Typical strenghts of the 803S tower speaker that include great soundstange, open midrange, and nice but not too bright highs from the aluminum tweeter vs. B&W's metal dome tweeters. Very accurate center with a full sonic range that blends in seemlessly with other '8' series speakers.

Deep and tight bass from the twin Rochelle bass drivers.

Relatively good value once you're into the '8' series of B&W's tower speakers.

I really can't think of any negatives other than it is a somewhat heavy and large center that you will need to put on a stand or shelf if you have a LCD or Plasma TV. It will fit on top of a large CRT TV though.

Sensitive to vertical placement. The speaker is desgined to be pointed at the listeners' posiiton and specs 10 degrees vertical dispersion.

The optional B&W stand is priced way too high for what it is.

I was able to purchse this center in Rosewood as an open box item as the dealer's customer didn't like the color and it had no hours on it so it was new.

I previouly had a HTM7 which I really liked but at the discounted (MSRP is $2800) I decided to move up to a '8' series center given my mains are 803D; I could afford the HTM2D center with the same diamond tweeter but the HTM3S uses an aluminum tweeter vs. the metal alloy in the HTM7. Additionally, there are two 6.5" Rochelle bass drivers that make this one robust center channel for HT and 5-7 channel stereo.

The sound of this center is typical of other 8 series B&W speakers and of course there is much more bass information due to the bass drivers than other B&W centers that only have the tweeter and Kevlar mid/bass driver.

It is really an 803 speaker fit into a center type cabinet that is magnetically shielded andhas extrememly good frequency repsone from 40Hz-22kHz.

Customer Service

The B&W Group's customer service is among the best.

Similar Products Used:

HTM7, A/D/S, Aerial.