I bought a used pair of B&W 804's at a garage sale (!) for $125.00 this past summer and am only now getting around to positioning them with my Krell/Arcam/Alpha 7 rig. (They are displacing a set of 96-inch high, 54 element planar front mains I built in my workshop.)
What can I say? I wasted a lot of time polishing my own walnut cabinets for the planars! These babies -- sadly, no longer available in these parts -- really opened up my ears. I put on an album from my England Dan and John Ford Cooley collection (to my favorite track, 'Really Love to See You Tonight') and was instantly transported to another planet. Solid midrange, crystal clear highs, big but not overbearing bass, gridiron-size soundstage (with all the line markers!).

I can't highly recommend the B&W 804s highly enough. And if you're in the market for bespoke electrostatics planars, drop me a line.

Cheers!

I got these 3 days ago, and I can't possibly describe the sound.Tight bass, open, clear as the day...
My best speakers ever, a shame that they aren't produced anymore.
The Nautilus series is the new ones, I bet these sound even better, but
these are a little more expensive.

My system:

Fronts: B&W Matrix 804
Center: Sony SS-CN-55 (temporary)
Rears: B&W DM-603
Pre/Pro: Sony TA-E9000ES (haven't got it yet, delayed...)
Power Amps: 2*Nad 216 THX, one "self-made" to the Center (100W class A)
DVD-Player: Sony DVP-S7700
Wire: Taralabs Prism 11 interconnects, Taralabs Phase III/TFA Speaker Cable

I bought these speakers a few years ago, and am mostly pleased with their performance. There are certainly speakers in the price range that will best its lacking bass, but to reproduce the incredibly smooth and atriculate mids and highs along with tight, very low frequency bass you are going to have to spend much more money. B&W speakers are accurate, plain and simple. Again, the mids and highs are very nice (in my case, this quality is what ultimately seduced me), but low bass is just not there. If you have highly colored speakers, listening to any high-end B&W's is going to sound like somone removed the mufflers from your ears. B&W's deserve a listen as a reference against anything you are willing to buy.

You name it.

None, unless you are hyper picky.

Cannot add too much to what has already been said. Really needs good electronics to make them sing. And they deserve it. They will bring out any shortcomings in your other components or the recording. If this bothers you save your money and get the 600 series or the CDMs.
System:
B&W Matrix 804
Conrad Johnson Sonographe Power Amp.
Cambridge Audio C500 Pre-amp
Cambridge Audio D500 CD Player
Onkyo Integra Tuner
Dual 505-2 Turntable w/Ortofon cartridge.
Dual (as in turntable) tape deck.
Nordost Red Dawn, Blue Heaven interconnets.
Cambridge Audio Studio Reference and Pacific interconnects.
Hi-End custom made speaker cable.

Similar Products Used:

601, 602, 600i, BA70-II

Detailed without being bright. Superb bass for its size.

Doesn't image as well as the $7k Merlins I just auditioned. auditioned

I just auditioned the top of the line Merlin VSM SE. I found them to be thin sounding and extremely tiresome to listen to. After owning my Matrix 804's for over 4 years I thought that I would upgrade since I have extra cash burning a hole in my pocket. I must say that although the Merlin's imaged better than the B&Ws they just couldnt match the midrange richness and splendor of the B&W's. I was listening to the Merlins with a superb Muse DAC and transport and the top Joule Electra pre-amp and some 80 watt Bel Canto SET monoblocks and they still managed to sound thin and lifeless. Moreover, my 804's may not have the tight bass response of the Merlins, but they are pretty damn tight and they go lower than the Merlins. I really took my B&Ws for granted. I'll be listening to the Audio Physic Avanti and the Nautlus 802's now to see if they can dominate my scrappy 804's.
With the right front end and amplification this speaker is capable of superb sound. I'm sorry I doubted the relative quality of these "cheap" $2200 speakers. They are classics.

I recently bought a pair of 804's and am delighted with them,...I demo'ed a pair and couldn't give them back after discovering John Coltrane living in one of the cabnets...I don't know if it's the left or right , but he's there somewhere . I auditioned/ thought of buying the 603, Martin Logan Aerius, Thiel 1.5, Sonus Faber Con's, KEF Model 2 and 3 . I'm driving the B&W's with an a/v receiver (Denon avr 5600) fed by a Sony ES series CD changer ( I'm wondering if it's worth it to buy a high end CD,...and if so , which to buy..) . I now want the HTM B&W Matrix center channel...

I recently acquired a slightly used (1 year old) pair of these speakers. They sounded great in the showroom and even better in my home. I previously used a pair of M & K Satellite-1 speakers with my main system-the B & W's blew them away! Their sound is much more natural and detailed with greater definition. I now can hear sounds such as laughs, sighs, etc. that I never new were on my CD's. The weakness of these is supposed to be deep bass, but I use these speakers with a powered subwoofer and get great bass. These speakers have improved the sound of my stereo-home theater system more than any other component. If you're willing to spend over $1500 on speakers, audition these speakers before buying!

Just upgrade from the 805 to 804.Very nice sounding speaker, has bigger sound then the 805, you can hear more into the recording, bigger soundstage. Yes they are not perfect but they are very nice sounding in the right system, like other reviewers sad that they are well balance. Go ahead and listen to them if you like music!!!
System
Yba Intergre
Marantz 63se
Linn Sondek
VDH D352 speaker wire
Kimber interconnect

I understand from some reviewer that the 804 has been slightly revised, maybe they did their own modification, I don't know. Could anyone knowledgeable in this kindly let me know what modification they did. As far as I know there was no revision on B&W's part as there's no matrix 2 or 3, but there could be a very very slight revision, please enlighten me. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

With regards to my previous message regarding the slight revision done to the 804, I do not mean the new Nautilus 804, what I meant was what modification did some reviewer did to the original matrix 804, thank you very much.