Hi, my
experience might be of some help if you want to upgrade the 803D2, which is
what I've done. I did buy a new set of Sonus Faber Olympica III, and wanted so
much to replace my 803 (or to be honest, my wife wanted to replace my 803...)
The SF midrange was to die for, but the same cannot be said about the tweeter
and bass. To make a long story short, I sold the SF after upgrading the X-over
in the 803.
The 803 suffers
from; some light upper frequency enhancement with the tweeter, and some nasality
and "in the box" sound from the Kevlar midrange.
When going
through the x-over (B&W had kindly posted the schematic on their homepage),
it was obvious that the 47uF MKP Mundorf and the industrial resistor in series
with the midrange was a week point. I knew also that the 5,1uF Mundorf
Supreme SGO combined with tweeters easily can highlight the upper frequencies,
too much in a not optimal set up.
I first
replaced the 47uF with the new EVO MCap Alu oil and put in a Duelund Silver
CAST resistor. I also replaced the 10uF Supreme Oil in parallel with
Supreme SGO.
It
took some hundred hours to burn in the new setup, but the result was very
satisfying. In brief, a much larger soundstage, the in the box sound was 75%
reduced, the bass(!) was indeed punchier, 3D stage in all
direction had grown. At the same time, there were some highlighting of the
upper midrange that was not to my likings. I therefore decided to replace
the EVO MCap with the new Supreme EVO Oil.
At the same
time I decided to replace the 5,1uF with a Duelund Copper CAST to see if I
could get more from the tweeter.
It now needed
some 500 hours to sound OK, and after around 700hours, it was confirmed, not
only was the midrange free from any kind of boxiness, it was also the best
sounding midrange I've experienced so far in my home. The tweeter together
with the midrange now sounds like a Stradivarius with all I can wish for
regarding holography and texture.
I have listened
to the new 805D3 in two different setups. The first did impress me deeply.
They had the speed and holography like never before. In the second set up they
did not impress me at all, just telling me that the surrounding is just as
important as the speaker themselves. I did like the speed and holography, but
they did not have the texture as the 803 now has.
With the speed
from the 805 in mind, I decided to replace the MKP for the bass drivers as
well, this time with the fantastic resistors from Pathaudio and Mundorf
EVO Alu in oil.
This time the
upgrade gave me some more macro dynamic, but not as much as I had hoped for. It
seems like the driver themselves are the bottleneck here.
There
is space for the upgrade behind the Kevlar driver, but you have to reorganize X-over
a bit. For those how want to see how it can be done, just send me a mail,
s-b-o@frisurf.no.
I'm very happy
I sold the Sonus, the sound from the 803 betters them in every aspect, and this
with a great margin. I've of course considered the new 804D3, but I'm not sure
they will better the fantastic texture, bass and resolution from the 803. Be
aware, they use MKP, electrolyte and not the top of the line Mundorf capacitors.
They have also started to bypass the capacitors with smaller values. I've never
succeeded with this little trick in my x-overs, for power supplies, yes, but
not in loudspeakers.
The 803D3 are too
expensive, and since I've now started to upgrade of the 803, I've ordered the
new Continuum drivers to replace the Kevlar. Still waiting for the drivers to
arrive.
My experience
tells me, there is lot more to get from the 803 with better components, and it
is a shame that B&W has not offered a signature model with these upgrades
incorporated already!
(To bad I cannot show any photoes here in the Forum)