Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Bowers & Wilkins 804 Diamond loudspeaker Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Digital Sources: Sony XA-5400ES SACD/CD player, Oppo BDP-105 universal Blu-ray player, Mytek Stereo192-DSD DAC, PC-based server using JRiver Media Center 18.
Preamplification: Audio Research MP1 multichannel analog preamplifier, Meridian HD621 HDMI audio processor & 861 Reference V6 digital surround controllers.
Power Amplifiers: McIntosh MC303, Parasound A-31 (both three-channel).
Loudspeakers: Bowers and Wilkins 800 Diamond & 804S, Aerial Acoustics 7T.
Cables: Interconnect: van den Hul Flat 180, AudioQuest Vodka (HDMI); Black Cat Veloce (digital); AudioQuest Cheetah (DBS balanced). Speaker: AudioQuest Mont Blanc (DBS biwire). AC: JPS Aluminata.
Accessories: Environmental Potentials EP-2450 power conditioner.—Kalman Rubinson

COMPANY INFO
Bowers & Wilkins
US distributor: B&W Group North America
54 Concord Street
North Reading, MA 01864
(978) 664-2870
www.bowers-wilkins.com
ARTICLE CONTENTS

COMMENTS
Allen Fant's picture
Submitted by Allen Fant on August 30, 2013 - 7:11pm

Laughing...KR you should be able to lift 100-lb speakers w/o difficulty. Great review!

Kal Rubinson's picture
Submitted by Kal Rubinson on August 30, 2013 - 7:15pm

Sure I can.  However, the next day my lower back tells me that I shouldn't have.

Chigo's picture
Submitted by Chigo on September 3, 2013 - 1:30pm

Good to see the little brother getting some love. I auditioned these a few months ago, and thought they sounded fantastic, even in pretty poor conditions. I was really impressed by the quality and quantity of bass produced by those two small woofers. Though I am sure they cannot compete with the 800s, they held their own (sans subwoofer) in the low frequencies against some lesser tower + powered sub combos to which I compared them, and they handily beat those combos across the rest of the frequency range.

Kal, any notable differences in sound when driven by the McIntosh amp vs. the Halo?

Kal Rubinson's picture
Submitted by Kal Rubinson on September 3, 2013 - 3:20pm

Not much.  They were a very little bit more forward in the mids with the Mac.

Russell Dawkins's picture
Submitted by Russell Dawkins on August 1, 2014 - 3:12pm

The B&Ws sure sound as tubby as I remember them in this comparison to the quarter-the-price JBL Studio 580s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=F_2lbKS6f8c#t=392
- cued to the beginning of a telling recording. The JBL equivalent starts at 11:43
ugh!
I get the feeling that there is no-one at B&W who knows how to design a good sounding box for bass - they sure make them look good and sell, though, and I suppose that has to be the bottom line but, thankfully, not for me.

X