Bowers and Wilkerson B&W 802 D3: an impolite Brit?

"I just sold my excellent floorstanders because I am tired of having broken balls and a broken back lugging them around, and trying to locate the ideal "sweet spot" in my 12 X15 room."

You realize you don't have to put them back in the closet upstairs after each use?

"So what should members do like Tom, who want to get away from this bright, fatiguing, unreal, edgy sound??"

For British speakers look at these: ProAc Response (the older models are fine.), Spendor S series, Living Voice, Mission, Rega, Monitor Audio, Audio Note

None of those have that hard to listen to quality you mention above. If you're willing to buy used, you should be able to find something at a reasonable price from any of those brands.

What I've found with the diamonds is it depends on the amp you use. I've heard the D2 on a pair of Krell Mono-Blocks and quickly left the room with my ears bleeding but I've also heard them on an Anthem P2 and loved them! The best I've heard them on was tube gear using ARC and Cary.

That comment of the speaker being bright my be relevant in your opinions but I always ask, are they actually bright or are you hearing information you normally don't?
I'm not sure about the no bass below 50hz comment, I've been around a lot of 802's and can't say i've had a comment of no lower octave bass.

Tompoodie,
like many before me have already written B&W sucks bug time. I dont think they know how to design a speaker. Right from my DM604S2 I didnt like them much at all. Personally I had some success with my DM604S2 but after about a yr & a half I sold them & never looked back. I've heard B&Ws several times at each RMAF I attended & at other showrooms (when I go back to India to visit my folks) & each time they've sucked. Bad sound. They got to pay me to use their speakers.....

I also have no idea where the "no bass below 50hz" thought comes from. Whether one considers the 800 series bright or not (I don't), I've never thought of them as light on the low end. The 805 Signature, just for one example, had great punch down low for the volume of the cabinet. The 800 floor standing models never sounded thin to me.

But if someone had it in their mind to shop B&W and wanted something absolutely un-bright, I'd tell them to listen to the PM1. Whether through SS or tube amps, I found them to be early Sonus Faber-warm. They were too warm for me, but others seem to love them.

The Proac Response series is another great British speaker, definitely not bright or edgy.

I listened to the 803 D3 earlier today. The sound quality was incredible. The room setup was a bit small, and whoever set them up put them close to the wall, which caused the mid-range (voices especially) to sound muffled and raspy, and caused the bass to be boomy. I quickly used the WASP setup method and found a much better placement. I'm sure with more time and tweaking I could have fine tuned them more, but oh well, the Best Buy employee was giving me an odd look already.

Once set up decently they sounded spectacular to me. The high frequency was incredible. The sounds of symbols and high hats were realistic. Their decay sounded authentic to me as a musician. What impressed me the most was that the notes across all ranges had a correct sound to their decay. Musicians used to playing instruments through crappy speakers, and who don't play acoustically, may not notice it, but the decay on instruments were as close to the real thing as I have ever heard without it being an acoustic instrument in the room with me. The room was not conducive to a large soundstage like I would have available in my apartment. I plan on going back and playing with the toe-in, as they were set up pointed directly at the listening position in Best Buy. I'm excited to bring some of my own CDs and experiment with the setup a bit to see how wide a soundstage these speakers can thrown without losing coherence in between the speakers.

BTW, I actually had a bottle of milk with me and it did not spoil.... LOL...