B&W speakers, am I missing something here?

[audion3wb]

The other day I strolled into the only place in Fairbanks that deals in home audio. From what I knew they mainly do custom installs. Low and behold they sell B&W. Eager to listen I go into their demo theater and listen to a pair of 703s. Now considering that these speakers were selling for 3k a pair (a full 3 times as much as my Polk mainsk) I was very underwhelmed.

Perhaps I should have brought my own listening material, or maybe my expectations were too high. If I had to say one thing I noticed was that I thought the highs on the B&Ws were more detailed. Which I appreciated but I wouldnt triple my speaker budget to attain that either.

So whats the deal folks? Is there an invisible wall to get to the "next level" of home audio and you have to spend more than 5k a pair of for speakers to reach it? Or am I just being too hasty in my judgement of the B&Ws?

 

[EYEdROP0]

Well, mabey the sound signature of B&W just dosent appeal to you.

You mentioned detailed highs. If you look at the freq. response graph of most (EDIT) some B&W's, the highs are very much exaggerated towards the top of the hearing range.

For whatever reason you were underwhelmed with them, mabey you need to find a speaker that does what you want better than the B&W's while still having the detailed highs you like.

IMO, sometimes price means nothing after a certain point when it comes to speakers in the price range of $1500-$3000. (Of course there are exceptions and bang for your buck speakers). But the point is you can be happy by simply choosing a speaker that seems to tickle your ears or make you happy. B&W obviously dosent do that with you.

 

[yettitheman]

Well, with any speaker you are looking at seriously purchasing, not "seriously looking", it helps immensely that you bring material that you are familiar with.
I bring at least three discs:
Diana Krall - Live in Paris
Fiona Apple - Tidal
and now my third one:
NIN - The Fragile (ok, it's 4 discs all together, and it replaced Sonic Youth's "Daydream Nation" )

Be prepared to hear variations. Some speakers may reveal detail in the recording that you didn't hear before (noise, compression, distortion) or (new low notes that never heard before, or the faint sound of chimes being stroked ever so lightly).

And, it could be how they are set up. Even good businesses and companies sometimes have the equipment set up wrong or improperly on accident (on an off day) or on purpose (to get you to buy what will give them a large profit margin). It's hard to tell really. You have to look at everything in consideration.

I auditioned a pair of 606's a while back and something wasn't right at all.
Lo and behold, the wires on one speaker were reversed (making it sound out of phase). Fixed that for them!

 

[j_garcia]

Yes, when you audition, you should listen with material that you know well. What were they being powered with? What source and what material was being used? If you have your Polks setup properly and sit in the sweet spot vs a poorly configured or (as mentioned) improper setup, you could easily be underwhelmed. B&W is a British company and British speakers do tend to have a bit of a different sound; some don't like it. I have always liked the 600, 700 (formerly CDM) and 800 lines from them, but not to the point where I "must own" them for myself either.

 

[audion3wb]

I didnt take a good look at the A/V rack that the speakers were wired to but when I asked the guy what they were powered with all he said was 140watt yamaha. After that response I just stopped asking technical questions. I started getting the vibe that he would feel insulted if a guy with a Polk speaker setup knew more than him .

I think that if I had a few hours to play with their system and use their toys I could get that system to sing. I don't get why they would be using a yamaha to power them when they are an authorized Rotel dealer.

 

[annunaki]

B&W's have very neutral midrange for the most part. The response tends to be flat or close to it out to 20Khz from the midbass range on up. This, when compared to most, will sound brighter or more forward than others. In the past, the bass was not very pronounced (with some models), but that is what a quality sub is for anyway.

The 802 and the 801 are wonderful speakers. They are very neutral and add very little if any coloration to the sound. Some people actually prefer some colorations to music so they do not care for them.

The CM series and 800 series are very nice commercially made speakers. The 600 series are a very solid value in their price category also.