I bought a pair of these in January and am very impressed with them. Previously had a pair of Mission 760iSE's and the B&W's are way ahead sonically. The big trend over here in the £140-£180 market is the Tannoy Mercury M2 (bigger company, more marketing muscle?) but I think the B&W is a far more musical and coherent speaker. For those who didn't know it was voted EISA European Speaker of the Year 1996-1997 - not at all bad for a budget bookshelf. I feel that that accolade says it all.

I got the Philips 900 serie's (amp. 2x 180 Watt max., CD s/n 118 dB, dig. tuner, DCC, cas-sette, CD-R, eq, LP) and Philips speakers (FBserie $700 a pair). A sony dolby prologic de-coder (5x25 Watt) and 4 little sony satellite speakers, a JBL centre speaker (Mr. Centre) and a 30 Watt subwoofer. I am a casual listener you might say. I bought those DM 302's for the use of rear speakers and they sound amazing for $200 a pair. I spoke to other individuals who also bought those incredible speakers and we came to the next conclusions:
FOR: great performance in the use of rear speakers. Great bass for 'ordinairy' rearspeakers. Not too much bass, just enough. Great clarity and imaging ability.
AGAINST: the treble sound a bit noisy. Lack of (upper)bass in larger rooms, buy a subwoofer or something.
Summary: one word FANTASTICALLY!!!!!. for the price of $200 a pair.
These guys deserve the full 4 stars

these speakers are terrible. they dont have any bass and they dont even sound good, if you want a good speaker look at the DCM KX 12! thats the best speaker ever made. dont buy the 302's.

To add to my review below I should also mention that bass is tight and punchy, cymbals and guitar strings, and most high pitched instruments sound very realistic for fabric dome tweeters. They are also different from the usual B&W sound...these speakers are alive, not dull and lifeless like other models such as the 601 and CDM1. They also have a nice slightly forward midrange which makes vocals seem to be right in front of you (for a little enjoyment in your life pick up Jennifer Warnes: The Hunter). I also forgot to mention that I have the speakers on 29" Lovan Affiniti stands which I was able to pick up along with the 302's for a total of $330 US.

I agree that in this price range up to 5 times moreexpensive, it is really hard to beat B&W 302's and
NHT SuperZero's in mid-high frequency sounds and imaging.
If one has a better amplifier, SuperZero's will reveal
their wonderful realistic sounds. While, 302's produce
sweet sounds from a poor and as low as 20 watts amplifier!
For ones creeping for very low frequency sounds, both
302's and SuperZero's need helps from subwoofers. Finally,
for ones craving for perfect sweet ralistic sounds, go to
Genesis, but don't talk about counting $Jackson.

I would just like to say that I have been a B&W fan for years and owned many pairs of B&W speakers. I absolutely love them and I can see that many people agree with me. Particulary I am impressed with the valuea and unbelievable sound form the 302's. For $250, these speakers sound better than many priced twice or three times as much. I'm writing however, to complain about the people giving these speakers a 1 star rating because of their lack of bass. Who buys a pair of bookshelf speakers with a 5" woofer and expects to get wall shaking bass? These speakers, just as any other comparable bookshelf speaker aren't made to rattle your teeth out of your mouth. If you want bass, the solution is simple. . .BUY A SUBWOOFER. If you want REAL BASS, BUY A B&W SUBWOOFER. Have a nice day.

While waiting for my backordered Paradigm Ref. Studio 20's, the owner of Audio Exchange in Mishawaka, IN loaned me the 302's.
I hooked them up to a Phase Linear 400 amp, Adcom 500II preamp, Marantz CD-63mkII, and a Rotel turntable not expecting too much.

All I can say is that for $250 you're not going to find a finer speaker. In fact, I'd say that these speakers could blow away a large number of speakers costing twice as much. Clear, well defined, with a transparent soundstage, these are gorgeous sounding speakers. Who'd expect less from B&W?

Yes, the bass isn't booming. But couple these with a sub like the B&W ASW1000, and you'll have more than ample bass. What will that system set you back? Oh, around $950. Not bad.

I bought and returned these after a few days..I was using them in an open-back rolling TV rack with an NAD AV711 receiver for TV/VCR sound playback in my bedroom. I found the midrange to be lacking--too recessed for my taste. I picked up some a/d/s 310 mini-monitors instead, which fit better into the rack anyway. My speaker tastes run toward accurate or accentuated mid-band...I have a pair of SonusFaber Concertinos + REL Strata II, and also really enjoyed the Dynaudio 1.3II I auditioned for my main room. I also listened to the NHT superZero and superOne..preferring the superZero over the SuperOne due to the SuperOne's thumpy bass, but found the a/d/s speaker to be more revealing in the mid-band.

I have own my pair of 302 for over 2 month now, I just absolutely love it. The sound imaging is great, high is very acceptable (based on the price), so is the bass. I definitely will give 4 stars for it, and recommend other people to buy it. As for the people who don't think the 302s are any good, here is the thing, you can never compare a $250 speaker with a $2,000 speaker, the price says it all, and good speaker usually sound good only on a good or better amp, receiver with better cable and so on... the environment has a lot to do with the sound quality too. So next time if you want to degrade a decent product, check your system first, then decide what you gonna say.

I am currently running these speakers as surrounds for my B&W DM305 and B&W CC3 speakers for my audio/video system. I know that the 302s are the precise match for the other speakers, but before I bought them, I had a pair of Celestion surround speakers as well as a pair of Cambridge Soundworks dipole surround speakers and tried them first. Even though Cambridge Soundworks recommends dipole surround speakers for Dolby Digital, I believe using the 302s gave me a much cleaner and precise sound that I was looking for. My DTS CDs that I listen to never sounded so good! These B&W 302 speakers definitely can hold their own. Whether as mains or for surround, the B&W 302s are an excellent choice.