I agree with Michael from Seatle, the N801 and N802 are simply amazing.
I wish to back this up with having been
15 years as a professional musician and an audio enthusiast and now for the last
20 as an audiophile.
Either people have a misconception of what music or/reproduction should be or have a complete mismatch of equipment with poor set-ups.
In various conditions and settings that I have audition the N802/N801the experience was immediately conclusive.
Fingers and feet where jumping, no mind bending compromises, they are music. Simply, they nail the competition to the floor.

These speakers are amazing! I heard them whilst auditioning for a power amp... Associated equipment was Theta DaViD; Krell AVS; Krell FPB 600 and Transparent cables.
The room was about 15x30 and about 15ft ceilings. The B&W's imaged like nothing I have heard. I thought that the 15' woofer would be slow.. not even close. This thing moves some serious air! I'll try start from the top, as it were.

The new design is immediately pleasing, as my wife said: "very funky looking" and as we all know, the wife factor can never be underestimated. They handled everything the Krell amp threw at them. I played Femals vocals, Male vocals, Hard Rock and pure guitar and all I did was SMILE!! A soundstage larger than I have experienced (short of a live concert), an uncolored presentation and all in an affordable package.

Sure $10k is a lot, but one could buy these speakers and never need upgrade them for 10 years. I have listened to Wilson Watt Puppy 5.1's, Wilson Witt, Thiel 7.2's and Aerial 10 T's.

The Wilsons are very accurate - so much so that they are fatigueing to listen to. They didn't involve me in the music. My Thiel 3.6's are better than them (in my humble opinion). The Thiel 7.2's are beautiful. They do everything I want from a speaker but they are about $3k more than the B&W's... They also don't play as loud as I want due to the 1st order crossovers Thiel employ in their design. Still a very accurate speaker which is more musical than the Wilson Witt's. The Aerial 10 T's just didn't do it for me... Nothing specific I could say about it, which is why I don't want to own it.

Nothing comes close in the price range ($9500 ish after discounts). If B&W continue in this vein, others had better watch out before they lose even more business. A solid 5 stars!!

Hifh redefined. Shares the spot as my favorite along with the Dynaudio contour 3.3s and Revel Salon.

Big, 15" needs massive power to perform without bogging down, recommended 500 watts/chan.

If you can afford them and care THAT much about music, by all means, commit! They are probably one of the few items that will be able to outlast the raging format war (SACD, DVD-A, Whatever comes out next month....) and then some.

Similar Products Used:

Mentioned in strengths. needless to say, MANY.

Nice appearance.

Overpriced, lack of staging, harsh/loose base, piercing highs.

I demo'ed the 801's at AudioForest in Norcross Ga. They pulled out all the stops they could afford. Conrad Johnson Monoblocks, preamp, Krell CD player, and of course the best wire they had. It was about a $60,000 setup. As I said, the best they could afford. The first time I heard them I was a bit impressed. At that time the only thing I knew was crap like Boston Acoustics, Klipsch, and other class C-D stuff. Then I educated myself with the world of Class A audio. I went to Chicago and listened to all kinds of great systems...Wilson, Avangarde, Martin Logan, Genesis and others. After hearing these wonderful systems I realized that anyone calling B&W 801's class A audiophile grade doesn't have a clue. They must be grading on a curve. Or they are ignorant like I once was. Yes, they are clear and you can hear all the instruments. But they can't stage vocals worth a flip. They don't understand what it is to be "transparent" or "seamless." I found that out that of the $11,000 retail that you are paying for these class B speakers around $4000 of it is just because the bloody things come from GB. Sure they are pretty, but so is my dresser. Folks, do yourself a favor. Before you spend the $$$ on these things go listen to Genesis 201's or 1.1's. You will then hear what class A sounds like. I am thankful that I didn't buy these on the first impulse I had. I give them a three for overall rating because they do at least beat Bose.

Similar Products Used:

Genesis 200, Avandgarde Trio's, Magneplaner Tympany D.

Crystal clear sound, simply the best speaker ever created if you have a good amp and a good source. If any of these is bad, these speakers will let you know

None, provided you use the best equipment there is

First of all: all of those fake reviewers like Kevin: Don't ruin a serioos review site. I have been an accoustics engineer for many years, I got my Phd in Sound Engineering and I work for the most famous accoustic engineering company in the world. With my experience in setting up sound systems for concert halls etc, I think I am entitled to have a say on these speakers.

Simply stated these speakers beat any other speaker provided you have the right equipment. Don't use a low quality budget amp or source, this speaker tells you that's wrong. Use high quality products, amps with lots of power to drive these units and sources that read the recordigns flawless. Provided that you have all of this, these speakers sound unsurpasseble. If you have bad recordings, don't blame the speaker for letting you know. On other speakers bad recordings may sound better because in general those speakers are different. The only problem is that most recordings are still recorded on equipment fit for most speakers and not using equipment fit for these units. Whether or not this is B&W's mistake is not up to me to decide.

