In the years I've lived with the 802Ds, they've continued to provide wonderful musical experiences, and, like an old married couple, we've adapted to each other. I've adapted to their slight emphasis of the high frequencies and their upper-bass ripeness; they, in turn, have blended comfortably into my…
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As B&W's 800 Series has evolved, Stereophile has reported on its progress. Lewis Lipnick reviewed the Matrix 801 Series 2 in 1987, and Wes Phillips wrote about the Nautilus 801 in 1999. I reviewed the B&W 800 Signature in 2002 and the 802D in 2005. This is getting to be a habit.
There's another way to look at this phenomenon. Both the 802D and 800 Diamond could play at very high levels without distress, but I found I could play the 800 at much higher levels without evoking any listener stress. The 802D seemed to have a slight built-in "loudness compensation" that tipped up both the upper-bass and mid-treble; while that was warmly pleasant at normal listening levels, at much higher levels it sounded somewhat overwhelming. Strangely, the larger 800 Diamond had less artificial "authority" at all levels, while lacking nothing in terms of power, impact, bass extension,…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way, vented-box, floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" (25mm) diamond-dome tweeter, 6" (160mm) woven-Kevlar FST-cone midrange unit, two 10" (250mm) Rohacell-cone woofers. Crossover frequencies: 350Hz, 4kHz. Manufacturer's specifications: Frequency range: –6dB at 25Hz and 33kHz. Frequency response: 32Hz–28kHz, ±3dB on reference axis. Dispersion: within 2dB of on-axis response over 60° (horizontal) and 10° (vertical) arcs. Sensitivity: 90dB SPL (2.83V/m). Harmonic distortion (second and third harmonics, 90dB, 1m): <1.0%, 45Hz–100kHz;…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Sony XA-5400ES SACD/CD player, Oppo BDP-83SE universal Blu-ray player.
Preamplification: Parasound JC2 BP, Classé CT-SSP surround-sound processor, Meridian HD621 HDMI audio processor & 861 Reference v4/V6 digital surround controllers.
Power Amplifiers: McIntosh MC303 (three-channel), Bel Canto Design REF1000mkII (monoblocks).
Loudspeakers: B&W 802D, Canton Reference 3.2 DC, Revel Ultima/2 Studio.
Cables: Digital: Black Cat Veloce. Interconnect: van den Hul Flat 180, AudioQuest Vodka HDMI, AudioQuest Cheetah balanced…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the B&W 800 Diamond's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield responses. For logistical reasons, the loudspeaker I measured was not one of the samples auditioned by Kal Rubinson. My estimate of the B&W's sensitivity was 90.2dB(B)/2.83V/m, which is within experimental error of the specified 90dB. This is higher than average, but is offset by the fact that the speaker's impedance drops below 4 ohms for most of the midrange and some of the bass…
Dear weblog,
On Friday, we managed to successfully release to pre-press the final pieces of our July 2011 issue; and it was only three weeks ago that we finished shipping our June issue. On top of the pressure of such a short production cycle, we also felt the effects of attending, over the course of just two weeks, both the Salon Son et Image in Montreal and Axpona in Atlanta. It’s been a busy and exhausting month. On the positive side, it seems that the economy is taking a turn for the better. We see this in the sudden spring of hi-fi shows, but also in the increasing size of our…
On Friday, we managed to successfully release to pre-press the final pieces of our July 2011 issue; and it was only three weeks ago that we finished shipping our June issue. On top of the pressure of such a short production cycle, we also felt the effects of attending, over the course of just two weeks, both the Salon Son et Image in Montreal and Axpona in Atlanta. It’s been a busy and exhausting month. On the positive side, it seems that the economy is taking a turn for the better. We see this in the sudden spring of hi-fi shows, but also in the increasing size of our…
On Friday night, we raced over to the bamboo-walled, lava-lit, animal-printed freak show that is Otto’s Shrunken Head on East 14th Street, between Avenues A and B, where John Atkinson would join pianist Bob Reina, drummer Mark Flynn, bassist Chris Jones, and trumpeter Liam Sillery for two sets of fully improvised, often beautiful soundscapes.
I’ve never seen John Atkinson move the way he moved on Friday night. The man was deep in the zone, possessed by the grooves, his fingers blazing trails in space, racing back twenty and thirty years and more to a time when, as a member of a touring…
Henry Rollins: Audiophile. In a blog for the LA Weekly, Henry Rollins describes the pleasure of listening to music through his Wilson Audio Sophia 3 loudspeakers. Photo: Maura Lanahan.
It’s tough being an audiophile. Tell someone you like high-quality sound and they might look at you like you’re an alien. We forget that hi-fi used to be the coolest endeavor in town. Look at black-and-white advertisements from decades ago and you’ll see handsome men, surrounded by enormous loudspeakers, massive tube amplifiers, LPs tossed about like useless clothes and knotted bed sheets, gorgeous women…
Letters in response appeared in the June and July 2011 issues:
The upward price spiral
Editor: In John Atkinson's very appropriate column on "The Upward Price Spiral" of audio gear ("As We See It," April 2011), he seemed to accept the inevitability of growing income inequality, although, to be fair, he did not seem to feel it was necessarily a good thing. There is certainly a lot of merit in his solution: that companies continue to make quality products at an affordable price. Certainly, from my point of view, there is no need to apologize for reviewing $300 speakers. When I still…
I’d like to give you a tour of my listening room. Please excuse the mess. I’ve been evaluating cables.
Because all the new LPs had started to take over the apartment, I was forced to do some rearranging. Over the last couple of weekends, I’ve managed to shape some order into my listening room. And order is very important to me. When my home is messy, my soul feels messy; and, when my soul feels messy, I become grouchy, lethargic, and I can’t get anything done.
A couple of other things have inspired this post. First, recent visits to friends’ warm and lovely apartments had me…