Guess what's in the back of Chris's truck

[Marvel]

Actually, the new "D" series of the 801's is what is ised in teh Abbey Road recording studio along with D800's.

They use Yamaha NS10s as well, so it balances out. They don't list 800s at all, only the 801s.

Bruce

[tigerwoodKhorns]

Very nice. A tad more power hungry then your Klipsch me thinks. Congrats.

Thanks. I am floored. They sound awesome. I will not go into a review unless asked to do so, but I could never tweak a pair of speakers to this level.

I have a 550 wpc QSC amp on the way. I am thinking that I will Bi-amp them with 200 wpc on top and 550 wpc for the bass.

Chris

Chris,

Consider, please, this a request to review them. What's your take on the sound?

Dee,

I just hooked them up to a "low powered amp" that I was using to drive the B&W DM3000's (another awesome pair of speakers), placed them in a spot that looked good and listened. I used source material that I am very familiar with, Crime of the Century, Rumors, Aja, Elton John Greatest 1 and 2.

They did not sound a world apart from the K Horns. Im my opinion, they do sound better, but not worlds apart, but read on. The soundstage is very wide and big, like my old K Horns, but it is also deeper. There seemed to be more detail, not way more, but definately more. I heard things that I never heard before in the recordings, which is unusual comming from K Horns. There also seemed to be more precision in the placement of instruments. You can place them in a certain area, but the border of the area that they exist in seems more defined. This is added to a more three dimensional soundstage. The bass is just as tight as the horns, not flabby at all. Midrange is outstanding and lifelike. I noticed that going into different rooms, the sound is still great. My wife said that she could hear the piano and it sounded very good - through the floor of our bedroom! I also noticed that the sweet spot is all over. Imaging changes some from the primo sweet spot (which is very wide), but is still really there. I moved directly in front of one speaker and the imaging was still very good. The speakers still dissapeared and I coudl place the instruments.

The funky head and rounded speaker shape are functional and do work. They are supposed to divert away any waves that would bounce off of the enclosure and they definately do. The reason that I know is that behind the speakers, behind them, they sound full and very good. I am very pleased.

Here is the part that will be tough. My K Horns had every advantage. They had false corners and were placed in the right spot that took me a while to find, they were tri-amped using a very expensive Yamaha D2040 dividing network, they had digital amps for the tweeter and swuaker and a 200 wpc QSC for the woofer. They were also fed from a loaded upsampled AH! CD player with Amperex PQ white labels or from a Benchmark DAC1, and they had a Juicy Music Peach preamp, all of this with power conditioning.

The B&W's are just thrown in a spot and fed from a $50 Toshiba DVD player as a transport, a way underpowered amp (for the B&W's) and a Sony digital receiver that while very good, does not sound right on my Belles compared to the Peach, and no power conditioning. I am very impressed with the Sony, but it just isn't as good as the Peach with the Belles. The Sony's imaging is not as good, not as precise, soundstage not as deep, etc .

So that's my take on them. The B&W's, untrained and not in fighing shape at all can take down the mighty K Horns in their top fighting condition. Sorry...

Dean,

Yes, this is what happens after tri-amping. Actually, I was thinking about your journey and decided not to get rid of my current K Horn project. After buying your new K Horns you tweaked them to the end of the earth. I realize that I will not get that bug out of my system and need to keep the K Horns (or at least build them). There is no way to tweak the B&W's as they have been engineered like crazy. I think that I will go through teh K Horn project and them sell if I find that I never listen to them.

I'll post some pics tonight.

Chris

[tigerwoodKhorns]

Very nice. A tad more power hungry then your Klipsch me thinks. Congrats.

Thanks. I am floored. They sound awesome. I will not go into a review unless asked to do so, but I could never tweak a pair of speakers to this level.

I have a 550 wpc QSC amp on the way. I am thinking that I will Bi-amp them with 200 wpc on top and 550 wpc for the bass.

Chris

Chris,

Consider, please, this a request to review them. What's your take on the sound?

Dee,

I just hooked them up to a "low powered amp" that I was using to drive the B&W DM3000's (another awesome pair of speakers), placed them in a spot that looked good and listened. I used source material that I am very familiar with, Crime of the Century, Rumors, Aja, Elton John Greatest 1 and 2.

They did not sound a world apart from the K Horns. Im my opinion, they do sound better, but not worlds apart, but read on. The soundstage is very wide and big, like my old K Horns, but it is also deeper. There seemed to be more detail, not way more, but definately more. I heard things that I never heard before in the recordings, which is unusual comming from K Horns. There also seemed to be more precision in the placement of instruments. You can place them in a certain area, but the border of the area that they exist in seems more defined. This is added to a more three dimensional soundstage. The bass is just as tight as the horns, not flabby at all. Midrange is outstanding and lifelike. I noticed that going into different rooms, the sound is still great. My wife said that she could hear the piano and it sounded very good - through the floor of our bedroom! I also noticed that the sweet spot is all over. Imaging changes some from the primo sweet spot (which is very wide), but is still really there. I moved directly in front of one speaker and the imaging was still very good. The speakers still dissapeared and I coudl place the instruments.

