Clear, exact, bass response, looks

B&W won't ship speakers

I decided it was time to step up to some decent equipment so I recently invested some time and money into a new system. I have no doubt that these speakers are the best part of my system. I feel like I have a brand new CD collection. These speakers are THE best speakers in this price range. I got mine from Clarke Music near Albany New York. I got them for 551 which is pretty good. It was a pain having to drive two hours to get them but it is worth it.

Sound Staging is great
Full response range; clear highs and natural full lows.
Looks 8-}
Great speakers for the money and a small footprint

system:
Marantz SR-4000
Kimber Kable 4PR
NAD 520 CD player

Similar Products Used:

Polk, Infinity

Imaging, suprizing bass for a small speaker

none that I have found

I see some people give reviews that have only listened a day, week or a month. All people are not created equal. But if you think these speakers do not have enough bass, you should try tuning your listening area. I put room tunes panels on the walls and it made these speakers come alive. A good friend couldn't beleive what he was hearing from them. I have them biwired to a sunfire amp, adcom preamp, rotel cd player and a parasound dac, with audioquest speaker cables and connects. I still cannot believe how good they sound.

Similar Products Used:

Infinity, cambridge soundworks, Paradigm

Good low end for the size, bi wirable (haven't done it yet), crisp highs, no noticable distortion when playing heavy bass

A bit slow out for the first few hours, sweet spot can be small depending on position

I was so excited to finally get these home, and almost choked when I first heard them. Yes, they were night and day with my old technics, but man, I was expecting a LOT more. I kept trying different types of music, but nothing really seemed to shine. After about 10 hours dismal listening, I decided to take off the grills. Whoa, is that supposed to happen? I didn't notice any other review mention it, but the tweeters sounded totally different without the grills. The more I play them, the better they are sounding, especially in the lower frequencies, but I still am suprised at the differences with the grills on vs. off. I know this can be a mental/visual thing, so I've really been experimenting with my eyes closed. Still, I notice a huge difference.

These speakers are very detailed, and are revealing some bad producing on some of my older CD's. They are, though, revealing things I've never heard before, which is great. BUT, there are some things I'm not hearing anymore. Some are very subtle, but I was used to them with my old speakers. I won't blame them until I upgrade my speaker wire and reconfigure the receiver. I still have some tweaking to do, and a cable upgrade. PLUG....bettercables.com... Brad's cables are phenoms for the price. Great customer service, too...end of PLUG.

4 for value because of B&W's competition killing rules (no mail order, regional dealer retrictions.) I got these for $600 US a pair, which ain't bad to start with for this quality, but being a net junkie, I usually am able to compete equipment all around the world, and save up to 40% off retail. No such thing with B&W. Yes, they're worth it, I just know that without those B&W rules, they could be had for less.

Equipment:
Pioneer Elite VSX 26TX Receiver
Pioneer DV F727 DVD
Better Cables interconnects
Monster XP Speaker wire (soon to be Better Cables)
B&W 602 S2 Fronts
B&W LCR6 S2 Center
Altec Lansing AHT 2100 THX Surrounds

Similar Products Used:

Technic book shelf (similar?)

Metal tweeters like the Nautilus plus Kevlar cones

I use these 602's as main speakers along with 601's as rear surrounds and the LCR S2 center. They all sound great together and the more we use them the better they sound. I listened to Bostons, Paradigm, Mision, Bose, Definitive Technology, Monitor audio speakers and kept comming back to the B&W's, they just sound better. For the money along with the Denon 3600 and Sony DVP7000 DVD player the sound is full and clear.

Value, beautiful clarity

none I have encountered

I picked up the 602 S2s about 5 months ago and boy am I pleased. I did a lot of research looking at a lot of professional reveiws and the commentary posted here and narrowed down my selection. I audtioned a lot of speakers in the $500-$650 range and really felt like the B&Ws just couldn't be beat in the range. They are beautifully clear across their range and sound great on the wide range of music I listen to (from jazz to dance to early choral music to pop etc). Like any speaker this size and price you can always ask for a little more (deep bass in this case) but like I said, I don't think these speakers can be beaten by anything within 25% of their price. I love 'em

Similar Products Used:

similarly priced BA, Klipsch, Kef

Beautiful high to mid-frequencies

Need a sub. for HT

I am totally satisfied with these speakers, and they are maybe 1/2 way through their break-in period. I am re-listening to all of my jazz and classical CD's, though these sound great for the rough stuff and HT as well. I had liked the Paradigms before I tried these and the Def. Techs side by side. IMHO, both the B&W's and the Def. Techs sounded much, much better than the monitor 7's. If I needed a full range speaker, I might have gone with the Def. Techs at this price point, but I already have the Klipsch KSW-12 (which I love) and I believe that I'm getting the most for my money this way. I'm using these with a Sony STR-DB830 Receiver and Sony sources with which I am mostly satisfied, and these speakers are forgiving enough not to expose any inherent weaknesses in my system. They are a wonderful product at a very reasonable price!

