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Bowers and Wilkerson B&W 802 D3: an impolite Brit?

I heard the new Bowers and Wilkerson 802 D3 today, only the second time they have been heard in public, at an L.A. Audio society event. They have a very large soundstage, and are exceptionally dynamic. The bass is not as good as Magico for example, because of the ported design, but is nonetheless quite good. Detail is excellent, perhaps to a fault. What I don't like about them is that they are quite forward, an anomaly among British speakers. I was experiencing listening fatigue after an hour.I don't know if that is the diamond tweeter, or simply how the speaker/crossover is voiced. Tone of the speakers is not quite real. Being this forward and somewhat more detailed than real life, sells well, but does not please as years and decades go by in my opinion.
FWIW, my mom still has a series 802 that I still find pleasing, and neither too forward or polite, with sealed woofer and bextrene midrange.
Not too sound like sour grapes, it is fabulous pop/rock and home theater speaker, and worth its price given the economy of scale B & W possesses and 8 year redesign effort by a talented team with huge technical resources...but the tone thing is critical for jazz/classical/acoustic instrument lovers. I don't think it's the right choice for them. I am a high quality 2 way stand mount plus subwoofer kind of guy.
(Harbeth Compact 7 ES3 with REL Strata III sub)
Your thoughts?

Tom
tompoodie

Showing 2 responses by eniac26

eniac26
97 posts
 
Well, I have not yet heard the 802D3 but did hear the 803D3 recently and came away from the demo so impressed that I am strongly considering trading in my current 803D2 for its big brother the new 802D3.

I would be very curious to hear what gear was used during the demo of the new 802D3 and as a point of reference what speakers are being used today by those who are flaming the sound they hear coming out of the B&W 800 lineup in their tests?

Knowing what gear the flame throwers are using as their reference will help put some perspective around what they think is "proper sound" as compared to what B&W 800 fans think is proper sound.

Personaly I can't say I have experienced any of the issues being mentioned here in this thread when listening to my 803D2's.

My gear used to drive the B&W's I own consists of Classe CP-800 Pre, Meitner MA1 DAC and lots of Hypex NCore amplification per channel.
eniac26
97 posts
 
I'm not so sure it's such a bad thing to be a "Comercial Brand" as you say. I don't know about you but I would like nothing more then to be able to go to my local big name store and listen to a high end speaker if for nothing else but convenience alone.

I can't imagine being the only person who thnks this would be a plus in anyone's book. The fact of the matter is that it's unlikely that the sound you hear while demoing a pair of speakers at the typical high end dealer will be anything like how it will sound in your own home so one needs to take what they hear with a grain of salt in either demo room.

The beauty of the B&W brand is that they are big enough and well known enough to have there gear placed in any dealer they wish. I can't knock them for a minute for wanting to take advantage of putting their gear in the face of the average Joe who shops at Best Buy who probably doesn't even know what a high end speaker is supposed to sound like. The sad thing is that most people don't even know this stuff even exists.

Again I ask the question, what are the flame throwers using as their gauge of what the "proper" sound is of a given recording? How do they know that what they are using is presenting them with the sound the artist intended?

It seems logical to me to think that if ones chooses a B&W 800 as their speaker of choice and listens to a track created by some of the big name studios who use the same 800 series as their reference then at least they can rest easy knowing that what they are hearing was close enough for the recording engineer who made it.
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