B&W N800 vs Wilson WP7 vs Revel and others

Yeah, see I feel the same way. =) When we first got the Watt puppy/6 versions in the store, we set em up broke em in,and also decided to take em apart(if the owner ever found out we would have all been fired!)to see what they are "made of". With the nice binding posts and decent decouplers we were hoping to see the same goodies inside, but were a bit dissapointed. First cue to me was the focal tweeter. My longtime friend had a pair of them in his car that the previous owner put in. They were very harsh no matter what tuning we did. Even with the tweeter's tamed they had a really bad "mettalic" sound to em. Seeing these come on the WIlson's didnt help my feelings any. Nor did the bass drivers. When we took em out of the cabinet, we werent fully impressed. Xover boards(in a casing that must attrack RFI or EMI no doubt) were populated with iron core coils. Dampening was ok. Bracing was decent, nothing special. Drivers had really short coils of marginal quality, frame wasnt too impressive either. Just wasnt impressed, especially with its pricetag. Floor spikes were flashy and of good quality, as were binding posts as mentioned. Im sorry even the cheesy velcro used to hold on the grilles.Plastic ports, Get my point?Geez, even the paint job, they used like 1 coat primer,1 thin coat of paint and a coat of clearcoat that doesnt bond well to the paint. Really easy and prone to chipping. Big time dissapointed. To the trained eye this is bothersome. Couple this with less than stellar sound, at least to my ears. Some people call it musical, I call it EQ roulet. Im sorry but when you buy a speaker in this price range, it shouldnt just sound good, it should abound with quality components throughout too.

Yes I am aware that they now use more scan-speak components. They still use that damn Focal tweeter though! =P

to me the the verity parsifal encore is more musical and accurate. any feedback b/w 800n and the veritys would be appreciated.

Put the PMC MB-2/XBD system and the Legacy Focus 20/20 on your list. Both are pretty serious. The PMC is the most dynamic of anything your've listed and is what you'll find in many of the studios where the music you love is actually produced. PMC spends most of it's time suppling to a large percentage of the world's best recording facilities and artists...but they make consumer versions as well with some gorgeous cabinet work...they will stun you. If you happen go be going to CES, they'll have a set of them there.

The Legacy Focus 20/20...take a look at the Jan 04 Stereophile...yes they are that good. They are also a screaming deal.

Interesting thread, one of the reasons I bought my Hales System 2 Signatures back in early nineties was incredible build quality. A few years later, I ran into Paul Hales himself. He told me that the cabinet in these speakers was so expensive to manufacture, never mind the drivers and x.overs that he actually could not afford to make them for very long. I think he actually lost money in the end on this speaker! So, I am pretty sure that what is being said about the Wilson's has some validity, however, if they sound as good as advertised( I have not heard the WP7's or any of the later models) then the value to the consumer might be acceptable and obviously the business plan of the manufacturer works.