materials, weight, looks, sound

lack of bass, price

I bought these loudspeakers one year ago together with Marantz PM-66SE integrated amplifier and Marantz CD-48 cd player. At first they sound a bit dull but with warming up they got better. I had to invest in a proper stands for better sound. My opinion is that it very depends on the equipment you`re using, how they will respond. In my case I noticed a lack of bass when I was listening some hard rock music. Maybe is my integrated amplifier or cd the cause. As I read previous review these speakers were used with high range equipment, not with budget one`s like mine.
When I was listening to the classical or acoustic music the speakers respond very well. But I still believe that the catch is in my amp. In the future I will buy an active subwoofer and I hope for more...
I`m a casual listener and I don`t know if my equipment match ? Maybe that`s the main problem !

Beautiful midrange, suprisingly extended bass, good looking, drop dead looks at this price point, incredible imaging (at the cost of the bass response).

Careful system matching a must, slow bass rolloff makes subwoofer integration difficult, a tad tizzy at times in the upper treble, and lower treble frequencies get fatiguing quickly if you use crap electronics

I'm a college student, so when I went shopping for speakers a year ago, I decided it would be best to go for broke on the electronics then, and save money on a good pair of monitors that I could later upgrade. Well, two years have gone by and I haven't had any regrets of my purchase. These speakers are really quite superb, but they can take a while to shine.

The difficult thing, first off, is the break in. I ran these babies at one watt power (in my room, about 88 db from listening chair) for probably two months straight. I never thought the grain that the speakers presented in the upper bass and lower treble would EVER go away. But then, one day, I can home and it was like a vail had been lifted. I DO think it also had something to do with the new cables being broken in, but nevertheless, it sounded AMAZING.

The second difficult point they presented was placement. Left to right placement in my room is easy: One wall is covered with books, the other with PVC blinds. Front to back, however, proves trickier. At first, I ran these babies without a sub. But as I found myself pulling them farther and farther from the wall in search of that great monitor imaging, I started to kiss the bass goodbye. It was time for a sub. I chose a sub from B&W, purely for matching's sake. Viva la diference! The funny thing is, if you turn off my speakers and leave the sub on, I've only barely got it turned on. But it does definitely add the reinforcement that they needed! The sub placement took forever because the speakers roll off slower away from the wall, but it was worth it.

All in all, these are a great buy. I definitely recommend these to anyone looking for a speaker under $500 dollars. Just let 'em break in. It's definitely worth the wait.

Equipment:
Rotel 985BX Integrated Amp
Marantz 6000OSE CD Player
Rotel 940 Tuner
B&W ASW1000 subwoofer
Tara Labs RSC Prime, Homegrown Silver, and Audioquest Turquiose interconnects
Tara Labs RSC Prime Bi-Wire speaker cable

Similar Products Used:

B&W 302's, B&W 803's (my reference), Paradigm, PSB, Tannoy

Bought 4 of these babies and a CC6 and Paradigm subwoofer in January. I love them. I listened to a lot of what was available in its class. I found all theothers one dimensional. I flipped over the imaging in these speakers. I felt that there was nothing in the price range that compared.
I've been very very satisfied with my purchase and would buy them today.

Just a thought: I bought the 601's. I'm not sure what the "S2" designation
here means. I'm wondering if "601 S2" is a new model.

The B&W 601's were are great speaker, the 601 S2 series follows that tradition, I just bought a pair of these ($225 at Sound Advice on Memorial Weekend Sale) and I could'nt be happier. I compared the 601S2's with everthing they carried in the $200-$400 price range and I felt the B&W's produced a more rounded, subtle sound than everything else I auditioned.

After auditioning all the speakers in this price range I could think of (paradigm, psb, nht, mission, etc. ), I concluded that the 601 S2's had the best impact on my listening experience. The sound must be characterized as smooth.
The paradigms and psb's had deeper bass: the nht's had a tad more precision: and the missions sounded thin. I greatly enjoyed listening to the B&W's more than the others. The experience was more esoteric than I had anticipated, and I began to feel and hear the music, instead of focussing on the speaker reproducing the music.

The 601 S2 brings the best elements of all the speakers in its price range into one package, and transplants the listener to an unparalleled listening experience, right in the middle of the recording studio or live performance.

Bravo.

Life like mids and highs, great natural bass for a bookshelf speaker

NONE

This speaker I didn't like at first, It had that natural tonal balance I wasn't use to, they took about 6 to 18 hours to break in. Now I love them. Sarah Brightman's voice really comes to life, Santana's drums sound like real live drums just not as loud of course. I highly recommend this speaker if you want something for the bedroom or a smaller room. I've always liked B&W's quality and warranties they’re five years, excellent craftsmanship.
MY system:
Harman/kardon PT 2500 pre-amp
Adcom GFA 2535 (two 535’s in one)
Sony 5 disk CD carasol (c-265)
Audio Magic Spellcaster 8’ single run connected to B&W DM 601 S2
DCM CX-17 using regular oxygen free copper speaker cables

Similar Products Used:

DCM CX-17

Exellent mid and hi frequency response, imaging, top flight mid-woofer and tweeter

lack if deep bass, light weight construction

I have these speakers setup in a patched together system at my lake home and so far I have been very pleased with their performance. I hear things with these speakers that I never noticed on my home stereo in the high frequency area, I don't know if is room dynamics or just the difference in speakers, but in any event, these little guys are very revealing. They do lack somewhat in the deep bass area but you can still follow a bass line and they have never sounded shallow or straining to produce something they can't produce at reasonable levels. I do perfer them to the Paradigm Mini Monitors my daughter has in her room, although both speakers are good values. Two thumbs up for the 601 S2.

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm mini monitor

Very nice with voices-pretty amazing actually

Bass perhaps a bit weak, but well extended.
B&W price fixing in UK.

They really do sound very nice, but audition first.

Great midrange and soundstage

bass is lacking

Great sounding speakers. I have owned about 6 pairs of speaker in the past including the NHT superones and these speakers are the best that I have own so far. Warm sounding midrange and expansive soundstage. Highly recommended.

Similar Products Used:

Mirage, NHT, Polk

practicality

thin-sounding @times

i would say they'd be a good investment for home theatre
purposes; exceptional. i'm listening to a DVD player for
the best CD sound though i'm really not interested in an
h.t. system. there are more versatile, and at that better-
soundind-for-the money bookshelf monitors out there.


still searching! system:SONY S500 DVD
NAD 302 integ. amp
b&ws w/biwire

Similar Products Used:

psb alpha (220bucks)