Saw the Stereophile review of the B&W 800 Diamond

Interesting that Atkinson speculates the 800D was voiced by ear, and KR mentions sparkly highs compared with the Salon 2s (a classic trick for getting attention at dealer auditions). Since I have a dealer a couple of miles from my home that displays 800Ds I always listen to them first, and my impressions mirror JA's, and KR's complaints. How KR came to the conclusion about how wonderful the 800D is I can't understand. There are few things in high-end audio more annoying in the long run than "ruthless" high frequencies, as KR calls them.

Unfortunate, because I think B&W has the technologies to build a really work-class product, and yet they seem to focus more on marketing and tuning for auditioning than accuracy. That's strike three for me.

KR4 writes: "Thanks for reading but:

I have never reviewed or auditioned the Salon, only the Studio."

Thanks for the correction. My fault. Apparently a mental slip caused by my ownership of the Salon 2s. Also, on a re-read of your review I noticed I have never heard either the 802D or 800D image as well as you describe. Of course, that could be just the quality of the set up process (which dealers often don't take seriously). As I've mentioned in previous posts, I thought I made a mistake with the Revels until I spent hours inching them into the just-right positions in my own room.