B&W 801 vs 803s

Well nothing wrong with marketing... think about all the berillium bs these days. Nothing wrong with berillium just saying every band has it's own niche in marketing.

Two issues with the 801 Nautilus: (i) they do in fact require a big room because of their prodigious bass and your room may be too small, and (ii) they require a ton of power, to the point of needing to be biamped with big solid-state, which means an amp that uses feedback (and thus all of the problems that feedback brings).

That said, if I had a huge room, listened only to rock/pop (i.e., crap multitrack recordings of electric instruments), and didn't have a lot of money, I would definitely consider them - great bass and boom.

all your opinons are very interesting, I should note im not to into classical but will listen to a telarc disc from time to time. I do like rock really like live cd's of any kind and love mike oldfield and am exploring artist like sasha and atb, with that said i love my present 803s, im torn that if i go ahead and upgrade i should check out other speakers just to make sure im getting the best bang for the buck. you guys have to understand im not wealthy so whatever i choose i will most likely have to live with for some period of time. and Raquel i like fast tight bass not boom, dont confuse me with some retard.

Palermo100: You misunderstand me - by "boom" in the context of the 801, I mean thunderous dynamics, not what I suspect you refer to, which is one-note bass from a poorly designed ported speaker. The 801's are great in that regard, assuming they are driven properly, which I again note means bi-amped with really beefy solid-state amps (the speaker cannot be properly driven by a single "normal" muscle amp like a Bryston 4B - it needs a ton of power).

I have owned several B&W speakers over the past 10 years including 802 and 803 n's as well as some 801 Matrtix. About two years ago I wass going to listen to and buy 801 D's. I happened to hear them along sied of Wilson Watt Puppy 7's and 8's. There was no comparison in my mind. The Wilsons sonded so much more precise and accurate with a very hard driving bass. I since have had Merlin, Dali and watt puppy 6's and 7's and now Egglestons. They all, in my mind are vastly superior to the B&W line. It is my opinion that the majority of B&W owners have never heard of most of what I just mentioned. If they heard them side by side I don't see how they would chose the B&W.

They do look good and are easy to sell on audiogon but as far as performance its like comparing a Chevy to a Porsche. Its eassy to live with a Chevy if you've never owned a Porsche, becasue you don't know what you are missing.