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

"10-12-15: Tompoodie
Title of my post should be Bowers and Wilkins...so used to just calling them B & W. Oops."

They still suck either way.

"I just sold my excellent floorstanders because I am tired of having broken balls and a broken back lugging them around, and trying to locate the ideal "sweet spot" in my 12 X15 room."

You realize you don't have to put them back in the closet upstairs after each use?

"So what should members do like Tom, who want to get away from this bright, fatiguing, unreal, edgy sound??"

For British speakers look at these: ProAc Response (the older models are fine.), Spendor S series, Living Voice, Mission, Rega, Monitor Audio, Audio Note

None of those have that hard to listen to quality you mention above. If you're willing to buy used, you should be able to find something at a reasonable price from any of those brands.

"Tomorrow I hope to see if the sibilance can be eliminated with less toe-in, while also trying to decrease the lower voice frequency boominess by moving further off one of the walls."

Its not likely that toe in will get rid of sibilance. That's an equipment matching issue.

"10-14-15: Wim1983
It seem I got a pair of Wharfedale Jade 3, that sound problem exactly what you all have discussed here. Bright, sibilant, difficult gear matching, room and placement adjustment, and very unforgiving in presenting music. Hmm, is this what the high end sound to begin with? That's a whole lot of time and money need to spend on these B&W speakers I believe, nevertheless the craftsmanship is amazing. High end speakers is designed for rich people with lots of gold and time to furthermore investment in fine tuning sound, and expand their imaginations, how sad! I need to get rid of my Jade 3, though it's not so easy..."

Please don't take this the wrong way because I'm not trying to be mean or negative in any way. But if you want to get into this hobby and be successful, you need to take responsibility for your own actions. No one put a gun to your head and forced you to buy the speakers you don't like. There's a good reason why some of us sound like a broken record and insist you need to demo everything before you buy it. Audio is a very hands on activity. If you want good sound, it takes some work. And don't think I know better and am trying to lecture you. I know from experience. I've made more costly, jackass mistakes than any audiophile I know.

"Bright, sibilant, difficult gear matching, room and placement adjustment, and very unforgiving in presenting music. Hmm, is this what the high end sound to begin with?"

Not every speaker sounds like a B&W or the Jade 3's you just bought.

"And, if you don't like them, fine! But I don't think that you're going to love something else better if they are also extremely transparent and revealing."

You most certainly can. There's plenty of speakers that have a lot of detail like the B&W but sound completely different.

Also, things like sibilance and harshness, are not indicators that a speaker is transparent. Its just the opposite. The more transparent a system is, the closer to the actual event it gets you. Harsh highs move you in the opposite direction because in most situations, these qualities are not natural.

"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."

I wouldn't say that is a fact. There's a lot you tell about a speaker by listening to it, even if its not in your system. Also, I don't follow your logic because you go on to say this.

"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."

If your first statement is true, then I don't see how this one can be either. If there is not going to be any consistency, then there is no reason to expect a B&W speaker to be any better than a less expensive alternative.

"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."

Again, I can't follow the logic. If you can't expect the B&W 800 to sound in your home anything like it does at the dealer, then why would it sound the same as the ones in the recording studio? All 3 setup's should sound completely different.

"10-22-15: Aintitgr8
No....
Either not fully broken in or wire in the system that is not a neutral wire."

"10-22-15: Aintitgr8
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."

You don't know your ass from your elbow. I can sit you down in front of my Wilson's and prove you wrong in about 10 seconds.

"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."

Wilson sounds very similar to Meadowlark? You may want to get your hearing checked.