B&W 800 Series Changes

[Quickley17]

I was looking at the B&W site a few minutes ago, and could not access the 800 series product line. The "800 Series Diamond" link goes to a page that has a few blurbs about the design and a pretty neat video. They say "Every speaker in the range" which makes me think that the 804 and 805 will now come with the diamond tweeter?

Anyone have info on this? Or opinions?

 

[nelamvr6]

There's a pretty lengthy thread over at the Hoffman forums, including photos...

 

[nelamvr6]

Actually I was a little off. There is a lengthy thread at the Hoffman forums, but the thread I was thinking of with all the photos is at the AVS Forums...

 

[mike c]

links or pictures?

 

[jostenmeat]

links or pictures?

 

[mike c]

is there only one model with the marlan head now?

 

[Warpdrv]

My dealer and I talked about this, he is huge fanboy and apparently both the cabinets and the drivers have gone through a major revamping. the cabinets are stated to be now made in a whole different factory (in house?)

The pricing went up about $1k each, though the 805 almost doubled...
personally I and others weren't all that thrilled with the 805's to begin with, so I hope they made some changes for the better there to reflect the extremely large increase on just that model alone...

On a secondary note, my dealer until now never carried the Paradigm Signature line - I bought my Sig S8's from him and gave him an over night with them when they came in and he found they were good enough to place alongside in his until now strictly full B&W room, he also just started to carry the Magnepan's which I was also very impressed with as well...

The price to performance on the Signature line really seemed to fit into a bracket very nicely after the latest revamping of the new 800 line update and price increase. The Sigs now fall right in a pricing spot that has become unoccupied just perfectly, and with the sound signature to compete very well... I also think that his wife swayed him with the glorious looks of the Sig S8's...

Sorry about the paradigm fanboy talk... but I think I worked it in with the B&W talk nicely...

 

[Snakeoil]

http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/display.aspx?sc=ht&infid=3577

Last B&W speakers I listened to were the CT800 and they seemed to do the job.

 

[annunaki]

So are the entire enclosure made from Marlan now? If so they must be tremendously heavy.

I wonder if they have moved to more linear driver (motor) designs as there was not a lot more that could be done.

 

[HedgeHog]

- 800D and 802D have Marlan heads.
- All 800 series now have the diamond tweeters (the aluminum tweets are history).
- The move one of their Denmark cabinet manufacturing plant to UK but are still making some cabs out of Denmark (iirc, the 800D and 802D are)
- Assembly and other parts are made in the UK
- New drivers (some use dual magnet)
- New x-over (not sure if it's new components or new design or new specs) but there was a mention that the 802D now use the same x-over as the 800D
- New connectors (I read the older ones were WBT and new ones in-house)
- Piano black finish is new (as seen in above pix)
- Black ash is gone
- Some people claim the new cherry and rosenut look different
- A bunch of cosmetic changes (silver trim rings, different speaker brackets)
- The mid-range cone thingy is now aluminum instead of black

That's all I can recall.

Cheers,
-H

 

[Quickley17]

Here is a blog post from B&W:

http://blog.bowers-wilkins.com/theinsider/?p=368

One of the comments states the following prices:

800 Diamond $12000/ea $24000/pr
802 Diamond $7500/ea $15000/pr
803 Diamond $5000/ea $10000/pr
804 Diamond $3750/ea $7500/pr
805 Diamond $2500/ea $5000/pr
805 Stand $350/ea $700/pr
HTM2 Diamond $5000/ea
HTM4 Diamond $2500/ea
HTM Stand $500/ea
DB1 Subwoofer $4500/ea

I was under the impression that B&W formerly only sold in pairs, but perhaps I am wrong or that is changing?

 

[WmAx]

It is disappointing to see the price changes due to adding these hyped tweeters to the entire line. Especially the 805 2 way. The same performance is achievable with a tweeter that costs $45 (in low volume). Since the 803 and above were already so expensive, the added cost from the tweeter was not 'that' big of a deal. But adding to the lower 800 series, the price hike becomes serious.

-Chris

 

[Ito]

I've always found these speakers rather ugly, and while the upgrade is an improvement, it's not much of one.

 

[Snakeoil]

It is disappointing to see the price changes due to adding these hyped tweeters to the entire line. Especially the 805 2 way. The same performance is achievable with a tweeter that costs $45 (in low volume). Since the 803 and above were already so expensive, the added cost from the tweeter was not 'that' big of a deal. But adding to the lower 800 series, the price hike becomes serious.

-Chris

I agree, last salesman I talked to said the new tweeters are flat to 70kHz, of course I did not mention the fact that one can not hear that high.

 

[jostenmeat]

It is disappointing to see the price changes due to adding these hyped tweeters to the entire line. Especially the 805 2 way. The same performance is achievable with a tweeter that costs $45 (in low volume). Since the 803 and above were already so expensive, the added cost from the tweeter was not 'that' big of a deal. But adding to the lower 800 series, the price hike becomes serious.

-Chris

I used to somewhat wish the 804 came in a D version, so that the upper line was more accessible. However, I didn't realize the price hike would be this much. That's essentially double the price!

For those looking for fine speakers, and were saving pennies for a very nice pair this year, and were looking particularly at B&W, this year is the year to hit up the local stores, and tell them you want to take their demo's off their hands. I would expect and insist that a pair of 804S be at $3k or less. If I was Paradigm Dawg, I would expect to pay no more than $1,000.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Just throw in a 20 yr warranty and I'm sold.