2. speakers
  3. 195007-183706

Why so many B & W Speakers on the used market?

I live outside of the Denver area, so my Facebook Marketplace (among other sites) draws from the Colorado front range cities. So why do I see so many B&W loudspeakers being up for resale? Is it just that Listen Up has been a dealer for decades and the market has sold so many previously? Or is there an inherent problem that wears thin on the listener that they seek something better? I mainly see the 700 series, in different sizes and series, but CM9's etc. I'm just curious b/c I plan on moving to a new house in the next year and want to have a dedicated listening room, hopefully under $10K for the source, amp & speakers. I already have a nice analog set up to incorporate into it.

cooperdude6
realgoodsound
83 posts
 

At least the recent ones, often sound great in the showroom. But live with them for a month and they become screechy and unbearable. That's been my experience.

v-fi
241 posts
 

I'll echo what has already been said regarding the sheer number of B&W speakers out there in the wild. It has to be orders of magnitude more than almost any other high end brand.

Adding to that, they are sold by some of the more mass market chains like Best Buy via their Magnolia HiFi locations (which nowadays is usually just a section inside the store rather than a dedicated separate location). Last time I was in my local Best Buy the Magnolia section had Martin Logan, KEF, Definitive Tech, and B&W. The latter seemed to have the largest share of displays and marketing within that area. And as far as I remember they have always featured B&W, while some of those others feel like more recent additions.

It's easy for us forum users to think that Sonus Faber, Focal, B&W, Totem, Dynaudio, etc are all very well known and widely distributed. But I would guess that most "normal" people will know the B&W name before any of those others, by a wide margin.

tomcarr
1,673 posts
 

Lots of great responses above. I LOVE my 803 D3s, but I was able to purchase them for half price just as the 803 D4s were coming out.  Don't care for the sound of B&Ws lower models. Much better sounding speakers at those price points, imo, like Vandersteen,  ATC, Magnepan, Monitor Audio, plenty of others...

More to discover