Are Bowers and Wilkins speakers overpriced?


I see a lot of negative commentary on B&W. Why? Are they overpriced? Do they not sound as amazing as they look? Are they too “main stream”? - I love my 805 d3’s but curious why they get such a bad rep. 
paulgardner
Maybe I missed it but B&W value compared to what?  I enjoyed B&W speakers for many years finishing with Nautilus 800s.  Then switched to Wilson, which I much preferred. At my dealer recently heard the new 800D3s and was not impressed, you could hear each driver.  Came back in a couple of weeks after the speakers were well broken in and the were impressive to say the least.  At much less cost than my Wilsons or the dealers Magico offerings.  So, compared to the upper end brands they are surprising good.  
@wrenth Agree. All high end Audio gear is way overpriced, a rich mans hobby like a Mopar collector.
I traded in a pair of Bang and Olufsen speakers for a pair of B&W DM5 bookshelf speakers in the mid ’70’s, and still love their sound. I also own a pair of B&W 802 series 80 floorstanding speakers whose crossovers were modified brilliantly by Walt D’Ascenzo of SoundMods. These were made in 1981 at a retail cost of around $4,000, which was a pretty stiff price then.
I first heard the B&W’s with diamond tweeters when they first appeared driven by Cambridge Audio monoblocks and was blown away by their sound. I believe they cost around $15,000. Certainly out of my reach but I don’t think they were overpriced in that they performed better than anything else in that price range. Personally, I’m drawn to them because they sound human. A peculiar way to describe an electronic box, but like a Greek marble figure that comes alive in stone, the music emanating from the B&W’s resonates with my being. I’ve heard some new B&W’s in a showroom that didn’t do it for me, so if I were to make a switch, it would probably be an older version in the Diamond series.
B&W takes negative comments here for the same reason McIntosh does: they’re not esoteric enough.
People are in these forums because they enjoy the lesser known brands and enjoy discussing them. Similarly, people aren’t joining wine forums to discuss your standard grocery store wines. And there may be a few good bottles there!

Are they overpriced? Well, I would say they spend more on marketing and branding than other speaker companies do. That’s why their much more well known. So that marketing costs has to go somewhere. Though one could argue, their size allows them efficiencies to save on production or materials perhaps that they can use towards marketing. So debatable.

Can anyone really say Wilson speakers aren’t overpriced?

As others have commented, all these speakers are overpriced and the counter argument is someone is willing to purchase them so they’re not overpriced.


If they are under priced everyone would say they are cheap speakers but offer a great value. Add $500.00 more to the price tag and they will be a steal for the price. Is anyone following my logic?