adam.ribbands

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
1.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $0.00 from martins

Summary:
A good pair of speakers for the money. they deliver a huge soundstage that fills the room, crisp highs, smooth mids and a good punchy bass line. If you are the casual type listner who respects superb sound, I would highly recomend these.

Strengths:
treble, highly efficient (best I have ever heard), good bass

Weaknesses:
not great in a bigger room, need expensive one collum stands

Similar Products Used:
B&W dm600/ 601s, Kef, gale, mission, acoustic solutions

RocknRum

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Price Paid:  $600.00 from CAM

Summary:
You can't go wrong for the money. These put out a lot of sound and are good enough to fill a good size room. They are good with loud rock or mellow music.
So I guess you could say they are versatile. Definetly better than any floorstander I heard in that pricerange. In a good sized room I would use a good active subwoofer. I like lots of bass. In a smaller room a sub wouldn't be needed. Some people might think they don't need a bass boost . They are close to correct. They are punchy and the upper range is really good also. A poor recording will be really noticeable but so will a good one. So play good ones. I have two old Celestion woofers hooked up to crossovers in paralell with these. I am powering that configuration with a Kenwood KR-9600 200wpc receiver. (4 ohm load).
This setup works good. Super loud at 1/3 volume. I will keep these speakers for a long time. I am pretty picky about sound and believe me if these didn't sound good, I wouldn't hesitate to say so. I'm impressed with these.

Strengths:
Nice hookup terminals
Clear sound and pretty strong bass for a bookshelf.

Weaknesses:
None at this price range except maybe cosmetic design. But who cares about that,the sound is all that counts.

Similar Products Used:
Celestion 1's and 3's
Mission 70's

ryandunk12345

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
4.29 of 5, 7.00 votes

Price Paid:  $500.00 from eBay

Summary:
I love this set of speakers. I drive these speakers with a Rotel RB-1050, a truly wonderful combination! These speakers are an incredible bargain. I doubt that for 500$ you could do any better than this pair of B&W's! They are wonderfully musical, yet uncolored and very detailed. They produce some incredibly believable sound, before these started to break in - they sounded dull, however after about two weeks, they really started to open up, and they just keep sounding better and better. These have incredibly detailed & accurate reproduction, no noticeable coloration. They sound great for anything you could possibly imagine - great for video games & movies, yet still sound wonderful for music. I've got no complaints about these speakers, I'd have to say that these speakers could easily rival speakers costing twice as much, maybe a little more, grab a pair - as they're not manufactured anymore - there is nothing that dissapoints about these speakers. In addition, I've got a VMPS Larger subwoofer, which handles frequencies 80Hz and below, the rest is given to the B&W's. They have plenty of authority - you can crank these things WAY up - and I even find that I like the sound better when it's a bit louder, they seem to sound better when they're turned up - but at the same time - they're delicate enough to handle classical music - and have a beautiful soundstage and a wonderfully sweet sound! A truly great bargain.

Strengths:
Wonderfully sweet sounding, uncolored, they're incredibly easy to listen to, they sound fantastic nomatter what you are doing - movies , games, etc, they're great for anything. Wonderfully detailed, accurate sound. I'd have to say - you'd be hard pressed to do any better for under 1000$

Weaknesses:
None.

Similar Products Used:
Wharfedale, PSB, Dahlquist, Renkus, VMPS.

spocko

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 3.00 votes

Price Paid:  $500.00 from hudson's audio albuq

Summary:
I bought these speakers used @ $500.00/PR. in Jan. 2006. They just keep sounding better and better... And with their 7" Kevlar Driver, Bass Flow Port and large cabinet, they think they're large floorstanders...Except for a very few (lfe), low frequency efects on some dvd 5.1 movies, I don't need a sub... In fact, I had a sub, the ASW600 and took it back... The 602s rolloff at about 40-45 hz... That is plenty low enough for some startling and realistic music reproduction i n the home at this price range... The lowest note on a bass guitar is 42 hz !!!! So , unless your room is very large, say, more than 2000 cubic feet, I don't think a sub is needed. Again, maybe boom from those 5.1 LFE sounds on DVDs are important to you...
I listen to music mostly in Two Channel Direct mode on my Yammy receiver... So , no processing happens and the amps really shine as a good analog device should, pushing the 602s well into audio bliss...

