Reccomendations for 802D's?

congratulations... i found the 802ds are VERY sensitive to placement... really chane sound. but with that, it will depend on the room.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to the battle since they have some kind of caster which rolls. Hope it rolls on my carpet which is kindof short. It took me a while to get happy with my N804 and placement. then the wife didn't like it when I did get it right. I told her to stay upstairs, the basement is mine, ha, that went over real well. Wait'll she see's the new bigger speaker surprise, she really ain't gonna like that. Easier to ask for forgiveness than permission boys, remember that.

Beerdraft

Okay, I've got the system hooked up. Let me start with the C500, wow, this thing is playing with great seperation and detail, this is no doubt the best pre amp I've ever heard. I was worried since I didn't listen at all to any of this before buying, very happy with it. The MC2301's, man huge tube amps and very powerful, liquid, just phenominal. The 802D's, man I knew this was my dream speaeker for a reason, they haven't disappointed me. I'm running the 4 ohm taps off the 2301 and man the detail and sound stage is just spectacular. The diamond tweeter is in another league from all I've heard. The mid range is as good as I've heard anywhere, this has always been a strong point for B&W. The bass, man I've never heard low level detail like this where every little bass note has its own signature and own suttle difference from other notes. Also the imageing and stage in the low end notes is fantastic, I couldn't be happier at this point. I will be hooking up my power conditioners this weekend and see what they add to the system as well as some of my upgraded cords.

beerdraft

The 802D has an impedeance of around 4 ohms over most of the spectrum (not counting the bass peaks), but the impedance rises to well over 20 ohms at about 3 kHz. Here, take a look:

http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/1205bw/index4.html

A normal voltage-source-approximating solid state amp will deliver about 1/5 as much power (wattage) into that peak as into the 4-ohm portion of the spectrum. Presumably the speaker is "voiced" in anticipation of this sort of amplification.

Note that tube amps and McIntosh solid state amps have different characteristics, and will deliver closer to the same amount of power into that impedance peak as into the 4-ohm portion of the spectrum, resulting in a frequency response peak there. I suspect this is behind the "tinny" sound that Guiness heard with the 4-ohm taps on his Mac amps; there would be less tonal discrepancy with the 8-ohm taps. I also suspect that the tonal balance of this speaker would be smoother still when driven by a non-transformer-coupled solid state amp.

In my opinion, speakers with impedance curves like the 802D has are not good candidates for tube amps or for transformer-coupled solid state amps unless they were specifically "voiced" for such amps.

Duke

I used to own the 802d and would recommend moving them away from the front wall and corners. I found their bass to be a bit boomy and loose. I was able to tame it a bit by upgrading my pre and amp because I was unable to position them well into the room. I also agree with the opinion that tube amps may not be best suited to this speaker. Given their sound characteristics, I would think about a powerful ss amp that is dynamic and fast. Anyway , just my 2 cents.