The 802 has larger cabinet volume and more importantly the Marlan head enclosure for the midrange driver. The shape and the material give the 802 an advantage in clarity and dispersion vs the 803. It also allows the tweeter to be mounted with additional free space around it. Stingreen should change his user name to Vanderstringreen. BTW I think Vandersteen makes an excellent speaker. |
here is a nice discussion comparing the 803S to the 804S. I know that you did not ask for this but this discussion reveals several characteristics of the 803S that might interest you. Also, several posters did a comparison with the 803D version & have compared/contrasted the 2 speakers. I think that it might worth your time to read these posts: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=736201 The N802 is a very good speaker & I would say that it is 1 notch below the best of the Nautilus series speakers of that era (which was the N800 even tho' there was the N801 which had the 15" woofer. The 15" woofer made it impractical in 99% of the homes as it would overload the room severely & make listening impossible). The N802 speaker is not to be underestimated in terms of your amp's ability to drive it. If you do get the N802 you'll probably have to change out your amp to ensure that you can drive it correctly & optimally to get the best from it; otherwise, you'll be wasting your money. The N802 *demands* the very best electronics if you want to hear what it can do (a good friend of mine has these speaker & he + I have been around the corner or two coaxing the best out of his speaker so I know what I'm talking about + I've owned B&Ws myself). If you are not ready to overhaul your system to upgrade to the N802 buy a more modest B&W like the N803 or N804 - you'll get much better sound for less cash outlay. My assumption here is that you are not made of money; in case you are, disregard my comments completely. FWIW. |
Thanks for the responses guys. I currently have a pair of 803s and enjoy them very much. I am driving them with a cinenova grande 300 watts per channel. I am not biamping since I have a htm2 which I am selling on eBay right now and a pair of ds3 rears. However I could sell my 803s and get a pair of n802 that a guy has here locally but I just want to here people's opinions especially those that have heard the two and let me know if it's worth the hassle. |
I personally think that you will get lower-end reasonable sonics with your Cinenova Grande 300 watts per channel HT amplifier but this amp will not bring out the best of the N802 since it wasn't made to drive a load as difficult as the N802. I looked @ the Cinenova Grande 7-ch amp & noted that they used a 4000VA transformer divided equally amongst 7 channels. According to my calculations that amounted to 10A per channel. This 10A needs to be further divided to 5A per positive supply rail & 5A per negative supply rail. That's an OK amount of current for most other speakers but quite a bit shy for the N802. You'd need an amp with double the current delivery to make the N802 shine. My assumption is that your 5-ch amp is not better than the 7-ch (which had more info for me to work with). However, your goal might not be to make the N802 shine; your goal might simply be to be a N802 owner. I don't know what your motivation is to get the N802....but your present amp will give you OK-OK performance. The N802 is a challenge to drive - my friend could not drive them properly with a Classe 400 in a 2-ch setup. |
