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

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...

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.

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.

...time for their annual migration....

I worked in listenup for several years, selling a ton of B&Ws as it was their primary line forever. Many many speaker lines are a little tipped up in upper freqs. Many many customers like that presentation. Others don’t.
 

None of that has anything to do with the number of speakers on the used market. As always, it’s best to go listen to anything you are interested in. 

I loved my b&w speakers purchase in 1991 and had for 12 years and gave to my brother when upgraded to 803s in 2004. Had those for 20 years before upgrading to 803d4 last year. First set did not sound as good in brothers system and he sold them. I used the speakers as the core and built the rest of the system around them and have always found them engaging, never fatiguing, and some of the most true to the natural instruments as I have found (and i have tested a lot of speakers in similar price ranges). But yes, depends heavily on the rest of the system. I think they pair poorly with mcintosh that they are often shown with. Due to listening to a wide range of music I have found some speakers that sound a little better with classical but lose the impact i need with punk. Others that have a little more edge but sound awful with acoustic instruments. So, results vary with your interests and taste. Also, with so many b&w options some will be a better fit for your system and interests than others... 802s sounded boomy to me and 804s anemic with the 803s wonderful...  But, all said I think they make outstanding products in almost every price range which is a true rarity.

I had B&W CM6 S2, paired with a Rotel, so the "proper" pairing, as recommended by local high end shop. Once I got the Pearlacoustics Sibelius, the B&W did not sound particular treble forward, but rather had bloated smeary mids. 

I think B&W is pushed to many new people. Might be because shops make a good profit off them? At any rate, I think they are overpriced and underperform. So I traded in my CM6 towards a Pass XA25. Very happy with that combo.

@mark200 I used to say the same thing about my 6 ft. Martin Logan boxes, but I was thinner then!

I had many enjoyable years listening my old B&W 805s (these were the old Matrix series) and I loved them--until I didn't.

according to speakerchoices.com, B&W is the largest/best selling speaker company - in revenue possibly only surpassed by Klipsch

@mark200mph, that's funny.  My dad was an avid fly fisherman and Detroit Tiger fan.  We buried him with his Tiger baseball hat on and fishing vest and flyrod.  Lots of smiles over that.

I have the matrix 800 and I will never sale. I told my wife to Barry me in them there that big. One of thier reference and never tiring.maybe I need to move to the north east to pick up more estate sale stuff. Happy 4th and enjoy the show.

B&W sells A LOT of speakers here in the states. Maybe they offer a higher mark up to their venders, but they are everywhere! They are most always powered by Mac in said stores and if you don’t use an amplifier that quiets down those tweeters, you might have issues with brightness.

Just my 2c.

Thanks for all of the responses. I thought maybe I hadn't heard about a decline in quality, as I wouldn't have expected. I agree with many of the replies as one brand with a huge amount out there will commonly have more available in the resale market. As for the forward/brightness issue, I actually have not auditioned the brand in many years, so it's good to know this characteristic. For the models I see often, being in the mid-fi price range of less than $2,500/pr., I would guess that most of these buyers have paired them with less than ideal amps, often being used with multichannel home theater receivers, thus compounding the brightness and forward soundstage presentation. It also reminds me of my college years, circa 1980, when I knew several guys that had JBL loudspeakers. Although they were popular and cost 2x-3x my Large Advents, their brightness made my ears bleed. But that was their trait and very few fed them anything other that the power from a Japanese receiver.

Brands marketed in big box brick and mortar outlets are ubiquitous on used sites. Search engines are paid in full. If you pay enough you get a nice familiar speaker. But you lose the hook of something people haven't seen, and the expertise of producers who do not participate in the search/review game. If you care.

They sell a bunch of speakers. I think they also tend to have a "house" sound which over time and exposure to other speakers can become tiring. 

I think there's 2 reasons for amount of used B&W's on the market:

1. They have been around for 60 years and have always had a pretty broad range of speaker choices, across many price points. They have also developed a wide range of retailers and distributors.

2. I also agree with some posts here that B&W's seem very forward and can be fatiguing, to my ears, especially at the lower end of their range.

When partnered with more laid back sounding electronics they can be a nice listen.

Probably the main reason is because there are so many B&W models out there.  Same reason why you’ll see more Ford F150’s for sale than any given  Lamborghini.

High end buyers tend to be older.  Older people tend to die, or downsize their living spaces.  Surviving spouses may not have shared their deceased husband’s hobby.  Generalizing, but in my area of Eastern Massachusetts we see a lot of this.

They pair well with Macintosh electronics which many people like the looks of.

Showroom sound that gets annoying after staying with it a while combined with the volume sold, that will lead to a lot of used gear.

They wow on first listen but end up being a nagging bright, overly bitey sounding with hollow midrange presentation when you stay with it. The same thing that made them excite on first listen is what makes them unfit for staying with in your home.

Other will say something else but that is the underlying reason @cooperdude6 

The only other tangible reason is purchase addiction as is the norm in this space of buying stuff to play music with but end up obsessing over the stuff than the music lol

B&W is massive and they upgrade their models often enough to keep even content owners interested in upgrading. I would suggest all speakers have their own inherent sound that can create disinterest over time.

B&W makes a fine product (some will like them more than others, of course). They have been around for ages and have sold many speakers.