B&W 'New' 800 Series

I thought u said no 3d sound stage in live music ......:^) 

Hey Bobby...where are you man ? 

Mapman.. are you going to tell us the Monitor Audio - B&W shootout results ? 

I did say that and it's true...but I also said I likes me some holography in me stereo system.  My problem with Bo was that I don't like when the soundstage is squished and the images are small, which is contrary to live music.  Imaging itself is cool as long as it is on a scale that convinces me I'm in the presence of live music!

Any new experience on the D3?

German magazine Stereo did the review of the 800D3 in Nov 2016:

"Such a sound experience is a scarce commodity even for a staunch STEREO editor with 40 years of his own hi-fi story. She has grown to my heart, this B & W. I took them out of the foyer with my pallet, unloaded their 2 x 116 kilograms, took part in mea- surement and photo-shooting, kept them carefully and carefully set up in the listening room,
Long with changing electronics and to enjoy. She is not an annoying diva, plays at a high level, but lets you know whether the cable or the component is spontaneous.
To call the new 800s a further top loudspeaker, would probably fall short, it is much more an absolute dream and thus the currently most favorable STEREO top reference at all!

I did listen to a non broken in 802 D3 yesterday for 20 minutes at the Magnolia, Long Island. Even with the mediocre solid Macintosh gear and Audioquest cables, the sound was really something special, effortless (given high power amp). Little 2D ish but speakers were not properly positioned, just couple of feet from the back wall, toed-in, which I hate, bit they had just 20 hours of play time on them, so it was obvious they sound had plenty of room for further refinement. Me and my lady friend who is classical pianist just sat mesmerized, and I thought nothing would "WOW" me at this stage of the game..... Something special indeed. I can’t even imagine what the sound will be like after 500 hours of the break in and with reference class EL 34, or 845 based tube amps and proper wire !!!!