We have used these speakers in small concert halls and lots of other places and they always sound great.

On the price side. Yes they cost a lot but: if you cannot afford them, don't buy them. In that case you don't have to whine about the fact that you think they are too expensive for what they return in soundvalue. These speakers are just fairly priced not a bargain or too expensive, just fairly priced.

By the way, should the guy called Kevin read this, please Kevin contact me. I firmly believe that you are no engineer in what form so ever.

sound

zip

Wow, this speaker certainly has generated some amusing reviews and replies. Here in Australia it costs AUD$25,000, so its out of reach for most of us. That didn't stop me having a listen at my local shop.

I listened with Electrocompaniet Nemo amps (AUD$24k a pair)
and Electro's CD player.

I won't say its great value at $25 grand, because I haven't listened to that many speakers in that atmosphere, what I can say without reservation is that its one of the best speakers I've ever heard, and I've only heard 1 or 2 other truly fantastic speakers in the last 12 years ( one was the Polk SDA 1)

If I had the money, I'd buy it, cos it just sounds *real*.
Nothing else I've heard in recent years has come near it, including some Dynaudios, and JM Labs Mini Utopia. I'd like to hear the Mezzo Utopia's one day to compare though.

As an aside, I had a listen to the 802s straight after the 801s and boy did they suffer in comparison.

If you wonder why I'm giving it only 3 stars for value; as one man said, its fairly priced for what it is, it ain't cheap, but nor is it a travesty like some of the astronomically priced gear out there. As for sound quality it must very have few peers.

THE BEST SPEAKER I HAVE HEARD. FULL RANGE TOP TO BOTTOM. NO SUB WOOFER NEEDED. THE END OF THE SEARCH.

NO WEAKNESSES, IF YOU CANNOT AFFORD NEW. BUY A USED PAIR LIKE I DID.

SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE 802,803,804 THAT IT MAKES THE OTHERS OBSOLETE.
THIS IS A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT IN ITSELF. IT IS A RARE FINE WINE TO ENJOY.
DON T WASTE TIME. BUY NEW OR USED LIKE I DID. IT IS WORTH WHATEVER PRICE YOU PAY TO GET THE BEST IN YOUR HOME.
DR. JACK OF THE SOUND FACTOR ENCINO CALIFORNIA FINALLY MADE ME BUY A PAIR . I AM SOO HAPPY NOW . MY SEACH IS OVER. THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL , EVEN MY WIFE LIKES THEM.THEY WEIGH 225. POUNDS EACH .THEY ARE PHYSICALLY LARGE. FULLY RANGE FROM TOP TO BOTTOM. NEEDS QUALITY ELECTRONICS , AND 200 WPC MINIMUM.

Similar Products Used:

EVERYTHING ELSE.

Extremely Dynamic, Transparent and Accurate.
Best and most natural human voice reproduction of any speakers.
Fast, Tight and "weight" bass

dip in low midrange (300-500Hz) for cello sounds

By far, this is the best value high end speaker.
Its ability to play human vocal is better than any speaker. The voice sounds very real as if the person was singing there (better than Revel and Sonus Faber). The logan has good vocal but it sounds like a BIG giant person may be due to the whole panel sounds instead of point source like tweeter.
The HF performance is very accurate and imaging is excellent.
The flat HF frequency response may be perceive as bright is live room but it is an excellent transducer of whta is in the recording. The revel has sloping down frequency response which some people called it "neutral" but it is actually decreasing in dB (this phenomena of perceived "neutral" on sloping down frequency response was documented by a double blind test in stereophile).

Similar Products Used:

Revel Salon, Logan Prodigy, Thiel CS7.2, Wilson Puppy, Sonus Faber Amati.

Tonal bass, clean natural midrange spacious

revealing, sometimes harsh tweeter, heavy

I run these with Atma-Sphere ma2 mkii amps an arc ls9 and cd-2. In this configuration they are spacious, wide and warm. Previously I ran them with an arc 100.2 that did not run the woofer well and did not hold a candle to the A-S with repect to soundstaging. I feel these speakers improve at higher listening levels. Sometimes the high end is a bit bright or harsh, but I wonder if that's my front end or cableage.

Great sounding speaker at a ridiculous price.This speaker is natural and throws and
excellent and dynamic soundstage. However,
it does not compete with speakers at the
$10,000 price range. B&W>What are you
thinking! 5 stars for sound quality but
1 star for performance level at the
retail price range.