B&W 802 N vs. D

Ok guys...I've sold B&W for more than a decade, the N's and the D's, and everything in between. Yes, the biggest difference IS the tweeter. And yes the D tweeter is night and day over the N version; the resonance is up near 80kHz as opposed to 30. The N tweeter sounds bright and edgy and has a distinct metallic ring to it, the D is much faster, far more neutral, and doesn't have any of that typical metal dome ring. The diamond tweeter is VERY fragile though, if you touch it even slightly it will crack and disintegrate, and it's over a grand to replace. As far as the bass and mids, the mids are okay on both models, but whoever said the bass is tubby is right. The woofers on both these models IMO are crap. We had a brand new pair of 802Ds we put on the floor when they first came out, and within a half hour we blew 3 of 4 woofers. They can't take any serious juice, they look like they're made of cardboard, and they sound like it too. I had 803Ds at home for a couple of years, only cause I bought them dirt cheap through B&W's salesperson program, and made 5 grand on them when I sold them. My wife at least put up with the look of the 803s, but if I had brought the "they look like robots" 802s home a divorce would have been imminent. Bottom line, I wouldn't touch B&Ws with a 10 foot pole again, unless I could buy them at 20 cents on the dollar, and that would be just to flip them for a good profit. Thanks for coming out.

Ok guys...I've sold B&W for more than a decade, the N's and the D's, and everything in between. Yes, the biggest difference IS the tweeter. And yes the D tweeter is night and day over the N version; the resonance is up near 80kHz as opposed to 30. The N tweeter sounds bright and edgy and has a distinct metallic ring to it, the D is much faster, far more neutral, and doesn't have any of that typical metal dome ring. The diamond tweeter is VERY fragile though, if you touch it even slightly it will crack and disintegrate, and it's over a grand to replace. As far as the bass and mids, the mids are okay...just okay...on both models, but whoever said the bass is tubby is right. The woofers on both these models IMO are crap. We had a brand new pair of 802Ds we put on the floor when they first came out, and within a half hour we blew 3 of 4 woofers...separated voice coils. They can't take any serious juice, they look like they're made of cardboard, and they sound like it too. I had 803Ds at home for a couple of years, only cause I bought them dirt cheap through B&W's salesperson program, and made 5 grand on them when I sold them. My wife at least put up with the look of the 803s, but if I had brought the "they look like robots" 802s home a divorce would have been imminent. Bottom line, I wouldn't touch B&Ws with a 10 foot pole again, unless I could buy them at 20 cents on the dollar, and that would be just to flip them for a good profit. Thanks for coming out.

Ok guys...I've sold B&W for more than a decade, the N's and the D's, and everything in between. Yes, the biggest difference IS the tweeter. And yes the D tweeter is night and day over the N version; the resonance is up near 80kHz as opposed to 30. The N tweeter sounds bright and edgy and has a distinct metallic ring to it, the D is much faster, far more neutral, and doesn't have any of that typical metal dome ring. The diamond tweeter is VERY fragile though, if you touch it even slightly it will crack and disintegrate, and it's over a grand to replace. As far as the bass and mids, the mids are okay...just okay...on both models, but whoever said the bass is tubby is right. The woofers on both these models IMO are crap. We had a brand new pair of 802Ds we put on the floor when they first came out, and within a half hour we blew 3 of 4 woofers...separated voice coils. They can't take any serious juice, they look like they're made of cardboard, and they sound like it too. I had 803Ds at home for a couple of years, only cause I bought them dirt cheap through B&W's salesperson program, and made 5 grand on them when I sold them. My wife at least put up with the look of the 803s, but if I had brought the "they look like robots" 802s home a divorce would have been imminent. Bottom line, I wouldn't touch B&Ws with a 10 foot pole again, unless I could buy them at 20 cents on the dollar, and that would be just to flip them for a good profit. Thanks for coming out.

Crispy, this thread ended almost 4 years ago, but for what it is worth I own a pair of B&W 802D's and agree with most of your assessment except the comment about the woofers. Yes they have some ripeness in the upper bass range but placement and a decent sized room corrects most of the tubbiness. Yes, I agree too that there is better bass to be had but at least to my ears still acceptable. A little puzzled about the woofers being destroyed by large amounts of power. I've used a Mac 402 power amp and really cranked on it with no damage or distortion of any kind. This amp delivers some serious and clean power. You having been a dealer should have known how to properly power such a fine speaker. Unless B&W made some improvements to the woofers, your damaging them puzzles me.

Limitation are there crossovers. I have owned for over 8 years the 802n and 800S. I thought about the 800D. But wenn you want to grow in the level to the absolute sound. B&W misses the deep and wide stage you need to go further. So that is way I stopped with B&W. This was a very good discision I made. And yess I am at a much higher level now.