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From B&W 804 D3 to Focal Sopra 2?

I posted this on Reddit as well so apologies in advance to those who may have seen it.

 I have the Anthem STR Pre and Power amp. A dealer is selling a pair of Sopra 2s and he said my Anthem stack is very capable of running the Sopras.

I then read an ad from another seller and he said a lot of power is needed - dual mono (?) or better yet, mono blocks. I also watched a youTube short with that combination. Two people said the Anthem was “bottlenecking” the speakers - i.e. the potential of the Sopra 2 is constrained by the abilities of the Anthem.

Focal puts recommended power at 300 and my Anthem has 400 a side.
So I thought I’d ask thoughts are out there in internetland.

Currently, I’m running B&W 804 D3. I was running them with a 200 wpc integrated and I bought this Anthem set because it was sold to me for a really good price. I’m just not cranking up the volume.  I’ve owned several B&Ws and have found them to be weak in bass.  Improvement has been marginal over succeeding series.

Thanks in advance!

US; odd living/dining combo approx 13 x 30 ft; vaulted ceiling - 8 ft on low end; 15 higher end.; Classical, pop, EDM, folk/C&W.

128x128tobaccoleafpie

Showing 2 responses by james633

james633
904 posts
 

The anthem is fine and enough power for either. You are using 1-5 watts for most listening. More power will not improve the bass. 
 

Have you tried the room correction in the STR preamp? That has the potential to increase the bass. The STR also has sub management and I personally would just add subs and highpass them in the preamp, this will take the system to another level. 
 

As for the 804d3 I find them lean in the bass and bright on the top end. The Sopra is a much smoother and all around better speaker. How ever the Sopra 2 is not a bass monster by any means and I also find it a bit weak without subs. But it will have more bass than the 804 and be much more balanced. 

 

For the same money you could get the Revel 328be which is much larger and of the same caliber in sound as the Sopra, the 328be will not be lacking for bass. They are often on sale for 30% off if you look around. 

james633
904 posts
 

He is using the 804d3, measurements of the 804d4 below (note newer model so could be different). They measure pretty lean and sounded that way to me with lots of sibilance (strong “S” sound probably due to that 5k peak). I find the entire B&W line light in the bass with the exception of the 802 which was ok and the 800 was enough…. But I put a very high priority on bass and honestly can only be happy with subs these days so YMMV. 
 

Eric makes a good point that flat speakers like Revel might sound a little dull to you at first so demo stuff for sure. But after a few days/weeks flat will probably sound fine once you adjust. However If you like the 804 and just want more bass, subs are the answer. 
 

There are lots of good speakers in this price range so I would read up and then demo. 
 

 

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