sjc@fmg.bt.co.uk (Steve Colwill) (10/19/90)
ed@maxed.amg.com (Ed Whittemore) writes: >In article <6966@uwm.edu> Daniel_Rai@ub.cc.umich.edu writes: >> RE: B&W Bashing >> --------------- >> After all the fanfare and rave reviews, I was dying to >> be blown away by the $5500/pair. >> >> Store 1: Denon CD (no vinyl), Adcom electronics >> Blurry image, confused transients, nasal, boxy, >> hollow, in a word - irritating. The eager salesperson > >I have heard the 801s sound very good with ARC electronics-- >SP15-II, Classic 60--and Sota Cosmos/SME V/Carnegie 2; don't remember >the cables. > >They threw a convincing soundstage with real depth, excellent >instrument localization, width well outside the speakers, and >less height than I would have hoped for. > >As others have noted, the 801s have a rich, warm sound, which >is especially pleasing with strings, massed or solo--you can >almost smell the rosin on the bow. > >The Mac and Adcom electronics don't do these speakers justice, I guess. I run 801s each driven by a Musical Fidelity (British Fidelity?) A372 power amp. I use one channel of the amp to drive the woofer and the other to drive the head assembly. The inputs to the amps are bridged. The side of each amp that drives the head assembly I have had more heavily biassed into Class A operation on the basis that less current needs to be delivered. The amps are connected to the speakers by very short runs of Van den Hul MC2 with each unit bi-wired. The transient attack and power of this arrangement is frightening. Sounds are produced that make you spill your coffee. I can only describe the treatment of source material as violent (and highly critical). Stereo imaging and soundstage are dramatic on opera particularly. There is at least one defect - a tendency to be harsh on female voice. As remarked above strings are rosinous and woody. Drums are convincingly membranous. When auditioning speakers I was considering the Apogee Calipers and they had this latter quality in full measure. It was very attractive. I spent two weeks in home demo trying to convince myself to buy them. In the end, the excessive fragility of these speakers tipped the balance against them. I am considering the known defect in terms of revising the front-end, this is the subject of another posting. Steve Colwill BT Research UK