802d for a 10x13 room, 8ft ceiling - am I nuts?


Hello,

After years of patience and savings, I an afford some decent speakers. I have auditioned many (Revel, Sonus Faber Cremona, Dynaudio, B&W, Dali) and have discovered I love the B&W sound.

I am considering either the 803d, 803s or 802d. I love the way the 802d looks, but am concerned that my room is way too small for them. It is 10ft wide, 13ft long and the ceiling is 8ft tall. One side of it has a 4ftwide opening into a much larger room. It is carpeted and has many nooks and crannies, mostly filled with records and books.

I have an MC252 amp that I will be using to power the speakers and I like my bass. My preamp is an old Bozak CMA10-2DL mixer (all discrete circuitry) from the 70's and I play mostly vinyl - lots of esoteric electronic music at loud volume :)

Is the room too small for the 802d's? Should I consider the smaller 803s or 803d even though I love the look of the 802d's?

Help.
skipervarg
I believe one of the major problems with large speakers in small rooms is not so much the volume of the room but the fact that you can't get the speakers away from the wall.

I am very familiar with the 802D and have heard it many times in different sized rooms. I have also owned the 703s in the past and looked to upgrading to the 802D a few years ago.

802D:
I found that in large rooms where the speakers were 5 or more feet from all the wall they sounded very good and filled the room with nice balanced bass.

But I heard them in a room about the size of mine (12X20ish) and things changed. I tried three set ups in the 12X20 room.... I have a very good dealer... The first set up was pretty typical with the speakers about 3 feet off the back wall and 2 feet of the side walls. The sound was ok with this setup but bass had a few lumps and sound stage was average. Then we move the speakers to a semi near-field set up. We put the speakers in the middle of the room (10 feet off the front wall) and made an equilateral triangle about 8 feet. I sat about two feet off the back wall. WOW did they sound good, clean bass and the largest sound stage I have ever heard.

Next in the same room we moved the speakers back into the front corners of the front wall and the uneven bass was back and the sound stage compressed. The bass honked and farted at hight volumes with the speakers in the corners.

703s:
I bought these in college when I had no money.... yeah you need to eat a lot of ramen noodles in college to afford audio... Anyway the speakers were in a 15X17 foot room (rotel gear). They sounded pretty good at the time but the bass was always lacking and it needed more punch IMO. About two years later I moved into my new wife's house. We were in the process of finishing the basement so I need to put my gear somewhere... They went in a 12X10 foot room. Oh man did the sound change. They had WAY too much bass and it was one note with no texture. Luckily this set up did not last long...

I have now moved on to other brands of speakers. But my point is the room matters. But you can work around it some times. But I think with the 802D you are setting yourself up for a lot more work than going for the 803D. Try calling B&W direct and see what they say. You may be supprized how helpful the manufactures can be.
After a full day of tweaking the 802's, I will also
have to agree with James63 on distance from
walls. I am starting to pull out further into the room
and the bass is smoothing out and getting tighter.
I'm at 3' now (front of speaker to back wall)and may
end up at 3.5-5'. I wonder how far forward
I can come out. I am at sitting about 9-10' back and the speakers
are about 8.5-9' apart.

802D in that small a room is crazy! I wouldn't even consider it. I get bass boom with small monitors (B&W cm1) and small sub in a 13.5x14x8 ft room. I must dial back the sub to get a nice even musical flow.

I would strongly consider, at the most, the 804D's suggested earlier or the 805D's.

Vinny