
Word of mouth reviews are generally useless. Especially if they come form someone who has auditioned the speaker at Magnolia, which in my experience does a poor job of setting up a high quality full range speaker like the 802D3. My local Magnolia has them pushed up right against the front wall of a small room with a hard tile floor with no rugs anywhere and a small diffuser on the back wall. They just sound OK, far from their potentially great sound if they are properly positioned in a properly sized and treated room. I own the 802D3, driven by Bryston 7BSTs, and it is not bright in my rig, and many visitors to my home have had a “Wow! event” after hearing them. I love ‘em. |
Maybe they don't have anything else comparable in price to compare to and comparing them to their basic receiver set up at home. |
Agreed that demoing or auditioning at Magnolia/Best Buy is far from ideal. I wouldn’t go to Magnolia/Best Buy to demo or audition to anything. Even in their reference 2ch room they use Sonos streamer as a digital front end source for their high end setups/systems eg B&W 802 D3, 803 D3, some huge Martin Logan electrostats paired with some McIntosh monoblock and stereo amps.
Come on, you could do better than Sonos streamer to stream music from to feed digital front end source signal to these expensive setups/systems.
And their speaker placements are awful and they have too many setups & systems (too many large footprint speakers) in that somewhat small to medium size listening room. They literally have 4 different setups & systems cramped together in that reference 2ch listening room (somewhat small to mid size listening room). They also place a tall audio racks right in the middle of the speakers and won’t even bother pulling the speakers out cause that kind of placement will ruin the imaging and soundstage depth.
I have heard the B&W 802 D3 and IMO they weren’t bright or harsh at all but forward yes and are definite improvements from their prodecessors (802 D2) however I prefer other brands such as Sonus Faber, Vienna Acoustics, Harbeth, PMC, etc that are in similar price range as these B&W 802 D3 or even cheaper and found them to be more musically engaging and involving than these 802 D3. However, these B&W truly shine when used for high end HT system and their matching HTML1 D3 center channel speaker is very good.
I still think these 802 D3 are pretty good and will pair well with your McIntosh MC 1.2kw monoblock amps.
You will have to listen to them yourself. |
I have had the B&W 802d's for about 12 years. I think they are great speakers. You have realize that this speaker doesn't make any sound of its own...just meticulously reproduces what it is given. If you have a bad recording then these speaker will not hide it...if you have a great recording you will be rewarded. They love/need power. I have 600 watts a side with a 14bsst and these speaker breath their best, even at very low volume. Some commenters said they are bright...I have never experienced that except on very bad recordings. I am currently looking to upgrade to the new 802D3's which I understand have a new driver and some new crossover caps, etc...plus I like the new cabinet design. |
Can be be bright with some material, and very unimpressive bass, even with 1000 watt monoblocks...
Been auditioning them.. I like them except the bass really sucks.so another 6 grand in subs required. |
