Bad Experience with B&W's: Anyone else?


I have just sold a pair of B&W DM 602 S3. I have recently moved to the US and my idea was to have a neat but not too expensive sound equipment. I bought a Consonance CD120 (which is excellent), an Arcam A80, and finally, I decided to buy the B&W's. Five years ago, I had a pair of DM602's Series 1, and they were very good with a Sansui amplifier that I had. The midrange was excellent, the upper end was reasonable and the bass was a bit boomy...but I really enjoyed those speakers and was satisfied by their performance.

My experience with the 602's Series 3 was COMPLETELY different. In my opinion, these speakers are too laid back, with distant, timid, shut-in midrange. They have far superior bass than their previous version, but there must have been some trade-off here: they sacrificed the midrange for a more controlled bass.

Do you guys share my views? Or are you owners of the 602 S3 offended by my remarks?

Paulo

P.S. I use good Kimber cables in my system. My room is the average size, with wall to wall carpet. The conditions are similar to those I had in Brazil 5 years ago, with the 602 S1.
figueiredops
To add to your experience, the 602Series2 does NOT have any of the characteristics you mention for the Series 3 either. Do you know what changes they made to S3 for such a dramatic alteration of their sonic signature?
Hello there, Im curious to know if you ever tried any other type of power for your 602s3's. The new series 3 has much better extended highs than all previous models in that line. I recently sold mine to go to the floor standers to save on subwoofer costs. I may end up going back to them eventually. I think its your Arcam thats the problem. Try an integrated Rotel if funds are limited at the 100 watt point or more. B&W needs good quality power, and that goes for all their models. If you really want to hear a treat try a krell 400xi or even a high powered reciver, not to mention good old separates. Good luck!
I'm not someone who has a long history with B&W, but I did have a pair of 602 S3's and didn't like them. I think the problem with the midrange is related to dispersion - I had to lock my head within a 1-inch window to really hear the midrange do what it was supposed to do. Having to wiggle my head to hear the speakers perform got annoying after a while, and made placement tricky. Outside of the sweet spot, the music really suffered and sounded "squished".
1. They needed break in. Playing time about 500 hours.
2. B&W speakers will benefit from more power.
3. Use only bi-wire speaker cables. In a worst case scenario, if using single run, connect them to the upper binding posts, not the lower ones.
But you sold them already, so...
I would suggest bi-wiring :
B&W speakers are like night and day depending on wiring , quality of wire and connectors . I might add B&W love clean power so to get full benefit of these speakers "current" is the word.