Similar Products Used:

These replaced JBL G500 towers, audtioned Klipsch Reference, Paradigm Monitor 7's and Def. Tech.

see my other review

see my other review

THIS A CORRECTION FOR MY OTHER REVIEW.
THIS SITE ONLY WANTS THE COST IN (US) DOLLARS SO MY BROTHER GUESSED THE COST.

READ BELOW:


hi...
Len Wallis Audio, saleman named "Keit"
In Australian dollars they were $900 au. Which is very costly.
my brother only made a guess at what they would be in (US) dollars.
The web site for reviews makes you place a price you payed but they only except the figure in US dollars. So I think he guessed it. Sorry.
Our aussie dollar is at a all time low at about 57c to the US dollar. So I have no idea what they really cost in the united states.... Sorry if that made any confusion. If we had put $900 in the box when filling out the review form everyone would have thought it was $900 US.

Im using the 602's for my main speaker because the room is too small for the 603's. At the moment Im not using a sub woofer. I will be soon though. The bass is strange with these speakers. Some music I feel it is great, strong clear, tight, and another cd, bass is way to weak and in the background. A lot of speakers do that I thnk, it depends on the music and the room. I will connect my Velodyne subwoofer but only use it when needed. The sub can be an overkill on some music, forcing me to turn it right down or off. Cant win ! :) LOL

I listened to a lot of speakers for the $1000 area and kept coming back to the 602s2. The 603 was a bit boomy to my ear and the smaller 601 had a bloom in the upper base which made some male vocals a bit to thick and rich. The 601 bass was also too weak without a sub. The strong point of the B&w are thier midrange. Vocals are clear with lots of emotion. Not forward too much like a lot of speakers. More relaxed style of music.

If you are to listen to a pair of these speakers do what I did.
You ask to hear the speakers at their best. He or she will put on a cd of their choosing, most likely a very well recored cd to bring out their best. Listen for a while and then ask to hear your cd. Make sure your CD is the worst in your collection. One that is thin , bright or not so well recorded. mainly because there are more bad Cds out there than good ones.... this way you can hear speakers at there best and worst.

Hope I have helped...

Bye,

I bought these in May and am very and I love them. As far as the bass in concerned, they sound good alone but I was planning on matching them with a sub anyway. I did alot of research on bookshelf/stnd-mounted speakers in this price range and feel that these were the best (but that is my opinion). No speaker in this price range is going to perform miracles, however the 602's are damn good.

Imaging, Wonderful Highs, Good Lows, Bass Punch, Looks

Lacks truly deep bass, quite large for standmounts (although not really a weakness :)

These are great speakers, both as home cinema fronts, and also for more critical 2 channel music listening. The real improvements over what I had before are: the massive increase in headroom - where my Missions sounded strained at reasonably high volumes, these B&Ws are not fazed at all...in fact you can be listening at painful volumes but it still doesn't sound 'loud.'
They also boast much better bass control, and smoother high frequencies (another thing that enables them to be listened to loud)
When I asked the dealer what else there was (standmouted)around the £300 mark to serve both as Home Cinema and 2-channel fronts, they could not even suggest anything, but I listened to the new mission 780s anyway, and found them to image nicely, but lack the aforementioned headroom possesed by these speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Mission 780SE (first time round)

Smooth and detailed midrange and treble. Great soundstage.

Slight lack of lower tonal support. Not a lack of bass, though. First time I am writing a review, so its hard to describe.

These speakers are a fantastic value! I was looking for a long overdue speaker upgrade (mains/center/sub/surround) for my HT and music system. My primary concern was that the emphasis was on better music re-production. After 3 in-store auditions at different local stores (see above), i selected the 602s ($600 list)and AE Aegis3 ($700 list- 3way floor standings t/4"m/5'w)'s to take home and audition -AB comps. I did not audition w/sub, cause i was more interested in each speaker to stand on their own first. I went about to select a sub later (more for HT puproses). Both speakers had great mid/upper smoothness and a good soundstage at the store. Head2head, the B&W's won out because they had better 1) detail/clarity- i was able to hear more detail from certain recordings, whereas the AE's had a little mushy feeling on certain demanding recordings. 2) soundstage- not only a little more focused, but the sound actually seemed to extend past the speakers. The AE's sound was more directed between the two speakers. Overall, 602s2's won hands down.
In the end, I ended up forgoing buying new sats (i used my old kef102's for that purpose)alowing me free up enough $ to buy the B&W 603s2's, instead. Sound just as sweet, but with a better low end.

Note> Both speakers sounded much better in my home! If you are going to spend some $, audition these babys at home before you make your final decsision.
Music> Jenifer Warnes/David Benoit/Sting/Tom Rotella/some clasical.
Equipment> Rotel 965 AV/ Rotel 855 CD/ Kimber (Bi-wired)/ Sony S500D DVD.

Similar Products Used:

In-store auditions> PSB Image4T, MK 750, Acoustic Energy Aegis3, Energy XL 26, Paradigm Monitor