Thoughts on the new B&W 800D series speakers

I have recently had the good fortune of hearing both 800d's and 802d's. In both instances the setup seemed appropriate,without going into full detail but both pairs had not been broken in yet. I had never been very impressed with B&W product before the most recent edition of sigs came to market. I found that I could listen to the sig800's at lenght with no fatigue. Truly enjoyable. The experience I had with the new diamond version was something else again! I have been fortunate to have experienced several hundred live music performances in the last 20 years from Soundgarden to the Chicago Symphony and I have never experienced anything this close that didn't require tickets. No superlatives necessary! Obviously everyone has thier own set of ears, and therefore thier own opinion. Do yourself a favor, put everyones opinions aside and listen to the music. B&W 800d and 802d recommended without hesitation!

Chgomick
How would you describe the difference between the 800D and the 802D?
thanks
JS

The nautilus 801 needs a lot of power to drive them properly. Does anyone know if the 801d is easier on amplifiers..

I heard the 801d yesterday with my electronics. The tweeter tamed bright recordings compared to my nautilus 801's. They were not run in yet but I could hear some overall differences. He had a 200w chord amp connected when I arrived, so I listened for awhile and then we biamped them with my 2 300w/ch amps and the difference was huge in a positive direction but I could still hear that they needed more power, at least for the woofer...I'm getting 4 600w mono amps for my 801's. I asked B&W about power demands for 801d and they said they are more demanding then nautilus 801... His room was longer and higher then mine but I could hear the room reflections(extra mid and teble phasy energy) and boomy bass where confusing the soundstage focus and this is the main problem with getting the most out of my nautilus 801's. I was actually considering purchasing 801d but my conclusion is that I would not appreciate the difference unless I have mega power, perfect control of the room reflections(echo and comb filtering)with diffusers and absorbers along with bass traps(panel traps and helmholtz resonators)for really good control of standing waves. My room is midway to completion for these issues and I can hear the focus improving and the posiblity for my "dream sound" is in sight. The 801d will not illiminate the need for this type of room!
I'm very confused why the "extreme" compexity of whole set up to get 801's to sound the way they should was not mentioned more by B&W, reviewers and owners?
I'm sure the 800 isn't as difficult in the bass but are owners having similiar problems from mids and highs?...

I have owned a pair of 800d speakers for 9 weeks. Set up is Meridian 808 signature reference CD, Linn Kairn pre amp 2 x Linn Klimax solos (mono).

The end result of this is a very revealing system. Weaknesses on not so good recordings which had been OK on previous system (Meridian 602 CD, Linn Kairn, Linn LK 240 power amp and Accoustic Energy AE 3 speakers)are exposed mercilessly. Equally, good recordings are revealed in all their glory.

The detail and presentation on good recordings is as close to being at a live performance as I can imagine. Bass goes very deep and is tuneful, well balanced with the other drivers and is 'quick' and clear. Equally the mid range is very revealing and accurate and the high frequencies are as as good as live across all instruments and female voices.

These are great speakers which do what they should do - present what they are fed without adding or taking anything away. As a result the better the recording and intervening equipment the better the sound that will be produced. They do need powerful amps to control them properly.

I found that they took about 80 hours before they began to sound as though they were worth what they cost - just as well my dealer had warned me!! From 80 hours on they just got better until I stoped counting the hours!!

Speaker positioning is important - not so much distance from walls but toe in and distance between then. Small changes can result in quite large affects on the sound.