Strengths:
Price vs. what you get... m


WHAT A VALUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think one would have to spend thousands of dollars more to actually hear enough of an improvement to justify the price increase... I would love to own a pair of 800 D s .... But, I would have spend another $19,000.00 instead of $500.00... May be later...

Weaknesses:



NONE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Similar Products Used:



Phase Tech, EPI, Paradigm, Polk, Mirage, Sony,

Vector research, Denon, Onkyo, Philips, Panasonic

SoundWize

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
4.47 of 5, 30.00 votes

Price Paid:  $600.00 from Absolute Sound Orlan

Summary:
I bought these speakers knowing that the new "68" series will be coming out in a few weeks... maybe in a few days. It may sound odd that I would buy these older models, let me explain. The current 600 series 3rd generation, I believe is in it's best incarnation. Instead of having a 4th generation and further building on the 600 series ie. 602 S4, the new 68 series is a complete do-over and the whole 600 series is pretty much gone including the "S".

I saw the new specs and pics at B&W's new website at bower-wilkins dot com. There's a new tweeter design but I think the nautilus tweeters on the current system to be so sweet - very hard to beat. From the specifications and predicted prices on the forums, I believe we'll be paying the same for a shift down in product line. If you are a Paradigm fan, you know all to well that when the V5 series came out, all of the models took one step back but the prices remained pretty much the same. Newer speakers, same price, but one step back.

So... the 602 S3 goes for $600. And the new 685 is predicted to be $600. The new 685 will be manufactured in China - a first for B&W. It will be 15 lbs - about 8 lbs lighter than the 602 S3. The cabinet is smaller and the mid bass driver is 6.5" rather than 7". Also the crossover will be just a single Mcap - that's it. Can't really call it a crossover in my book. All of these changes to me look like a step down and a step towards theater speakers rather than a true 2 way music speakers.

I could be completely wrong and the new 685's could be amazing. And the pricing could be completely different from what I've researched. If they are amazing and lower priced, I may consider them as a second set in my den. BUT at this point, I purchased the 602 S3 because they maybe one of the last sub $1,000 bookshelf speakers that can be truly constituted as audiophile quality. Also many dealers have depleted the 602 S3s and I didn't want to be in a situation where I had to buy the floor model or get the Sorrento color (I just like the black ones).

I've auditioned these speakers on several occasions and had a buying latitude from $500 to $1,000. Within that range I found nothing in the bookshelf realm that could surpass it. I was particularly disturbed that many people have been putting the Paradigm Titans ($500) in comparison to these. These are apple and oranges. The Paradigms with the high sensitivity and leaner bass are best for theater systems with a sub. The Titans aren't terrible speakers but they sound like the treble knob has been turned to 10. Great for movies but not really for good for music. On the day I bought the speakers, my wife happened to accompany me. She thought, hey let's save $100 and get the cheaper Paradigm Titans. Well she listened to them and the first thing she said - they sound cheap and too bright.

Even though I've had these fresh out of the box for only 2 days, they sound great already. Completely different than my Magnepans which took 3 weeks to break in.

Strengths:
Balanced. Balanced. Balanced. Not too much bass. Not too bright. It's all right in every department. They are very flexible speakers - if you like a wide range like me... jazz, classical, rock, alternative, oldies, techno, hip hop, rap, etc. these speakers can do back flips. My listening room is fairly large so I have a 12" sub running with these. My sub is set at 85HZ and volume set at slightly below the 1/4 mark. Since the these speakers have decent bass extension, the sub merges well with it. Voicing and imaging is superb.

If you have a small room, you won't need a sub. It can deliver solid bass even with the port plugged. If you have a need for a sub and have a small room, I'd recommend a sealed 10" or 8" sub.

I have a custom built McIntosh LS340 speaker set (new cabinet and revised with dual 10" drivers) - the 602 S3 with sub does 95% as well. Not bad considering the LS340's go for $5,600 a pair and with my mods, add in another $900.

Beats my Magnepan MMGs (I have a review here on these). But then again, these are apple and orange speakers. The MMGs can't be beat when listening to classical or vocal specific music.

Weaknesses:
Wish the grill or speaker box looked nicer. With the grill off, it looks cool. With the grill on, it looks like one black box. Is that really a weakness???

Similar Products Used:
Have an old pair of very low end B&W 302s that are 10+ years old. They are in my bedroom plugged to a 16x2 watt amp. They still rock and I will always keep them. I don't think they will ever konk out. They sound better today.