Hmmm! Sound comes out.

Nasally compressed sound. Not a bookshelf speaker due to rear porting. Requires 3' min. from wall to get anywhere close to balanced sound.

I really wanted to love these speakers and lived with them in a mini home theater system for a few years. My wife couldn't stand the speakers sitting out in the floor 3 feet from the back wall and I couldn't stand how they sounded 6" from the wall. Theses speakers require stands and the aforementioned wall spacing. Congested sound other wise with bass bloat. Listen to Infinitys, Monitor Audio Bronze and Def Techs in the $300 range and you won't buy these. Would not consider at all for fronts and rears of a Home Theater system. Audition extensively before buying.

Similar Products Used:

Infinity monitor/bookshelf size speakers

good bass and decent detail

needs more midrange

I purchase these fresh out of the box for $150.00pair
so I did not loose anything I put them as back speakers for my home theater .They did better than my 3d acoustics or rogers but I like the bw 805's but too expensive $1700.00..
I am happy with the sound is clear & more bassy but alittle too much bass for me.they lack midrange but good upper end for detail sounds in the background.. but I am used to
my tower speakers DCM time windows ....

my system for home theater
pioneer reciever
2-philips vcr
phillips dvd
klh fronts
klh subwoofer w/120watts amp
b&w dm302 backs
pioneer center channel
NEVER MIX 2-channel STEREO with HOME THEATER ! ! ! ! ! ! !

my 2 channel is another story it is very very good soundstage..!

Similar Products Used:

3d acoustics,roger ls3/5a,klh,bose cubes,b&w Lm1,b&w 805

Neutral, uncolored sound. Excellent soundstage. Tight bass.

Limited bass extension.

This speaker was the Stereophile Editors' Choice and won numerous awards in Europe. Comments such as "not enough midrange" and "nasal, compressed sound" reflect more on the reviewer's system setup than the speaker itself.

The B&W 302 was a benchmark for performance at or near its price point in the late 1990's. Its bass cannot possibly be very deep, but is tight and tuneful within its limits. As with other good minimonitors, its sounstaging is excellent. Its slightly polite top end is appropriate for the moderately priced electronics that it is likely to be mated with.

Ratings are a subjective matter. Is this as good a speaker as the Martin Logan Prodigy or the Vandersteen 5? Of course not. But it still remains a class leader at or near its price.

Similar Products Used:

Infinity and JBL minimonitors.

Soundstage, imaging, beautiful midrange

Compresses quickly with complex orchestration/music

This seems silly to some, but I own *3* sets of these speakers. My wife bought me a set of these for 2 channel back in 97 or 98, and I bought HER 2 pair (plus the matching CC3 center) the same year to start our home theatre. At the time we bought them, there was nothing in this price range that could come close to these speakers for the price.

Back in the day, I took the B&W's, PSBs, and NHT's home for a semi-lengthy home audition. I didn't have a ton of cash at the time, and really wanted to make a decision I could live with for years; so I really put them through their paces. The PSB's sounded muffled and veiled (although their bass response was better), and the NHT's just didn't have the midrange of the B&W..

I can't comprehend why people complain about the 302's midrange. The midrange is, by far, the strong point of the 302.. Vocals are absolutely excellent with this speaker, timbral accuracy is shocking for the price; and although it may be a bit artifically warm in parts, it really makes music where others in the price range failed.

The soundstaging is quite good; excellent when comapred to the others in it's price range. Imaging is fairly well focused, and coupled with the relatively spacious soundstage, can create great likeness of the original recording. You MUST place them well, though, or the soundstage disappears. Room placement, and your seating position in the room, pay HUGE dividends here.

One thing I noticed over the years is the 302's, like other B&W's, put a high demand on upstream components (especially amplification). No, you don't need a multi-kilobuck amp, etc., but most receivers won't be able to power these little guys. Their impedance may be 8ohm, but it dips well into the 3's, IIRC.. This makes them a very BAD pairing for most mass-market equipment. Perhaps this is why some have complained about the 302's. I used an NAD 712 (receiver) quite happily for a number of years, but a Creek 4330 really makes these babies sing. Also, cabling must be up to par for these beauties to perform as they should.

Bass is somewhat lacking, as you would expect for such a small driver. And no, the 302's are not rear-ported, so you can easily place them close to walls (1 foot seems perfect) and not get floppy bass. Good stands help quite a bit in the bass department.

The biggest weakness of the 302, IMO, is their ability to handle very dynamic music. Live music (that was loud originally), heavy orchestral music, electronica, or anything with extremely complex passages will not come out well on these speakers. It all becomes one 2-d flat painting instead of a nice live performance. Also, when the 302 begins to compress, the top end gets a bit edgy and will tire you out after awhile.

