Details Basses are deep and detailed Beautiful (cherry) finish Not very big Value for money

Need to run in (150 hours)

Last year I had a lot of speakers. Started with B&W 603. Dazzling details, after biwiring them I was in heaven. Problem: only in the middle of the chamber (36 square meters, stone everywhere) they sounded good. I sold them. Then I bought KEF Q1's with a REL subwoofer. The KEF's are cheap&good. Voices were perfect but pop music too dull. I did'nt listen much classic music at that time. Then the B&W 7-series where there. I listened to the 705's and I was in love again. I had my details back. The subwoofer filled in the lows. Rage Against The Machine sounded as they were playing in my room. Terriffic! Suddenly I started to listen classic music. One of my rich girlfriends has Dynaudio Special 25's with some other fine hardware. An evening listening there spoiled me. Classical music was beautiful But Rage Against The Machine sounded like sh.t. Back home my 705/Rel combination sounded very disappointing listening the same classical music. The subwoofer just did'nt give me the warmth I wanted. 3 Months ago I was broke. I have 4 kids and 2 wanted to study something expensive. I had to sell the only valuable things in my home: the speakers (and my digital camara). So I had to start over again. After 2 months I had enough money to buy something new. I had a list of things I wanted: - Fine details - Firm bass, not boomy - Not too big - Good sounding with Pop and Classic - Not too expensive The first speaker I heard was the Revel Performa F30. From that moment everything sounded less. This are real fine speakers. But much too expensive: 5000 euro. Then I heard the B&W 704's. The refinement was a bit less than the Revel's. But on the low end they were better. I ordered them and since 1 week I have them. In the beginning they seemed a bit duller then the 705's. But I knew from the reviews that I had to run them in for a while. Now, after 1 week I'm very happy. All the problems I had are gone. Pop music is as good as the 705/subwoofer combi. Different of course. Less spectaculair but much more balanced. The deep basses came alive after 5 days of playing day and night. I don't miss my Rel! And the bonus: classic music is very good too!

Similar Products Used:

B&W 603 KEF Q1 Canton Ergo RCL (very low but dull) B&W 705 REL e150 subwoofer

Details, clarity, incredible bass. Good Really nice looks (real wood).

None thus far.

I've owned my 704s for just a short while but I'm more than ready to give my impressions at this point. The 704s give you a very detailed sound with plenty of precision. You will love the high, mids and especially the clean, fast and elegant bass. You might need a sub for hometheater, otherwise don't bother. The bass will stun your ears. The speakers are good with all the types of music I've tried thus far: rock, pop, jazz, classical - you name it! The frequency response is impressive from the lowest lows to the highest highs. These speakers beg you to invest in a quality CD-player and stereo amp. In this price bracket, in my opinion, these speakers take you as close as you can get to a live experience. These speakers will give you impressive performance regardless of the type of music you prefer. Great sound, good value.

Very good frequency response Superior build quality Looks great

Sharp cabinet corners are prone to nicks.

I just purchased the 704's and the matching HTM7 center channel (all in Rosenut finish) in late April. Originally I had a 3.0 speaker system with the CDM CSE center speaker and the CDM 1SE for my left/right front. The CDM 1SEs were in red ash while the center was black ash (only finish that it comes in). I wanted to upgrade my system by adding more bass and getting rear channels. So I bought the 704's to be my new L/R fronts and I moved the CDM 1SEs to be my rear speakers. The salesman said that the 704 line was significantly different enough that if I could afford it, it would be worthwhile to replace my old center speaker with the sonically matching HTM7 center channel which I did. So now I have a 5.0 system with much better bass extension. I did not audition the 703's because the 704's were all I could afford to spend. Anyways I have been pretty happy with the results so far. The improved bass frequency response is immediately apparent and now my movie soundtracks have some punch to it. Of course the addition of the rear channels gives me front to back imaging that I did not have before. For the amount of money that I was spending, I was a bit unhappy that I could not get the 700 series speakers in red ash to identically match my CDM 1SE speakers. However I am happy to say that the rosenut finish of the new speakers is very pretty and without looking at it critically, it appears to match the CDM 1SE red ash finish on the other side of the room. The 704s are very beautiful speakers. However the sharp cabinet corners are going to be prone to nicks and dents (the CDM 1SE corners were rounded). Surprisingly I did have a problem with the 704s. When I set them up and tried them out, I noticed that there was a vibration during periods when the speakers played low bass frequencies. It sounded like one of my glass shelves of my DVD tower was ratting against its metal support. After a few days, I finally decided to find the offending shelf and fix it. Much to my astonishment, the metallic rattle was actually coming from the yellow Kevlar driver of my right channel 704! I detected this rattle during the opening sequence of the 5th Element (I was playing the Superbit DVD). I did not have my Rotel receiver (to which the 704s are bi-wired to) playing overly loudly so I know I was not overdriving the speakers. When I switched the left and right channel around, the rattle followed the speaker. I asked Sound and Vision to let me exchange the 704s for a brand new pair with consecutive serial numbers. The speakers were only 20 days old and within their exchange period. After conferring with B&W, they went ahead and did exactly that which made me happy without any hassle, questions, etc. So score one for customer service from B&W and from my local retailer, Sound and Vision. The new 704s do not have this rattling problem which I confirmed by replaying the 5th Element (Superbit) DVD. One other note of explanation. I gave these speakers 5 stars for value because Sound and Vision gave me a discount off of the list price. However they were going off a list price of $2000 while everything else I have read in magazines and the interet indicate that the list price is $2200. Another B&W dealer in my area also had the 704's listed for $2200. So far $1850, I thought these were of excellent value!

BEST SPEAKER AT $2200 US BAR NONE

A BIT LAID BACK AT FIRST GIVE THEM 20 HR OF PLAY THEY OPEN LIKE A SUNRISE

I COMPARED THESE SPEAKERS ON A DIRECT AB TEST WITH PARADIGM 6O SERIES 3,THESE SPEAKERS WERE TWICE AS PERCICE,SOUNDS WERE BOOMY ON THE PARADIGMS,YOU CANT EVEN HEAR MANY SOUNDS,ALL SPEAKER COMPANYS COMPARE TO B&W THERES A REASON FOR THIS,TAKE THESE HOME FOR 2 WEEKS THELL STAY WITH YOU ,THANKS TO PROFESSIONAL SOUND II SUDBURY CANADA,GREAT GUYS ,GREAT HELP

Similar Products Used:

ENERGY 22.3,PARADIGM 100,KEF 104