A 6 inch mid is always worst than 5 inch driver?I agree. I don’t get it. The bigger mid of the 801/802 are better in terms of output/distortion, but worse in terms of dispersion, and dispersion is much more important for overall sound quality.
What I want most is an 801 with 5” mid.
Hi Erin,
I’m so sorry but there’s just no way you can determine that the 803 sounds better than the 802 simply by eyeballing directivity charts, which is just one component of the spinorama and isn’t even part of the Olive regression formula. Please don’t state things matter of fact when you don’t really know.I agree. I don’t get it
What I want most is an 801 with 5” mid.
I'm not sure which is which, but the ones on the outside look quite a bit larger to me, even taking into account that they are moved a bit forward. As to the sound, I can't really hear any difference.
Weird, with my headphones I can hear a difference, however how much of that depends on the different setup I can't say.
Yes, the music selection should have been more challenging.
Yeah, I didn't use headphones, so I guess you can't go by me.
I can hear differences as well using my Sennheiser HD660. The new speaker has a clearer midrange, deeper bass, better dynamic and notes have more "harmonics" on the piano section. LOL. That is the best I can describe it. I appreciate their efforts with fast switching but I wish they played the SAME piece of music so we can do apple for apple comparison.
I think the room eats up a lot of that sound. LOL
Well, in fairness, a lot of times, the difference between high end speakers of different brands is readily apparent even on YouTube because they are designed so differently and tuned to quite different "house" sounds. Not in this case, of course, because B&W is not going to design the D4 to sound all that much different from their D3 series.
I clearly remember retailing B&W because the expectations from customers was so pre-defined and clear to themselves about B&W. The 801s and it's family sounded pretty good and the entire DM series was for nearly all the sales staff horrible but the customers wanted them and so many sales people simply gave the customers what they wanted and saved themselves the time and effort of selling product and just clerked the job. ("Clerking", is a insult to real sales people.) I sold 801s but the B&W mid priced line-up was flat and boring sounding and yet so many customers would sit there for a hour(s) trying to give themselves a reason to pull the trigger. I don't think I ever sold a B&W mid-line speaker in 9 years of retailing audio product. I took the time to introduce the customers to several different product lines, then narrow down the price range they could afford or not (...and come back another day because good customers are loyal if you show them them the good stuff and respect them rather than lay-down slam them like a shark clerk.) and play different genres of music so they could experience the speakers better. Customers bought KEF Uni-Q- and Reference series with the best warranty service, Mission, Energy, MB Quart, Infinity Kappa and mid line Infinity product, JBLs both in bookshelf and large-size floor standing stuff, Paradigm, Celestion, Polk large and small stuff, Magnat and even Yamaha NS-1000 series but not B&W from me on most any day. We would order in different brand speakers models by the thousands per full line order from small to expensive and large and so B&W had some boots to fill and for some it did.
I have not heard the latest line-up from B&W and I heard so much negativity about the, "House sound." It make me wonder if B&W has retained the same boring flat sound in mid price product.