But on the flipside, with less complex music these are some wonderful speakers. In the absence of compression, vocals are beautiful, most instruments (violin, guitar, electric guitar, etc) come through quite convincingly, the top end smooths out considerably, and things of smaller scale come out incredible. If you're a fan of chamber music, bluegrass, solo or small ensembles, female vocalists, or even some types of jam bands/reggae/rock (Grateful Dead, Bob Marley, Dave Matthews come to mind) these speakers may well be all you ever need.

AND for Home Theatre they are a shocking buy. Pair them with a tight quality sub, and they will handle any 5.1/DTS you throw at them with great satisfaction and volume. The sub frees up the little 302's (make sure it's crossed over properly) and they won't compress on any movie I can think of. I am 100% happy with them for home theatre.

Incidentally, I tried a set of Polk RT25i's just to see what the competition hath wrought (and Stereophile hath recommended haha). The little Polk's put up a fight; they even had better bass extension when properly placed, and imaged incredibly well. But in the end, they compressed on complex passages even more than the 302s, and their midrange just didn't have any beauty. It was very clinical. It was all in good fun, really, but the 302's still remain king. (I have not auditioned the 303's). I decided to go upmarket for 2-channel, and what I ended up with is a story for another day..

Judged against others in their price range, these are a SOLID 5 stars.

Similar Products Used:

PSB Alpha, NHT, Polk RT25i

Midrange, imaging, small size.

Build quality?

I'm always bargain hunting online for quality stereo equipment. B&W name, so gave these a try.
House a soft-dome tweeter, and 5 1/4" woofer, in an innovative small enclosure. I mentioned build quality as a weakness--I say this because they seem extremely light to me. I can't imagine that B&W is using high quality drivers (magnets) because they just aren't heavy--but the enclosures and plastic and that may be why they're so light. Still, they are fairly decent in construction (5-way binding posts, not spring loaded cheapness), and decent to look at, but certainly don't have a classic or vintage look (you can tell they're plastic from 20' away).

As one would expect with a British speaker, they excel in quality mid-range and give excellent imaging. Bass is very strong for this small of a bookshelf speaker, but you'll need a sub if you're a bottom dweller. I don't know the rated freq response, but can't imaging they get below 60 Hz. Still fairly decent lower mids, and a bit of punch for their size. Treble is decent, and overall sound is very good.

For 95% of music these speakers would rate a 4-star's in my opinion. They are very laid back, open, and airy--good for background listening. They're weakness is in the hard-rock arena--the treble range can be harsh with certain types of rock guitar. This is still rare, but occasionally I find these speakers harsh (2-1/2-stars on this music). It still is rare on rock music, but certain types (metal mostly) just doesn't lend itself to these well.

No listening fatigue here--I could (and do) listen to these for hours on end at both low and volumes.

For a used speaker in the $150-200 range, these are a great deal. At retail of over $350, you can probably do better. If I were to buy new--I'd prefer a more refined looking enclosure to the plastic boxes these come in, but they're so small they still won't make a strong statement in your listening room. At $350 I'd prefer Monitor Audio Bronze series or Paradigm Mini's (the Min's are twice the size--I prefer these to the Atoms which are the equivalent Paradigm model).

Bottom line:
If you want a strong and forward speaker, again these are not for you, but if you like great imaging and laid back performance they are ideal. For jazz, easy listening, acoustical rock, most opera and classical, even the majority or rock and pop (hip-hop's OK, but get that sub) they perform wonderfully. Stay clear if you're a heavy metal freak as 20% of metal music is harsh through these.

You much better off with a used pair of B&W's than anything you'll find in the mass market stores (Polk, Bose, AR, JBL, you know the others).

Similar Products Used:

JBL, Bose, Cambridge, M&K, Paradigm, Yamaha, AR, Mission, BIC, you name it.

small footprint and big sound

none ...when you consider the cost

Great little speaker for the money...currently using as surrounds in my HT system. Nice full-range sound...they sound like a "real" speaker when compared to some of the dinky little satellites that are on the market today. IMO, they would work well in a small dorm/office system, too. You can't go wrong for the $$$. B&W supports the small-budget audiophile with a great product that has spillover benefits from their high-end speakers.

Similar Products Used:

B&W DM305's and CC3 Center Channel

Impressive soundstage--really energizes the room, Highly
detailed.

An unbearable "papery" exaggeration of sibilants.
Very fatiguing

My System:
~Denon CD drive
~Pooge 5.0 Phillips D/A converter
~Home built passive pre-amp
~Musical concepts modified Hafler DH-200 on B&Ws
~Musical concepts modified Hafler DH-220 on DIY Morel 8" stereo subs (DIY electronic crossover)
~Mogami Neglex 2534 DIY ICs
~Romex house wire speaker cables(!)

