HELP B&W 802D or Revel Ultima Salon2

Having had the opportunity of hearing a used pair of Revel Salons at a home nearby, my reaction was that they have a very neutral sound. No well defined highs, mids or bass. Quite honestly, I found them quite dull. I ended up getting a pair of the new B&W 803Di's. Their sound is quite amazing. If you have a chance, you really need to have a listen to the new series. It is a vast improvement over the older diamond series.

I've listened to both, and it is very important to listen to the latest version of the 802D. IMO, B&W really improved them, but for some reason didn't update the designations at all.

That said, I prefer the Salon2 and purchased them. Not only did I prefer the overall spectral balance of the Salon2s, but their bass is significantly better than the 802D's, and IMO so is the important woofer-to-midrange transition on grand piano. The real clincher for me, though, is that to this day I've never heard the B&W 800D or 802D image well front-to-back. The newest 802D disappeared in the side-to-side soundstage, even putting images beyond the speaker positions when appropriate, but I could never close my eyes and get that feeling of having the images come out at me, and the Salon2s do that in spades. The Salon2s are extraordinary in this regard. It might just be the dealer set-ups I've heard with the B&Ws, but I heard pretty much the same thing in two different venues.

One comment I would make is that if you haven't heard the Salon2s you might think 802Ds are about as good it gets. Or, you might not be as sensitive to a 3D soundstage as I am. Or you might like the fact that the 800D/802D have more "bite" in the upper mids and highs than the Salon2s do. Some people just prefer a more up-front balance, and then the 802Ds might sound superior.

Another impression I had is that, IMO, the B&Ws have better cosmetics than the Revels. The 800D and 802D look and feel sumptuous. The wood finishes, especially, are luxurious. The Salon2s, either finish, have a shiny, almost plastic look to them. In black the Salon2 looks very sleek and high-tech, almost like Apple did the design, but the B&Ws look like Aston Martin did it, if you know what I mean.

FWIW, it's been eight months now, and I still marvel at the sound of the Salon2s.

This discussion is very helpful.

I am having the same debate between B&W 802 diamond and either the Revel Studio or Salon. I have a family room that adjoins the kitchen. The family room is hexagonal and is about 500 square feet. The kitchen is another 300 square feet. All the rooms have large glass window surfaces.

The primary use will be for normal TV viewing (news, etc), movies, and only 10% music. Consequently the center channel is key for voices.

Three questions:

- Will either option work better in an environment with a lot of large glass windows?
- Is one option better when located close to the rear wall?
- Does one require a lot more amp power?

Thanks for any comments.

Jim

Your listening space sounds very similar to mine. For the uses you have in mind you might find the 802D a better choice. In fact, the 802D is so good with voice reproduction you might not need a center channel.

Both the Salon2 and the 802D like to be out from the rear wall, and well out of corners.

If you like action movies I'd highly recommend a subwoofer. If you have a typical two-channel audio system I'd choose a self-powered sub with a high-pass output for the amps. If you don't use a sub both of these speakers like about 200 watts per channel of solid state amp. With a subwoofer you can get away with less IMO.

Jim, my sunroom is also fairly large and also has a lot of glass. When auditioning speakers for my new system in late October, the three best I heard were Wilson Sashas, Revel Salon 2s and B&W 802Ds.

I ultimately went with the Salon 2s. The Sashas sounded great in a controlled dealer environment (carpet, room treatment) - especially the bass - but I thought they'd be too shrill in my room with all that glass. They are definitely not a "neutral" speaker, let's put it that way, and in my environment a certain level of neutrality is necessary even for a bassophile like me. In your price range you might want to check out the Wilson Sophia III - it's similar to the Sasha with I would say a bit less dynamism and deep bass - and in any event I would try to listen to either the Sasha or Sophia.

I was frankly not all that impressed with the B&W 802Ds - they were powered by some nice Classe gear but the treble sounded a little forced. The mid-bass was good but it seemed to roll off quite a bit as it went deep. They didn't really seem to have the kind of punch I was looking for at volume, either - I don't blast music all the time, but every so often I want to put on something like Houses of the Holy, crank it to 11 and pretend I'm 14 again, and these just didn't seem the speakers for that. Overall I didn't find them engaging and just didn't get a thrill from listening to them.

Where the Salon 2s really impressed me during my dealer audition was in two areas: soundstage and dynamism. I didn't go in thinking I'd find those areas so important, but when I walked BEHIND the Salon 2s and still could hear a well-defined soundstage and great stereo image, well, I was beyond impressed. I also thought they were not only very dynamic, but very realistically dynamic: a Herbie Hancock grand piano solo recording with a surprising amount of dynamic range was rendered so effortlessly that when I closed my eyes, I was THERE. And this was despite the fact that I frankly wasn't that impressed with the ML 532H power amp/pre-amp combo driving the Salon 2s that I thought was lacking in low-end oompfif not extension. To be fair to the ML gear, speaker placement and the room may have had something to do with that, but I left certain I'd like the Salon 2s with Plinius gear better - which as it turns out I do, very much so.

I also felt that the Salon 2s would be more forgiving speakers for flawed recordings than the Sashas would.

You should know that my system is a dedicated stereo system and will not be used for home theater purposes. Accordingly, my selections were made solely for music listening, mostly classic rock (Stones, Who, lots of Grateful Dead) and some jazz. The sound you are looking for in a home theater setup may be entirely different than what I wanted.