B&W 801 vs 803s

My point is that even though the WP8s are 15,000 used he might be able to get a similar "house sound" for 6,000 with the sophia 1s...

I have never compared the two. I have only heard the Sophia 2s and never heard the WP8s. I do know that I personally would by the Sophia 2 over the 802D. Used the 802D is around $9,000 and the Sophia 2s go for around 11,000 (both in the 10,000 +or- price bracket)

Back on track with the OP. There is nothing wrong with B&W's sound and they look GREAT. Where the Wilsons look like sin IMO sitting beside other hi end brands (Focal JM Lab, B&W, Sonus Faber).

One thing that is often forgotten on these sites is that we all like different music which have different points of interest. I was demoing the 803D (different but similar rooms) and Focal 1037B about a year back. I only took two CDs, Metallica's Black album and Nora Jones newest CD (not sure the name).

I started off listening to Nora Jones. The mids of the 1037B had more inner detail than the 803D and delicate highs. I was really liking the 1037s. Then I put on Metallica and things changed very quickly. The 1037s did not have the scale or coherence of the 803D. The 1037s burped out odd bass notes (in the given room) while the 803D's bass was great with no weird corks. On Metallica highs of the 803Ds filled the room while the 1037s were more directional and loosing scale on the big rock and roll tracks...

All is all I like the 803D much better because most of my music is hard rock. At the time they were $8,000 MSRP and the 1037s were $11,200 MSRP. But the my real point is not to compare speakers in this post but to show how musical taste affect speakers choice. If I only listened to soft Jazz the 1037s would have been my choice.

All is all I like the 803D much better because most of my music is hard rock..
Your ears must be burned out..Ive never heard anyone choose B&W over Focal...or Wilson

thats my point!

How anyone can compare a B&W to a Wilson is beyond me. The Sophias are ok, but the watt puppies, espcially 7's and 8's are not even close to any 800 series B&W speakers. I have heard people who pay what we do to buy speakers are all old fuddy duddies anywhay but really do we neeed to start compensating for Brain Damage?

guys u are all getting a little to sensitive here, and off the point of the thread its about room size and 803 vs801, i know wilsons and focals are nice but they COST TO MUCH i cant afford 10 or 20 k for speakers im talking 5or 6. if i could afford them i would, now if your going to compare other speakers try to keep them in the same ballpark or let me know the sonic differences or better bass ect ect. and raquel im sorry for misunderstanding what you ment.keep the info coming thanks..

"Ive never heard anyone choose B&W over Focal...or Wilson"

I do not really want to get off topic but the Focal 1037 are really not that good. They look nice but in no way do they sound like 11,000 dollars. Focal might make some nice drivers but the speakers as a whole came up way short. The tweeter did not integrate well with the midrange and the narrow dispersion of the tweeter did not help the situation. The bass was very room dependent and needed boundary reinforcement to have any bass.... and then it was muddy (because of the boundary). Put the focal in a room with Thiel 3.7, Wilson, or speakers of your choice and the short comings will be very apparent. They chose form over function... I love the look but the sound/price ratio is terrible.

I know Wilson owners have some special place for Focals because they use their tweeters. But look at the most common complaint about Wilsons, the tweeters.

As for the wilson I have only spent a few hours during a demo with the Sophia and Duetts so I can't really comment on them. But the demo was MUCH better than the focal demo.

I stand behind my original statement, 803D>1037be.