B&W 803 Nautilus or Paradigm Studio 100 v.5?

I would like to provide you with sound advice, no pun intended. The advice I offer you has helped me many times when building my system over the years. It is more about reviewing empirical data and making an informed buying decision.

I believe you are likely to succeed in making an informed decision by soliciting comments from people on this forum, or other forums for that matter, on how each one of these speakers sounds in their particular setup, rather than a direct comparison of each. The likelihood that such a comparison was made under ideal conditions, room acoustics, electronics, and the fact that each individual has different tastes, sets the conditions for limited and inaccurate feedback. Create a spreadsheet and add columns for each speaker with the attributes you like, and dislike. Obtaining information for each speaker by conducting Google searches on each speaker will aid you in building your spreadsheet and provide you with a sampling of good and bad merits of each speaker. You can do the same searches in forums. You can use each person’s perspective, derived from your research, and based on their own setup, and experiences, to populate your spreadsheet. For example, sometimes comments may be made suggesting a certain speaker does not sound good because a few people agree on the same aspect of why it does not sound good, when in actuality, that particular speaker was not setup properly, the room was not treated, or a gross mismatch between electronics has occurred. After you compile your data, it will not take long to see a trend of the speakers in regards to the; strengths and weaknesses, different electronics used, individual room configurations, all equating to empirical data to aid you in your decision making process.

I use this forum and others to solicit information as well, but sometimes, mostly often IMO, you must take comments with a grain of salt. If a speaker sounds good to you, then it is good to you.

That being said, I have only heard a few speakers sound really, really, bad, and, that was because of the points I made above. I also strive to get the best bang for my buck. This phrase is relative in terms of our individual finances at the time we decide to make purchases. I am meticulous in conducting research of products before I buy. Of course, if a bargain comes your way, you like it; and can afford the product, by all means, take action. Good luck.

Ciao,
Audioquest4life

I appreciate the responses and advice about listening to the speakers first... I am trying to make that happen, but it is difficult in a rural setting. I am trying to be patient enough for that to happen... ha.

Since this will be my first attempt at building a system, albeit on a limited budget ($5000 or so), any additional advice would be greatly appreciated. I am starting from scratch, so my first target with the initial budget is used floorstanders and an amp/receiver... I will eventually build a 5.1 system as more funds become available. My musical tastes run the gambit... classical to jazz and country to rock. I have a large number of my cds ripped into lossless audio files and have a Cambridge Audio DAC that I plan to incorporate into the system... I also have my parents vinyl collection that I would like to incorporate eventually as well... I will need a turntable for that and I think the budget will probably delay that portion for now.

I am not a fan of B&W speakers. Having said that, you really must audition your speaker of interest to see if you can live with it. I would listen to every speaker I could at your price point, a little above, and a little below. If you select your speaker because of reputation, other people's opinion, or ads, you very well might have blown through your cash without satisfaction.

The 100V5 is a very capable speaker at a great price and will play very loud without stress. But the 803 has a quality of sound the Paradigm can't quite match. You didn't mention what amp and equipment your using or have a system link so my advice is purely generic.

Regards Tim

I owned a pair of Studio 100v2 and I think they offer the best bang for you bucks, especially if your gears are not very expensive as they are not that revealing I gave my them to my parents and they're happy being driven by a simple HK receiver. That said, I am a big fan of B&W having gone through 602, 805N, 804N and finally 801N and I do think they are amazing when driven by quality amps. If you listen to a lot of vocal, trumpet instrumental and jaz, I'd pick the 803N over the paradigm any day.