B&W Owners Thread

I've never owned a pair of speakers I could bi-wire before my CDM1s, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I was not impressed.
 
Just got a pair of 805N speakers. Using them in main system replacing PMC TB2i which will now do duty as my office speakers. A quick review: The PMC were awesome, everything I wanted. Then I put in the B&W to compare and everything sort of opened up. The sense of sounds coming from speaker boxes was gone - I didn't notice it was there before - the area where the speakers are located is full of sound. Up, down, left, right and forward and back. It is impressive. The speakers are mounted in the exact same spot on the same stands etc. I did not notice too much in terms of sound difference from low freq to high although the B&W are rated a tad lower. Both the B&W and PMC have very nice highs, but there is a mid spot where I believe I can hear a more warmth with the B&Ws.
 
Yes, I'm sure. The Matrix series was the direct descendant of the original 801s and were followed by the Nautilus series. The DM (stands for Digital Monitor) series was designed by B&W to provide the budget listener with sound as close to the TOTL speakers at an affordable price.

A little Googling would take you a long way towards understanding the B&W speaker line

Good point on Matrix and Nautilus being elite lines of speakers compared to the DM line, (although some DM speakers have been pretty expensive). The DM series actually goes back to the pre-digital 1960's, and stands for Domestic Monitors, as noted here. I'm listening to jazz on my early 70's DM4's right now and loving it.
 
I have the 805D2 with a REL S/2 Sub in the main room. They check all the boxes for me. The folks at Steyning definitely know what they are doing. I also have CM5s in another room.

 
LOL!!! The DM series is the budget series,Matrix, top of the line.
Love my DM-14's, definite keepers! As pointed out these were considered cheap in the early 80's. (If you had alot of money! :)
Fantastic teak cabinet and very heavy for their size. Unique sound, don't need the equalizer box that many matrix speakers had in the day
similar to Bose 901's. I almost bought some Matrix ?801's? a couple of years ago but did not see enough gains for the cash vs what I am running.
I remember they sold and the dealer was laughing about the buyer leaving the box behind. Told me they would not sound good without.
Please correct me if I am wrong. I did enjoy those, quite good.
I do not consider vintage DM's budget speakers! Now sparkomatic.....:)
 
How much power do DM602's need to sound nice?
As a point of ref, my Infinity Column II's don't need a lot.
I would think you have enough power on hand with your SA 9500 for them to sound decent. However, more is definitely better. I'm feeding my CDM-1s 200wpc of high current power and it really woke them up. Good stands are an absolute must also!
 
Love my DM-14's, definite keepers! As pointed out these were considered cheap in the early 80's. (If you had alot of money! :)
Fantastic teak cabinet and very heavy for their size. Unique sound, don't need the equalizer box that many matrix speakers had in the day
similar to Bose 901's. I almost bought some Matrix ?801's? a couple of years ago but did not see enough gains for the cash vs what I am running.
I remember they sold and the dealer was laughing about the buyer leaving the box behind. Told me they would not sound good without.
Please correct me if I am wrong. I did enjoy those, quite good.
I do not consider vintage DM's budget speakers! Now sparkomatic.....:)
I came very, very close to buying a pair of those DM-14s. Great looking speakers that have a great rep.

BTW--According to Ken Rockwell, only the Matrix 805 used the equalizer and that because it gave extended bass and smoother upper end to a speaker that was already well above the competition. The Matrix 805 doesn't need the equalizer to sound superb. It's addition merely improves the sound...a comprehensive review.
B&W Matrix 805
Sixth-Order Monitor (1990-1997)


and from Stereophile:
B&W Matrix 805 loudspeaker

S
ince Harbeths and the like are pretty much beyond any foreseeable ability for me to purchase, I suspect a pair of Matrix 805s will be my ultimate goal (unless I stumble across a pair of Matrix 801s being sold for a song...not very likely
 
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Love my DM-14's, definite keepers! As pointed out these were considered cheap in the early 80's. (If you had alot of money! :)
Fantastic teak cabinet and very heavy for their size. Unique sound, don't need the equalizer box that many matrix speakers had in the day
similar to Bose 901's. I almost bought some Matrix ?801's? a couple of years ago but did not see enough gains for the cash vs what I am running.
I remember they sold and the dealer was laughing about the buyer leaving the box behind. Told me they would not sound good without.
Please correct me if I am wrong. I did enjoy those, quite good.
I do not consider vintage DM's budget speakers! Now sparkomatic.....:)
It would be interesting to compare the B&W DM14 to KEF 103.2, another excellent speaker from the same era. I have owned the 103.2 but not the DM14, nor have I heard them.
 
It would be interesting to compare the B&W DM14 to KEF 103.2, another excellent speaker from the same era. I have owned the 103.2 but not the DM14, nor have I heard them.

Just mail them to me, I'll let you know............:)
Checks in the mail.....
I've not had the opportunity to hear many KEF, but liked what I have found.
 
Just mail them to me, I'll let you know............:)
Checks in the mail.....
I've not had the opportunity to hear many KEF, but liked what I have found.
I would of course send you the KEF 103.2 free of charge, but I foolishly sold them last year. Not my best audio move.... I'm keeping an eye out for another pair, as well as the B&W DM14. I have a pair of B&W DM4, which I love, and a pair of DM550 which I found at a rummage sale ($20 because someone had brush painted them white) which will probably go to my son.
 
I would of course send you the KEF 103.2 free of charge, but I foolishly sold them last year. Not my best audio move.... I'm keeping an eye out for another pair, as well as the B&W DM14. I have a pair of B&W DM4, which I love, and a pair of DM550 which I found at a rummage sale ($20 because someone had brush painted them white) which will probably go to my son.

Yeah, I've made so many mistakes selling when I just felt overcrowded that I look back on and kick myself.
Almost sold the B&W's, but the appearance on top of the sound luckily stopped me.
 
I've had a succession of mid-range B&W bookshelf speakers in my main stereo setup for the better part of the past 20 years. For many years I had CDM-1SEs. Then I got a deal on a pair of CDM-1NTs, and soon after finally found an affordable pair of 705s (and sold the 1NTs for what I'd paid for them, which was nice).

I think the 705s are criminally underrated. It's well-acknowledged that they're excellent imagers, but the knock on them is that they're too laid back or dry sounding. And certainly, they will not satisfy anyone looking for a noticeably warm or retro/vintage voicing. But I think they're exceedingly clean, and have a shocking amount of bass extension for their size and price point. I know I could do better - but only for about triple (or more) what I paid for them. If someone told me I had to keep these speakers for the rest of my life, I would not be unhappy.
 
I have a pair of Matrix 801 S3 which I bought slightly used for a lot of $$$ about 20 years ago. I drive them with an Audio Research SP-6B preamp, and a Mondial/Aragon 4004 amp.

They are fantastic speakers, and I don't see how how I could improve things for a reasonable amount of money.

But I'm an audio nut and am currently playing around with a pair of Infinity Reference Standard RS1s, and though they sound big, impressive and detailed, they ultimately aren't as musical as the 801s. I really can't keep both pairs of speakers, so I'll have to sell one of them.
 
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