@chessie I would like to second much of what
@livinon2wheels and others have stated above.
As you may be aware, the Series 2 was originally brought to market with an optional equalizer. The designer, as I understand it, considered the EQ essential to the speaker’s performance, because without it the ‘6th order Butterworth crossover’ was not implemented, and the 6th order Butterworth is advertised on the box the speaker came in. I suppose marketing thought the speaker on its own without the crossover was ‘good enough.’ Evidently, many customers thought so too.
All of which is to say that implementing a DSP is one way to augment the bass. As a Series 2 owner, I can attest to the rather anemic performance in the bass register, it just doesn’t seem to have much extension. What bass there is sounds good, but there just doesn’t seem to be as much as there should be.
For my part, I can que up my 70E Warfedales, with their 15” drivers, to get that next level of bass, although they lack the ‘punch’ of the 801’s.
Another thing I do is add a subwoofer in a corner of the room, even my mini-Velodyne works wonders.
The other thing I’ve often thought would improve their sound in my room was to get them up off the floor a bit so that the midrange and tweeter were closer to ear level. The original designer is on record as saying it wasn’t necessary to raise them, and that the only reason they offered the stands was for use in studios where the added height was needed for the sound to clear the mixing desk.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on the B&W 801 Matrix Series 2. I would still love to hear my McIntosh XRT-20’s in your space. They sound wonderful in my biggest room, which is much smaller than the room occupied by your 801’s.
