No bass on B&W 800D2


Hi,

I’ve been a B&W fan Since the late 90s and have owned many different speakers over the years. I’ve owned a pair of 802Ds (first gen) For a long time and those had always been my dream speaker. 

I recently had the opportunity to upgrade to a pair of 800D2. I had never heard the 800 or the second generation diamonds before, but was tempted by the idea of owning the flagships. I don’t like the looks and sound of the newer generation 800 so in my mind, I was upgrading to the top of the line speaker of the last generation that I like.

I’ve had these speakers for three months now, and I’ve played around with positioning and levels of my subwoofers. when I first set them up I immediately noticed a lack of bass compared to the 802’s. I listen in the near field and have the 800 approximately in the same position as the 802, although with slightly more toe in and a little further away from the wall as they seem more sensitive to room placement than the 802s did. Even pushed up to the wall there is not more bass, just boom. 
 

I’m powering them with a Classé sigma amp 2, which doubles to 400W a channel on 4 ohms. Before you say it’s the amp, the 802s sounded exactly the same on my Denon 4520 as they did on the Classé amp after I upgraded to that - so I don’t really subscribe to the “more power” idea and believe an amp won’t change the sound dramatically as long as it’s decent quality and has enough power. I mostly listen at lower levels anyhow. 
 

Has anybody had the same issue with the 800D2 lacking so much bass compared to the 802D? The midrange sounds about the same and the highs are way more tame, which I like, but this lack of low end authority is making me seriously consider selling these again which makes me sad - since they are absolutely gorgeous in the looks department. 
 

thanks for your thoughts in advance - would appreciate hearing from actual owners of these. 

seb_audio

Thanks for the response

I have extensively compared 800d2 and 802d2

they sound very similar in the bass except the 800d2 has more of it.  I don’t thinknthere was any portion of the response where the 802d2 was preferred.  I owned 802d2, 802d3, 800d3, and the 802d4 now.

Thank you, @joey_v
 

these were supposed to be my endgame speakers, so I’m hoping it’s the room and that they’ll sound different when I have a dedicated listening space. 
 

to the folks who suggested REW - I had everything dialed in perfectly with my 802s but I don’t have a measurement file to compare to with the 802s playing alone. I do still have the summed response of everything playing together. 
 

I’ll measure the 800 next week while my family is out of town and I’ll have time. 

One more obvious check - is there a foam plug in bass reflex port under the speaker? It needs to be removed if you are not using subwoofers.

Thanks @ap1, there isn’t. I don’t think B&W ever made foam plugs for these as they would need to be the size of a sofa cushion ☺️ the port is massive. 
 

An advantage of down firing to the plinth is that the distance is always constant and they should be a little less sensitive to room placement. Still not sure why my 802s had so much more bass.