B&W and mcintosh

Lowell_M

I just got a brief listen at a home theater store near the Spring Hill Mall in Dundee Il (I forgot the name of the place already) of the B&W 802D's powered by Mcintosh MC501 monoblocks.

Quite a visually stunning setup really. This store took great pride in the quality of their listening rooms. The salesman even repositioned a set of 803's that were sitting directly beside the 802's so that they woudl not interfere with imaging.

Anyway, I thought I would be blown away, and to be fair, I didn't spend a great deal of time listening, but I didn't get the emotional impact of the music I expected. Really, I'm not sure what I was expecting out of over $20,000 worth of audio equipment, but it wasn't the sound I expected.

In two channel, the imaging was fantastic as I would expect. I was dissappointed in the lower bass. Upper bass response was very tight, but at the same time in lower frequencies things seemed muddled. They also seemed like very bright speakers, to the point where high hat hits were annoying to me.

The sales guy then switched over to surround and put the DTS track of the eagles farewell tour in. The addition of the sub cleaned up the bass that I didn't like in 2 channel and the sound stage was fantastic. The bright recording of this concert, though, made the brightness I was hearing even more annoying.

..oh, yea... then I lisetened to the Klipsh setup.... First Klipsh speakers I have ever hear......and last I will listen to. I wanted somebody to dig my eardrums out with a spoon so that I didn't have to listen anymore. You could pinpoint the origin of everything coming from the tweeter. No imaging whatsover. and freakin harsh.

Anyway, I just posted this to see if anybody had any thoughts that woudl validate/counterpoint my impressions. I'm still learnin, here.....

hoosier21

Klipsch, your right on, Klipsch does have some nice speakers, but the HT junk is a joke.

Not sure about the B&W and McIntosh, room and set up is everything, those are two very good companies, but you heard what you heard.

Lowell_M

I'm not saying the B&W and tosh sounded crappy or anything. I just expected more...Well, I guess I'm not sure what I thought I should expect. I've never heard equipment of this caliber before. I expected it to be more...uh... emotional or something. I'm not sure how to articulate what I am thinking.

The setup seemed meticulous with all 'tosh equipment.

I'm going to go put the eagles in on my systems and see what in notice after earlier today.

hoosier21

I understand
I have been let down over and over with big dollar equipment in a showroom, like you said for 20K there better be some hairs standing on the back of my neck.

Lowell_M

hoosier21 wrote:

I understand
I have been let down over and over with big dollar equipment in a showroom, like you said for 20K there better be some hairs standing on the back of my neck.

....and maybe somebody brining me a beer and washing my car or something too.

I'm lovin the ADCOM GFA-555 by the way...Thanks!

hoosier21

good glad you are, sold those 555s to get plate amps, now sold those looking for something like the 555s, frigging circle of stupidity

sucks2beme

Put those beamers on a Mac 275 tube amp. That'll do the trick!

heiney9

Well, part of your disappointment might be the expectation, but I doubt it because for $20K you should have high expectations. It simply comes down to 2 things. 1) No matter how well the showroom is set-up it's just not the ideal place to demo equipment. 2) You are used to your equipment in your listening setting and now you are listening to new equipment in a new setting for a short period of time. Still I agree that for the $$$ you'd think you'd be able to hear an instant discernable difference but some things can be subtle and discovered over time. The only way to know for sure is to demo in a familiar/your own space.

I guarantee if you would have heard the 3 different amps that DKG999 and I brought over in a showroom setting & on other equipment than your own you probably wouldn't have been as convinced as much as you were the minute we swapped things in and out, or perhaps not at all. One last thing is that the B & W's may not be your cup of tea. They never have been for me, though to be fair, it's been awhile since I've listened to a pair.

Biggest lesson here is the price to performance factor. high $$$ does not equal the best blow you away performance. Even in your listening environment you still may not have felt it was all worth $20 K to you.

One experiment I always wanted to do is to demo some stuff in my system and never know the price of the pieces until after the demo. By stating the price upfront our mind starts creating expectations based on not only our experiences but what we've been told and read. As hard as we try not to be biased concerning price it's inevitable. To some extent the brand creates this bias as well. So demoing brandless, priceless equipment and then choosing what sounds best and second best and so on would be cool. I trust my ears, experiences, likes and dislikes.

Kinda like the blind taste tests they used as commercials for Cola a few years back.

H9

dkg999

I didn't realize we had a high-end store in Dundee! I bought my Sony 34" widescreen at the Tweeter store in Dundee that closed a year or so ago. I tend to go through Dundee on my way home from work when the 90 tollway is backed up. I'll have to stop and check it out!

+1 on H9's comments. I have been less than impressed on many occasions by high $ systems. I also have been frustrated by the demo room vs. how it sounds at home scenario, sometimes it worked in my favor and the speakers sounded better at home, and sometimes the other way around. I think there is a point where spending additional dollars starts bringing rapidly diminishing returns in improvement in sound quality. If I were smart I would figure out scientifically where that point is, but I think my 2 ch system in it's current configuration may be close to it. Of course that hasn't stopped me from still trying to tweak and upgrade

Lowell_M

To add 2 more cents.. I did a bit of listening on my system last night. I think what I was mistaking for brightness was partially accuracy. Its definately hard to make a comparison 4 hours apart, but I noticed the difference in accuracy right away.

I still dont' think that B&W's are my cup of tea either H9.

I remembered the name of the place!!! Barrets Home Theater on Randall Rd, a few miles north of 72.

dkg999

I'll have to swing in there on my way to Aurora today! If you take Hwy 31 about 10 miles north of Dundee there is another HT/Audio place that has B&W, Rotel, and I forget what other brands of gear. They were a little snooty for me, but had a lot of stuff in stock.

cfrizz

You have just learned the difference between metal tweeters & Polk's soft dome tweeters!

I get my Rotel equipment from Spearit Sound in Boston & they are very big on B & W. I don't think that they carry any soft dome speakers.

They got somewhat offended when I said that my ears couldn't handle metal tweeters, saying that they are the MOST accurate! But since that accuracy translates into TOO BRIGHT, TOO SIBILANT, TOO HISSY to my ears & it sounds like your ears as well, then they are NOT the speaker for me. I don't give a rats a$$ how expensive they are!

In the end, it HAS to be your ears that decide, not the looks or the cost of the speakers.

Keep learning & sharing AM!

a_mattison wrote:

I just got a brief listen at a home theater store near the Spring Hill Mall in Dundee Il (I forgot the name of the place already) of the B&W 802D's powered by Mcintosh MC501 monoblocks.

In two channel, the imaging was fantastic as I would expect. I was dissappointed in the lower bass. Upper bass response was very tight, but at the same time in lower frequencies things seemed muddled. They also seemed like very bright speakers, to the point where high hat hits were annoying to me.

The sales guy then switched over to surround and put the DTS track of the eagles farewell tour in. The addition of the sub cleaned up the bass that I didn't like in 2 channel and the sound stage was fantastic. The bright recording of this concert, though, made the brightness I was hearing even more annoying.

..oh, yea... then I lisetened to the Klipsh setup.... First Klipsh speakers I have ever hear......and last I will listen to. I wanted somebody to dig my eardrums out with a spoon so that I didn't have to listen anymore. You could pinpoint the origin of everything coming from the tweeter. No imaging whatsover. and freakin harsh.

Anyway, I just posted this to see if anybody had any thoughts that woudl validate/counterpoint my impressions. I'm still learnin, here.....