Each single loudspeaker has a level of potential and owns properties. I owned the 800S and when I auditioned the 800D1 I knew I would stop with B&W.
We auditioned the 800D3 a few months ago with a 245.000 euro costing system driving the 800D3 series ( Esoteric monos, pre and source and Audiquest Well Signature cables)
3 weeks ago we auditioned the 800D3 again, now it was connected with Mcintosh 1.2KW monos, C2600 and streamer. And also Audioquest cables and Niagara 5000 conditioner.
All the 2 sets with the 800D3 had one important thing in common. The stage depth was less than 1 metre. Also the 800D1 and 800S were able to create only 1 metre of stage depth.
B&W always have been very limited in crossovers and they still are very poor in this part. When you want to speak of ’real’ highend audio you need a very deep and holographic 3D stage.
This is what ’real’ highend makes special compared to hifi. In real the properties of the 800D3 are hifi stereo parameters. This has nothing to do with personal taste. It is a property you can easily hear and understand.
Based on the fact that there are no parameters in the world of highend, we can call everything we want ’highend’
The people who buy the 800D3 think they buy ’highend’ but based on facts they buy a hifi stereo stage. This is a fact no one can change.
It doesn’t matter which amp you connect, the stage depth will still be very limited.
I have done thousands of tests in audio in over 18 years of time. Even when you connect a Pass labs, Krell, Mcintosh etc, the stage depth will be rather small compared to other speakers which can create a stunning deep and 3 dimensional stage with the same amps we are talking about.
The person who does Esoteric in my country did the demo with the Esoteric monos, pre and source togheter with B&W. They did this presentation togheter.
When they played; Miles Davis ’So What’ I went to the speakers during this song and I showed the person of Esoteric that the high hats of the recording are stucked to the loudspeaker and that the height of the high hats stops were the tweeter stops.
I also told him during the song that Miles Davis stands at the same line as the drumms and Coltrane on the left side.
I invited him to come to listen to my system with the new Monitor Audio Pl-500 about 1 month ago. I used the same songs as we auditioned during the show with the 800D3.
Now the drumms on the right side plays fully free and in front of the loudspeaker. The high hats are played at about 1.4 metres. Miles stands a lot deeper behind in the middle. You can see on the pictures of the recording that he stands behind the drumms. Also Coltrane has now a 3 dimensional shape.
Also the diversity (layering) in the whole frequency range is superior in my system. I have done a lot of research this year in diversity in sound. This is the most important part to create emotion for us humans. That is why I decided to do research in this part. We missed a lot of details on the low, mid and high freqencies with the 800D3.In all the 2 sets the level of diversity was rather low.
The blacklevel and physical image of instruments and voices is much more life like with the Pl-500. It is able to let you hear all the diversity in heights of instruments and voices. I call this part highend ++. This is a quality the 800D3 does not own. During the demos we all could hear that the instruments and voices were played at the same height.
Also the level of resolution and the reverb of the recording is superior in my system. This is how ’highend’ should be played.
The Monitor Audio Pl-500 outperforms the B&W 80D3 in all parts you judge sound for. I also sold a pair to a person with the 800D1.
It doesn’t matter what you connect to the 800D3, the stage will stay at hifi stereo level. All the demos proved it. Even the person of Esoteric agreed that it was a hifi stereo demo.
And that my system is of a totally differerent and superior level. Audio needs parameters soon. This way people can get honest and true information about the real quality and properties.