The funky head and rounded speaker shape are functional and do work. They are supposed to divert away any waves that would bounce off of the enclosure and they definately do. The reason that I know is that behind the speakers, behind them, they sound full and very good. I am very pleased.

Here is the part that will be tough. My K Horns had every advantage. They had false corners and were placed in the right spot that took me a while to find, they were tri-amped using a very expensive Yamaha D2040 dividing network, they had digital amps for the tweeter and swuaker and a 200 wpc QSC for the woofer. They were also fed from a loaded upsampled AH! CD player with Amperex PQ white labels or from a Benchmark DAC1, and they had a Juicy Music Peach preamp, all of this with power conditioning.

The B&W's are just thrown in a spot and fed from a $50 Toshiba DVD player as a transport, a way underpowered amp (for the B&W's) and a Sony digital receiver that while very good, does not sound right on my Belles compared to the Peach, and no power conditioning. I am very impressed with the Sony, but it just isn't as good as the Peach with the Belles. The Sony's imaging is not as good, not as precise, soundstage not as deep, etc .

So that's my take on them. The B&W's, untrained and not in fighing shape at all can take down the mighty K Horns in their top fighting condition. Sorry...

Dean,

Yes, this is what happens after tri-amping. Actually, I was thinking about your journey and decided not to get rid of my current K Horn project. After buying your new K Horns you tweaked them to the end of the earth. I realize that I will not get that bug out of my system and need to keep the K Horns (or at least build them). There is no way to tweak the B&W's as they have been engineered like crazy. I think that I will go through teh K Horn project and them sell if I find that I never listen to them.

I'll post some pics tonight.

Chris

[jacksonbart]

How about some pictures of that Jag

[tigerwoodKhorns]

How about some pictures of that Jag

Send me an email with your email address and I'll forward an email.

[tillmbil]

Wow, those are sweet. I have been wanting to hear a pair or possibly buy a pair. The only problem is the size and weight . Geez those are big. The K Horns weigh less. I even bought an amp for a pair of B&W's. I got the new MC402, that should be able to handle them.

Better than the Klipsch...Must be nice to have those and KHorns sitting around. Steely Dan must sound great through those.

[J M O N]

... I made a round trip to LA today and just got back...

You drove all the way to LA and didn't bring those Walnut Oiled Belles with you????

[]

[tigerwoodKhorns]

Wow, those are sweet. I have been wanting to hear a pair or possibly buy a pair. The only problem is the size and weight . Geez those are big. The K Horns weigh less. I even bought an amp for a pair of B&W's. I got the new MC402, that should be able to handle them.

Better than the Klipsch...Must be nice to have those and KHorns sitting around. Steely Dan must sound great through those.

They are actually smaller than K horns, they just weigh more. They have built in casters and actually are a little taller than Belles but narrower. The 802's are much narrower and are actually more recommended for home use. How much power does the McIntosh amp have?

Just so that I am not taken the wrong way, the Klipsch are outstanding and not that far off from these as I have them set up right now. And maybe it is the newness of these, I'm trying to keep an open mind, but they just perform so well with so little, it is very impressive.

I sold my K Horns but an thinking that I may still complete my modified K Horn project and keep them side by side.

Chris

[tigerwoodKhorns]

... I made a round trip to LA today and just got back...

You drove all the way to LA and didn't bring those Walnut Oiled Belles with you????

[]

LOL. I was thinking about you when I was going out there. I spoke to the guy Sunday morning for the first time, discussed and made the deal by about 10:30. I was on teh road by noon and back at 11PM. It was a busy day. But hey, not you have a reason to take a day trip to Vegas. [<)]

[tillmbil]

OK, two pair of B& W's, you have tweaked my interest but hopefully not my wallet yet.

The MC402 is 400wpc, two channel with the new front and nice blue meters. Bought it becasue the deal was to good to pass up, but isn't that alwasy the story? They are from McIntosh after one trade show.

I Would love to hear more evaluations as you continue to adjust to the new sound.

Happy listening

[J M O N]

LOL. I was thinking about you when I was going out there. I spoke to the guy Sunday morning for the first time, discussed and made the deal by about 10:30. I was on teh road by noon and back at 11PM. It was a busy day. But hey, not you have a reason to take a day trip to Vegas. [<)]

Actually, we do go there on occasion as the wife's brother and family live out there, so it's usually for an entire weekend.

