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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 3 responses by holygrailaudio

holygrailaudio
94 posts
 
No....
Either not fully broken in or wire in the system that is not a neutral wire.

Years ago as a dealer for Meadowlark I got a lot of inquiries about the Herons and Blue Herons from guys with the 802, 801, and 800S, their main complaint being that they made their ears bleed.

My first question was did they have at least 700 hours on them, if not that is a problem. Second question was what interconnects and speaker wires were they using? It was an easy sale to get them to try 800 interconnects and $1100 bi-wire speaker cables, problem fixed and very happy campers.

B&W has the same reputation for being ruthless as any monitor caliber accurate speaker like Wilson Audio, because the Watts are 25,000+ those buyers tend to be willing to spend more on cables, in fact they are told upfront by most dealers that they are going to have to.

Mid range cables by the big mainstream culprits have made more people's ears bleed on these speakers than they would like to acknowledge. Many dealers attribute it to needing better cables or higher end electronics, they want to sell components
holygrailaudio
94 posts
 
I had just posted and made the point that the ruthlessly accurate speakers like Wilson Audio are system and wire dependent. If you can't figure out the neutral wire needed you aren't going to like this kind of studio monitor quality, you want politely altered presentations.
holygrailaudio
94 posts
 
I've had WATTS and Grand Slamms, there are a lot of ways to tame the ruthless nature of reference monitor caliber speakers. Tubes are one, a smooth quality source is another. One thing I will say is that six or seven years ago I had personally extensively tried all the major cable lines from their entry to statement products. I am totally out of touch with the products that have come onto the market in the last seven years or so, so I can't comment on an array of specific newer products. I had Grand Slamms next to a set of Meadowlark Nightingales, they were very similar in sound but $60,000 different in price. Wilson Watts were similar to the Meadowlark Audio Blue Heron 2's and I used the Wilson's to prove it using the same exact reference system.
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