chowkwan%priam.usc.edu@usc.edu (Raymond Chowkwanyun) (02/21/91)
The B+W (that's Bowers & Wilkinson) 801 loudspeaker: if you listen to classical music recorded in Europe, chances are it was monitored in the recording studio with this speaker. So if we define absolute sound as what the recording engineer intended, I guess you can't get much closer than that for those recordings. It is altogether appropriate that the 801 should have become widely used as a monitor because the late John Bowers started making speakers with precisely that aim in mind, being heavily into recording himself. I believe the result is a very natural sounding speaker as opposed to the razor image/soundstage school of thought. Provocative thought: Until you've recorded, you have no idea how to judge playback equipment. The original 801 appeared about 1980, I believe and had a reputation in audiophile circles for muddy sound. The 801 Series II appeared around 1985 and immediately received accolades all around (excepting REG of TAS (that's Robert E. (sorry, don't know his middle name) Greene of The Absolute SOund)). Now, let's imitate Barbara Walters and get down home and personal. "Why", my friends ask me, "did you buy this outdated 5 year old piece of junk when much better speakers have appeared like the Hales Signature and Spendor S100?". I answer, "My first really good speaker was a B+W, the DM2, and I always just kind of wanted to have B+W again for sentimental reasons". Time out for sobbing in handkerchief. B+W 801 Speaker Mod by Van Alstine =================================== After vowing never to fall for the endless game of tinkering with my components instead of listening to the music, I find myself seriously tempted to try the Van Alstine mod to the Bowers & Wilkinson 801 Series II loudspeaker. It all sounds so simple, relocate a reluctance here, snip out a cap there, disconnect a few wires ... Has anyone tried this mod? 1) How much time did you spend? 2) How did the sound change after the mod? After some serious initial sales resistance, I may end up making this mod. But will I still respect myself the next morning? Tip for you 801 owners (I got this one from Ray Sharpe at Arcici): If you experience boominess in the bass, try putting 125 pounds of lead on top of the speaker cabinet. It'll tame that boom but you may have to get bigger amps because the bass is now so damped. (You can remove the foam from under the top cover and hide the lead under there. I find lead ingots more convenient than lead shot which is difficult to clean up if spilt. You can lay 3 25lb ingots behind the midrange/tweeter unit and 1 in front. You will need 25 lbs of shot to fill in the gaps on either side of the midrange/tweeter unit. I recommend a mixture of no 8 and 9 shot. If the shot is all the same size, it can crystallize and produce unwanted resonances. Cost is 79 cents/lb for ingots, 73cents/lb for shot.) To further tame the bass boom, put a pair of Arcici stands under the speaker, weighted down with 50lbs of gravel. Pet stores sell gravel for aquariums that has been sterilized so you don't get strange creatures crawling out of your bass port. Don't use lead under the speaker, it'll reflect the bass upwards. (Warning: this mod requires drilling etc. to install spikes under the 801. Believe me, it ain't easy turning a 100 lb speaker upside down, and right side up again when it's got lethal spikes sticking out.) -- Gondor