DYNAUDIO C4 VS B&W 800 D3

The MC452 with the Dynaudio's would be amazing! Dynaudio's are all about power and punch, I remember in there older advertisements they would say "Dynaudio touches you 5,000 times a second! And they have some of the most gorgeous natural sound because of the huge voice coils they use. Try some brighter less darker sounding cables with this combo and all will be well.

Thank you for your advice.

Thanks a lot for the advise. Will keep your suggestion in mind while deciding cables.

I owned the C4s with a Mac 402 then the 454( trying both with them)..I say the are not a good match..The Dyns need a faster more controlled amp especially in the lower section,Pass labs comes to mind,Mac is too slow and tubby.Never a fan of any B&W speakers except back in the day when we had fewer options..Just my take.

Thank you for your views.

I'm from the camp that get the speaker first. They all have a general 'house' sound. Find the sound that suits you the best. Then worry about an amp to help refine the sound.

IMO both the B&W and Dynaudio are fine speakers but very different sounding. Personally I find B&W fatiguing after some time (even quicker if played really loud) where Dyn's I can listen to forever. (disclaimer - I owned Dyn C1's for about 5 years). The C4 is my favorite in the Dyn lineup but too big for my room.

Thank you for your valuable input. I will try out the speakers and then decide on the Amp.

Get the 800D3 with German Symphonic Line RG mk4 monoblocks and Cardas Golden Cross shot-gun bi wire speaker wire . These are best solid state amps on the market, and great match with the diamond tweeter. Mac amp are mediocre to say the least..... 800d3 give much broader and stable soundstage, so you need not to sit in the sweet spot, unlike most other speakers that I ve heard (and I ve heard alot). The C4 while fine sounding no doubt , are mostly for for the obsessive compulsive audiophiles who like to tinker with the SOUND..... you know the type which describes you the best.. ;) If you get the above keep in mind that both the amps&800d3 and Cardas speaker wire need about 1000 hours to fully break in ... The combo will sound amazing! Many audiophile in Europe who are in the know only use B&W with the Symphonic Line amps.... search the web...

I too have gone through this. I originally started out with C4’s, MC452 and a McIntosh C2500. Prior to the C4’s, I had a pair of B&W 804 D2’s. Not even close to the 800 D3’s, though I’ve listened to them and still preferred my C4’s.

The MC452 was absolutely not enough power for the C4’s. It sounded ok at low to medium listening volumes, but turn it up and you will begin to hear awkward upper frequency decay. I don’t want to mince words when I say decay, as it wasn’t decay in a literal sense, as in room interference. Almost choppy, but not distorted. I had GIK Acoustics design my acoustic paneling, so I do have sound treatment, but it wasn’t quite clipping either. I don’t know enough about the interaction of capacitance and voltage to make an accurate assessment of what was going on. When we built our house, I had a dedicated 20 amp line ran for my listening room and use Shunyata Research power cabling and conditioning, so I know it wasn’t for a lack of available voltage to drive the amp. Nonetheless, I can share from experience, I was not happy, at all, with the setup. The MC452 is not enough power for the C4’s. The monoblocks would be more than enough power to drive them. As for what the MC series amps sound like with Dyn’s, there are plenty of opinions and thoughts on it. Me personally, I no longer prefer the McIntosh amp sound, especially with Dyn’s.

At low to moderate volume levels, the combo just didn’t sound transparent and organic enough to me. Almost muddied with some music and I listen to a wide range from Miles Davis to Lamb of God.
I sold the MC452 and went with a set of PS Audio BHK300 mono blocks and they sound epically awesome now. I’ve swapped out the preamp with other makes, attempting to improve it and I didn’t find a better sounding pre, to me, in the $6k-$8k range. The C2500, I did swap out the tubes for a OE vintage set of Mullard’s, those paired with the PS Audio’s more than covers down on everything I like to hear in my music.

And reading Kot's post above regarding obsessive compulsive Dyn owners...it's true.  The C4's take time to get into position and the toe in on them is the most I've seen of any speaker.  They're not very efficient, so do require gobs of power and they can be sensitive to various other items in your signal chain, but they sound friggin' sweet once dialed in.

Happy hunting!

Thanks a lot friends. You both explained the pros and cons clearly and this will greatly help me to come to a conclusion. I shall definitely try out the equipment you all have suggested. Thank you all.

Both 800D3 and C4 are very, very good.... I’m sure you ll be happy with the either one.... Having said that if you have a chance try to give a listen to the Chario Serendipity or the Eminent Technology 8b model (don’t be misled by their ET8s laughingly "low" by the current hi-end audio standards price, as its sonics are on the even playing field with any of the above when properly set up).... Regards :)

Thanks. I will try to find out whether these are available  in Mumbai. 

For the Chario. me thinks its well worth trip to Milan to take a listen :) Carlo V. of Chario is a gentleman, and their listening room is superb :) (Besides, you ll save yourself distributor’s margin, which in India’s case is quite a lot, given your country’s ungodly high customs duty rates! ;) )
ETs Bruce Thigpen is one of few true geniuses left in the field of audio today.... He is a pleasure to talk to and himself encyclopedia of knowledge...Check them out as well :) Just my couple of cents :) ....

Got it. Thanks a lot.

I disagree with Todd regarding toe in for Dyn's. For the best sound stage and imaging you would want little to no toe in. Dyn tweeters have a very wide dispersion. I had demoed C2's in my home (still to big) but found they sounded best to me with no toe in.

Talk about toe in look at Scansonic or Raidho.