Room size & choosing speakers

In 2000 I met a person who bought the 802N. His room was too small for this speaker. He had a lot od acoustic problems with it. I never would have sold him this speakers in that room. I got really irritated and phoned with B&W in my country. I said you need to be more careful and honnest to cleints about speakers in this price range.

I auditioned the 802D's at a local dealer and did not like the sound at all. The imaging was constricted and the midrange was muddy and hollow. I think the problem was the room was too small for these speakers. Other speakers sounded much better in that room. Therefore I tend to agree with the others that the 802D's really need a bigger room to perform to their potential.

Many shops do not understand audio and acoustics. In my country it is the same. The problem is knowlegde. First you have to understand and know all the properties of the 802D before you can Judge in which room and how it need to be positioned. Then you also need to know which amp will get all the properties out of the speaker it owns. With speakercable it is the same. They often just place them somewhere, pick an amp and some cables. Audio and music does not work like this. It is that simple!

Mksr, given the dimensions of your room and the fact that your room is a bit
square-ish, it is best to go with monitor speakers that do not have a lot of bass
(e.g. B&W 805D, Focal Electra or Utopia) and complement these monitors with a
good subwoofer. Being able to move the bass source around the room is very
important for archiving a good bass response. When properly integrated with a
subwoofer, the 805 will sound much fuller than the 803Ds and should have
significantly more impact.

Regarding the Dynaudio C1 speakers (mk1 or mk2), when set up properly they
sound much better than any B&W 805 modeI. However, they require a much
more careful set up, i.e. they need a very good power amp and also require
careful placement in the room. Also, because they put out a lot of bass it is
imperative that you try them in your room to make sure they will not overwhelm
it.

Thank-you for all of your feedback. It is helping me to sort through the choices. I went back to the dealer and listened again to the 803D & the 805D (with Rel 328 sub) in a room almost as small as mine, and I have given up on the 803D & 802D- too much speaker. I still like the 805D & the sub added punch, but at times I could locate the sub and it distracted from the fullness of the sound. I imagine that this has to do with placement and adjusting the sub carefully to fit the room.

I also listened today to Sonus Farber Olympica I (didn't like them at all) & then the Wilson Duette & it seems in a different class than the other monitor speakers I have heard. I can get a floor model of the original duette for about 1/2 the price of the new duette 2 (which I haven't heard yet). I only got to listen for about 45 minutes - wow. They seem worth going out of the way for.

The 805D/mac combination had one way that is was warmer, but in every other way the Wilson Duette (with an arye integrated amp) was far superior. I am interested if anybody has experience with them and if worth the money to get the duette 2's.

Thank-you,