B&W 803d, Martin Logan Spire, Klipsch P-37F?

I listen to 803S's and demoed the 803d and a couple Martin Logan's although I could not tell you the model of the ML's. I did not see a big improvement over the 803S with the D - but, then again, it depends on your tastes - the biggest difference in my opinion was the extra base, not the diamond tweeter and I do not lean in the bass direction. The ML's were nice. I have an aversion to that technology but that is a personal bias - there is nothing inherantly wrong with the ML technlogy. The ML's were very nice when it comes to imaging. Well worth a listen. Did not listen to horns - my reasoning was more along the lines that the primary advantage to horns is high spl's without distortion and I did look at active pros which I felt were more suitable for that particular quality.

Macallan7 - Well it kind of depends on what you consider superior. The descriptions above are pretty accurate as to what B&W speakers sound like. I maintain that your choice of music has a lot to do with what sound you will like. I know there is the school of thought that a good speaker will sound good with all music - I simply disagree with that school of thought.

I listen to mostly classical with some jazz and a smattering of rock. Classical typically has little energy above 4k - the fundamentals are almost all below 4k and the harmonics above 4k add some body but are pretty attenuated. So you are really not getting much out of the tweeter on a B&W 3 way speaker anyway. Jazz - lot of snares etc gets you in the audible tweeter range - and I find the B&W's fine for that.

Haven't really analyzed why - but B&W's are not the speaker of choice in my opinion for rock or most vocals. (The large classic Spendors were the best speaker I have heard for vocals) This is the reason that for my tastes I heard no advantage from the B&W models with the diamond tweeters. The 802 has a larger set of woofers which doesn't sound bad but I found the 803D woofer setup to be a step down from the 803S. But, I am not all that thrilled with bass heavy sound.

One other point - getting the B&W's to sound to one's liking takes a little work with room acoustics and listening position, but once you have it set it's great. Now, I listen to music alone and with an analytical ear - which makes acoustics and positioning not a problem. If I listened primarily to rock and roll with groups of people (as in my youth) I would not choose B&W speakers. For my tastes in music, I did not hear anything else that I preferred.