My setup:
Bryston SP1.7
Bryston 9B SST
Two B&W 802Ds (Bi-Channelled/Bi-Amped)
Denon DVD-5910
My B&Ws were 12000 before tax. I love how they sound in my system. I put a live Grateful Dead CD with HDCD coding, a concert I was actually at, and it seemed fairly accurate, at least as far as i could tell with my ears. You could at those prices check out the B&W 801Ds. I personally have been very happy with the B&Ws I have owned, they seem to play exactly what they are given without flavoring/tainting the music. But, as you know, the only way to truly know how YOU feel is to test speakers out for yourself, perhaps you can find a dealer who will let you bring your most important components in and try speakers out. If a dealer won't take the time to let you do this, at that price range, then they aren't worth dealing with anyway IMO...
I'm trying out high end CD sources next year after I get my XBox 360 in two weeks, and a 1080p TV after X-mas. I'm likely going to go dCS starting with a DAC (not sure which one of the two yet - but I'll use the Denon as a transport till I save more money) and then moving up with the transport, then the upsampler, and then the clock. If i don't do this I'll likely save up for the other 8 series B&W speakers for a surround setup (HTM1D or HTM2D, 805s and ASW855 or the lower priced sub). So I am pretty committed to my B&Ws, and have been since I first tested the 703s and 804s (I bought a 5.1 B&W 7 series setup and traded them in at cost to upgrade to the two 802Ds - I couldn't be happier, well unless I had the 800Ds, but those are 20k a pair!) I did test the 800Ds just to check them out... If you can go that high, i would do it.
It seems the higher up you go with the B&Ws the larger the soundstage gets and thus the more separated the instruments become from one another, from the 7 series through the 8, I havn't noticed a lack of dynamics; the highs through the lows seem to be represented harmoniously with neutral sources like my Brystons. I sit back and listen to SACDS for hours, sometimes drifting in and out of the edges of sleep, when I should be upstairs sleeping with my wife in bed, getting a good 8 hours sleep instead of 5 or 6. I'm so enthusiastic about the sound of my system that I sacrifice good sleep to use it more often. That to me is what it is all about, creating a system I don't want to stop listening to.
In short, the 802Ds provide a stable, neutral, well balanced musical image. But as with many things in audio, this is my subjective experience. Go take a listen somewhere for yourself.
www.jkalman.com