Nice speakers by the way -- forgot to mention that before. B&W are one of the brands that I always used to lust after (Klipsch was another one of course). The one's I've always remembered were those huge Matrix 800 (I think that was the number) -- strange shaped and stood about 6' tall.

[MarkBK]

Congrats! A truly awesome speaker. The 800 series midrange is simply amazing. I do think the engineering B&W invests into the 800 series is hard for anyone to best. When I returned the 805S - I spent sometime with the salesman discussing the 800 series - plan on going back for a serious hour or so of auditioning soon. While there, he had a tweeter driver out of the new Diamond series that a customer's kids had trashed. The diamond tweeter is paper thin and is a single synthetic diamond formed under extreme pressure and heat - only 6 pairs per day can be made. A marvel in audio engineering!

Enjoy them!

[TheSoundBroker]

N801's are hit and miss in my book. I had a pair traded in a few years back and we did absolutely everything we could to make them sound good, all the way up thru biamping them with absolutely massive power amps (Theta Citadels and Bryston 7BSST's...the Brystons sounded better). I could just NEVER get that speaker to sound good no matter what we did to them...and every other speaker sounded amazing in our old demo room (back in California before I became a refugee and fled the state). I ended up hating them and dumping them for less than I gave on trade just to get them out of the store. On the other hand, I have clients with identical sets/series and they sounded great...totally happy.

I do know they crave MASSIVE horsepower...two sets of kilowatt+ amps, biamped on them aren't out of the question. There are guys talking about buying twin pairs of the new Bryston 28BSST 1200 watt monoblocks to run them because they suck up horsepower like there is absolutely no tomorrow.

[tigerwoodKhorns]

N801's are hit and miss in my book. I had a pair traded in a few years back and we did absolutely everything we could to make them sound good, all the way up thru biamping them with absolutely massive power amps (Theta Citadels and Bryston 7BSST's...the Brystons sounded better). I could just NEVER get that speaker to sound good no matter what we did to them...and every other speaker sounded amazing in our old demo room (back in California before I became a refugee and fled the state). I ended up hating them and dumping them for less than I gave on trade just to get them out of the store. On the other hand, I have clients with identical sets/series and they sounded great...totally happy.

I do know they crave MASSIVE horsepower...two sets of kilowatt+ amps, biamped on them aren't out of the question. There are guys talking about buying twin pairs of the new Bryston 28BSST 1200 watt monoblocks to run them because they suck up horsepower like there is absolutely no tomorrow.

What didn't work right or what were they missing? What source were you using? These things are like horns and you can really hear all of the crap in the recordings. MAybe more so than with horns. I notice on CD's that the hiss at the beginning of songs is much louder.

The thing that I think is interesting is how much they remind me of K Horns. They are very revealing and detailed and people either swear they are the greatest thing ever or they absolutely hate them (K Horns and the B&W's). I get a sort of Deja Vu when listening to them because they remind me so much of my old K Horns after I had them really tricked out. I remember my mother in law comming over and when she heard my K Horns saying "Wow, you can really hear the instruments." The B&W's have a clarity in the midrange that is unreal. But I remember my K Horns sounding very good in the mids tri-amped with a digital amp for mids.

I know that I have said this many times, but I have all of the parts to

build a set of K Horns with a factory Speakerlab bass bin and false corners, JBL 2470 mids and Altec 511 horns and JBL 2404's. I think that

I will build them so that I can compare the two sounds. These will be tri-amped with a crown for tweeters, Wright SET's for midrange and the QSC 200 wpc for bass. If these are better than my old K Horns, they should be extremely close to the B&W's.

You are definately right about the power. I just hooked up a 550 wpc QSC and it got used up pretty quickly (but I honestly cannot bear to turn it up to get too close to clipping so I guess its plenty of power). I am going to try bi-amping with my other 200 wpc QSC.

This whole exercise remonds me of buying a Corvette and blueprinting the engine, changing heads and valvetrain and adding a supercharger and tricking out the suspension or buying a Ferrari. Which performs better?

Chris

[tigerwoodKhorns]

Congrats! A truly awesome speaker. The 800 series midrange is simply amazing. I do think the engineering B&W invests into the 800 series is hard for anyone to best. When I returned the 805S - I spent sometime with the salesman discussing the 800 series - plan on going back for a serious hour or so of auditioning soon. While there, he had a tweeter driver out of the new Diamond series that a customer's kids had trashed. The diamond tweeter is paper thin and is a single synthetic diamond formed under extreme pressure and heat - only 6 pairs per day can be made. A marvel in audio engineering!

Enjoy them!

I have the N801's. $16K is too rich for my blood. My seller told me that his kid did the same thing to a pair of 802's that he had and not to touch the tweeter diaphragm.

Chris