If not B&W 802 speakers then what speakers?


Hello and good day to all,

This question is for a mostly hometheater room. like 90% hometheater.

as i do like the sound from my b&w 804S speakers, HTM3S center channel.

i am growing tired of waiting for a used set of 802's to come on the market where i live...Florida.

so if you had about 6k for used home theater speakers what would you look for?

room is 24' by 24'... non treated, dryway

amp is anthem statement P5.

Thank you for your input.

Bill
baranowski
Take a look at tyler acoustics! D1's for around 5k? Reference series is more laid back if you prefer that sort of sound :-)
Here's attempt number 3; maybe this one will go through. HEY BILL, sorry about my reply. I was being a jerk and didn't addanything to the post.
Baran, I posted a reply lastnight saying that I'm sorry for my previous post but it didn't go through, so here goes again: i'm sorry I was being a jerk. That was a lame response from me.
Lol, sorry B, I can be a d... When I'm drinking whiskey. You're right, you ought to just be quiet if you're not adding to the forum. My bad :-)
I'm the same way anyways when it comes to buying stereo equipment. It's all about getting the best deal you can. Sorry dude.
Jackmonster, you might want to watch what your saying? Those Tekton speakers aren't over the top expensive so some people might make fun of your response. I have learned that if your not spending MANY, MANY thousands of $$$$ than your not good enough here at Audiogon for some people. But I think were realistic. Thanks for the tip on the Pendragrons. Great sound DOES NOT need to be expensive. I'll have to look into them for one of my setups. RG
Tekton Pendragrons or the new home theater speakers Tekton is just releasing. Get them with a matching center channel and you're all set. Very dynamic and highly efficient. You hear every nuance in a movie.
Dynamic range is important for HT, and since your room is large, you would benefit from a speaker with higher efficiency. No doubt these would improve dynamic range and coherency of your system. Matching center and rears are available.

http://hometheaterreview.com/zu-audio-omen-def-loudspeakers-reviewed/

Review is a good read with some very interesting comments, some about theater in general.
there are 2 sets of snell c5 speakers in oak for sale right now;these might be worth looking at.
I had a friend in Minnesota that ran c5's and they played everything he asked them to do;these are a very nice speaker;only negative I can think of would be age.
By fake sounds I mean breaking heads of broccoli to create broken bone sounds and electronically rendering explosions. To me home theater needs to be dynamic and have bass power without overhang with clear vocals. The added natural Trimble you get out of highend speakers is lost on home theater but better dynamic range power is worth while. It is just a matter of if the price is worth the gain.

Anyway sounds like you have a good home theater, enjoy it.
Sorry about my little rant last post.

the positioning pf the speakers works great... non of the speakers are " in" the corners.

sub placement too is good as it was placed prior to room correction.

those are not my questions. i am asking about what other speakers do B&W owners have as well.

thank you
Bill
B-limo... really? so because i am tired of waiting for a pair of speakers to be on the market locally.... i should go for the first pair ,at that price, that shows up? i do not know who pissed in your cherrios, but it was not me. either have some input about the question asked, or leave it alone.

if i switch to the "D" series i would have to ALSO buy a center channel as my center channel is not a diamond tweeter. thus costing me even more money.
so for 8500 for a set of speakers that could already be 8 years old AND

i would have to spend over 2000 more for a center channel... No thank you...

if you have that kind of money to overpay, then just buy me a pair of speakers...

by overpay i mean i try to stay at the HALF mark of retail for speakers approaching the 8 year old mark... so for the "D" series 802 i would be in the $6,000 area as they were $12,000 new... and i would still have to find and buy a center...

my cash my choice.
Bill
Lol, I love how he says he's tired of waiting for a pair to come up locally, then is offered a pair and says sorry, but I can get them locally for $6500. Well if you can get them locally for $6500 why dont you? Oh yeah, because you cant. If you could, you wouldnt have stated that you cant... Derr...
"For theater you are wasting your money. Be happy with what you have. Why care if fake sounds are produced accurately?"

There's so such thing as fake sounds. If you can hear it, its real.
“Soon to be marantz av 8801”, then I assume you’re still using the Pioneer AVR. That should be a nice upgrade. Give it some time before you think about speakers.

You have a excellent match with the 804s and the HTM3s. The HTM3s is as close as you can get to having a 5th 804s, and 5 identical speakers is obviously the best timbre match you can achieve. So if you replace the fronts with a different brand, then replace the center and rears also to match.

“804s on the four corners”, can I assume you do not mean physically in the corner of the room? If so, this would take away from the clarity. The position of the front 3 speakers can greatly affect the sound. Also, the location of the subwoofer in the room is important to achieve a linear and smooth transition to the mains. It’s really not the best idea to let Room Correction try to adjust a poor setup. Better to have a good setup and let RC fine tune.
Just a reminder but I'm sure you know your center channel speaker should always match your front speakers. So if you change brands for your fronts that means dumping more money on a new center speaker.
I do have to agree with James63 comment as the center channel in a HT application does most of the dialogue. I'm not familiar with your Marantz receiver but in the past as far as an A/V receiver Marantz were also good in a two channel application. I had their top model receiver from the late 90's, can't remember the model but it was gold, and it was great. I ended up using two Aragon mono blocks for my two channel. Unless you move more towards two channel than the Diamonds may be overkill. Maybe upgrading to B&W's top model center channel would be a better bang for your buck at the moment. Good luck
For theater you are wasting your money. Be happy with what you have. Why care if fake sounds are produced accurately?

The difference in the 802d and 804 is the bass power and mids are more open. You will not be able to tell any difference in the mids with your center handelling all the speech. The bass is crossed at 80hz anyway. Now you could run you front/back full range with your current speakers and get better sound IMO. You can then turn your sub up and just use it for LFE.

Really save your money.

Revel Studio 2 and Wilson Sophia 3 are two speakers that come to mind as a b&w 802d alternative.
Oops... Forgot my sub...

paradigm servo 15.

The thought as always is.... since i crossover at 80Hz for hometheater... and i do not do two channel, only multi channel. would i really hear a big enough difference to even justify the 802 cost?

but anyway... what other speakers? i did like the looks of the Ariels...
Dunno what that will do but...

804s on the four corners
htm3s for a center.
Soon to be marantz av 8801
anthem statement P5
ps3
Sony vpl vw60 projector
110" Stewart film screen
paramax power conditioner/ serge protector
3 rows of leather couches stadium style.
light controlled/ dedicated home theater room.
8500 for the 802d is more than i can get them local... thanks though.

i have a sub already... not too worried about the bass issue.. just looking for good clear sound.

thanks
Bill
Anything else. Sorry, I know a lot of people like them, but I hated mine. For theater, not music, you would probably like a pair of Aerial. I've heard them several times in HT settings and thought they were good. You would have to add a sub to the 802's to even come close to the bass you can get from the Aerial's. Personally, I don't usually like metal tweeters. I had a pair of Proac 2.5's that would be OK for HT. You would like them for stereo as well.
Getting a pair of B&W 802D in on trade tomorrow and we do ship - but 6K is not going to cut it more like $8500 including shipping. I'll post an ad that you can reply to if interested

Good Listening

Peter