~Toshiba SD-2700 DVD player
~1988 27" Sony Trinitron tube (to be replaced with the RCA 38310?)

These speakers do a couple of things very well. They are highly revealing and detailed. If you've got system weaknesses erring on the bright and/or hard side, these will expose them mercilessly. They also produce a very complex, expansive sound stage. Air well forward and to the sides is
clearly energized. In this area they are very engaging.

But--and here is the fatal problem--there is the high frequency reproduction, which, in my system at least, was dreadful. Sibilants were intolerably exaggerated. Not spitty, but papery/hissy. I also noticed some hardness in the upper mids to treble region resulting in fatigue. The drivers are simply not integrated very well. The bass is fine for a such a small bass-mid driver.

At times I thought my ears must be out of calibration since these jobs have received such universal acclaim--until I put the B&W 303s in my system. .....

The 303s are far superior to the 302s in every area except one: They do not produce as complex and involving a soundstage as the 302s, but I think they are superior at localization. The 303s soundstage performance is very good, it's just that the 302 is amazing in this area. It almost sounds like some sort of electronic spatial manipulation has been inserted into the signal path.

The 303s use the metal dome "nautilus" tweeter. It is well integrated with the glass fiber mid-bass driver, producing a smooth, coherent, ingratiating sound all the way to the top.
The bass serendipitously integrates well with my stereo pair of Morel 8" Subs crossed over at 50 hz.

The 303s are very hard to pin down, which is highly desirable in a speaker. They are very smooth on good CD sources, but reveal some problems in my HT setup: garbage interconnects, poor audio section in old Sony TV, for example.

I bought the 303 for 250$--only 50 bucks more than the 302.
In view of this minor price difference, there is only one choice: Forget the 302s and get the 303s. (Unless you've got very warm and smooth electronics, in which case the 302s may be perfect. They may be wonderful with all tubes, though it's hard to imagine anything taming that grisly top end.)

It's too bad about the 302. If the treble could be cured, they would be superb speakers. I wonder if B&W used a cheap capacitor on the tweeter?

Finally---Yes, Romex house wire for speaker cables. This material was recommended some time ago by--I think--Peter Moncrief of The IAR, and simply works very well. Being a skeptic of the effect of speaker cables, I had been using zip wire. Replacing zip with Romex effected a spectacular difference. Massively smoother, more correct sound. I am thinking about trying MIT 2 cable.
Dave

Similar Products Used:

B&W 303--superior to the 302 in every area but one.

Full sound stage, balanced, non-fatiquing,very musical, especially accurate on female voice (Diane Krall-When I look into your eyes). Nice construction- light woodgrain cabinets)

Quite efficient- I wonder if they would handle signiicant power and higher volume levels??

Now my question: I went to my only local dealer to audition the B&W 302's (with my 30 day trail EdgeAudio 502's in hand) along with my cd's: Patrick Ball (violin), Diane Krall(vocal, Carlos Santana (Supernatural)
The dealer set me up with B&W "303's", $300.pr. I liked them. I ultimately am looking for a 5.1 HT speaker set up where I have limited space for anything any larger than the 302's or the Titan's. The dealer had no literature on the 303's (said they were brand new and replacing the 302's?)and referrred me to B&W website. He also recommended the CC3 2way 4" center, and the ASW 500 sub for my application.The website does not show the 303's at all? The 303's appeared to have a larger main speaker than the 5.25" EdgeAudio. Is anyone out ther familiar with the 303's? or the have an opinion his recommendation on the center and sub?
One other speaker I have liked is the PSB Image 1B or 2B. Any opinions out there for PSB's for HT, but keep in mind I do not want to loose accuracy, detail for stereo listening.
I am waiting to buy A/V receiver after speaker decision- include any good matches with your response on speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Listened against the EdgeAudio 502's (much less efficient and more narrow sound stage) and the Paraidgm Titans (not as natural on female vocal and a little bright, fatiquing for my taste)

I brought these speakers in October because I upgraded to AC3. I needed rear speakers to deliver the new discrete sound for the rears. I'm using a Yamaha Rxv 2090, powered by a 200 watt THX carver amp. My fronts are Polk's RT16
and my center is a ADS 10/c. I have two subs, a Yamaha and a PSB. When listening to T2, these speakers handled the speacial effects perfectly, there were loud, but were very clean in sound. These speakers really excel if used as
a rear, not as fronts. They don't reproduce bass very well. But for rears,
they soudn great!

I was using NHT Super Ones, when I heard the DM 302's. The NHT's are now for sale.The DM 302's give you much more detail in the percussions and in overall sonic balance. You are into some serious audiophile territory, without spending serious bucks with these great little speakers!!