B&W's New Diamond 800 Loudspeaker

On the first day of the Show, B&W announced the sixth generation of their flagship, full-range, three-way floorstanding 800 loudspeaker. The new 800 costs $24,000/pair and includes a transmission line-loaded, diamond-dome tweeter with a quad-magnet motor to increase sensitivity and dynamic range. Other features include a dual-magnet motor for the woofers, B&W's proprietary Kevlar FST midrange driver, a matrix enclosure and a crossover that includes silver, gold and oil construction Mundorf capacitors.

COMMENTS
Bob D. Stuckiez's picture

I heard a remaster of Metal Machine Music by Lou Reed played through this speaker, using a Parasound amp. Excellent definition. One of the best speaker test CDs I've ever heard. Used it in a show room with a pair of YGs.

suits_me's picture

While it's my personal opinion that just about everything of this speaker looks ugly, that base clearly exists in an ungainly proportion to the speaker itself. Switching to white there is also odd. As with pseudo spin off, Vivid, I hope the engineering is good.

Bill's picture

I'm looking forward to hearing these. For whatever reasons, I love the sound of most of the Vivid line but have largely found B&Ws to be uninvolving. In this same price range, I think I'd stretch and go for a pair of Wilson Sashas instead, to which I hope Stereophile eventually compares the new 800s. As far as the base being large, it's no different than mounting them atop other bases, such as those made by Mapleshade.

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