B&W 801 vs 803s

Should you get one? Only you know the answer to that.
Thats why we say go listen!!!!

Just because a studio uses B&W 801's or whatever, does not necessarily mean they will churn out well recorded music, just the same with the sometimes inconsiderate dozey I own the road coz my car is faster than yours *Porsche owner who likes to think and pretend to himself as a Schumacher clone.
* from a personal perspective, and probably not the general rule of all Porsche owners I might add.
There is nothing wrong with comparing Wilson's or any other
high end loudspeaker with a huge price tag (same as the studio) does not necessarily mean a loudspeaker is any good and musical, they ought to be, but it is not always the case. I have heard a Porsche price loudspeaker that I would not give the price of a 15 year old Chevy truck for.
To my ears B&W are hi-fi speakers and not that musical, I would never own a pair and have no desire to unlike the comment from a previous poster that thinks we all would like to deep down. The key as also been stated is, go listen, use your ears and do not be swayed by what others say, opinions are like assholes, we've all got one!
If B&W or any other make of loudspeaker floats your boat then that's all that really matters.
What better place than the RMAF this week?
Happy listening folks (and driving) beep beep!

Wow, lotta haters out there... car analogies...

Palermo, though the 801N is a much more dynamic and capable speaker than the 803N, it is surely too big for your 13ft wide room to support.

Is the 802N an option? It sounds closer to the 801 than the 803 IMHO, and would work better in your room.

The fact of the matter is it can be very hard to listen to most of the high end speakers we are talking about here, except for the B&W, before we purchase them.. Wilson, Eggleston, Thiel, Merlin etc are not that easy to find and one may have to travel hundreds of miles just to listen to them. Most of the speakers I have purchased over the past few years I had never heard until they were dropped off at my door step. I relied on reccomendations from fellow audiogoners. Reviews can be helpful but I have read good reveiws on many speakers that most people would agree sound like crap.

Are some reviewers on the take out there. Yes, reviewers are looking for favors. If you say something good about my speeakers I will give you a hell of a price on the pair you reveiwed. Also they may not say that many good things about a particular speaker but will avoid stating the obvious such as the speaker may suck! With the advertising budget of B&W a magazine has to be very careful what they print about that product.

Reviews from magazines can be a very bad place to find about about speakers. They tend to sugar coat what they say. Where one would hope fellow audiogoners would be truthfull about how they feel about a particular speaker.

Are some reviewers on the take out there. Yes, reviewers are looking for favors.

Yes - one should be well aware that reviewers get demo or discounts (at cost) for some review equipment which they can then use and then sell used, sometimes for a small profit. This is especially true for audio cables that may sell for factors of ten or more times their cost.