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Just had B&W 800D3 Vs 800D3 Home demo. Anyone interested?

There is a set of nautilus's going for gpb 30k over here .. I wonder how they would stack up vs the 800 d3 ..?

I had a listen to the 802 d3's and was impressed..thought it amongst the best I heard from B&W

I wasnt taken by their new design which reminded me of a dust bin ... however far worse things have been said about my speakers... vivid audio Giya G1 (which have a B&W pedigree in that Dickie , their designer did the matrix series and the Nautilus. They are the modern nautilus)
 
The aesthetics of design should complement sound and sound being the priority.... if you dont take to the physical appearance of something then listening to them is kind of irrelevant. Personally, the appearance of a speaker might be the final icing on the cake but very much secondary to sound. The D3's IMHO look fine, nothing bling just fine but oh my god who cares when they sound as they do!
 
music4nusic said:
The aesthetics of design should complement sound and sound being the priority.... if you dont take to the physical appearance of something then listening to them is kind of irrelevant. Personally, the appearance of a speaker might be the final icing on the cake but very much secondary to sound. The D3's IMHO look fine, nothing bling just fine but oh my god who cares when they sound as they do!
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Any pics for us all to see?
 
Rodney gold said:
There is a set of nautilus's going for gpb 30k over here .. I wonder how they would stack up vs the 800 d3 ..?

I had a listen to the 802 d3's and was impressed..thought it amongst the best I heard from B&W

I wasnt taken by their new design which reminded me of a dust bin ... however far worse things have been said about my speakers... vivid audio Giya G1 (which have a B&W pedigree in that Dickie , their designer did the matrix series and the Nautilus. They are the modern nautilus)
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I did a major speaker audition over a period of a couple of years in the mid 90s. The speakers I most wanted to be the best were the Nautilus, since I love the styling and concept it made the final audition but I chose another speaker in the end.
I would be surprised if the Giya isn't quit a lot better being considerably more developed, particularly in the bass, though I don't like their styling at all, personally.
 
I was told a few years ago by a B&W dealer that the Nautilus SQ was far behind the higher end recent models. I'm presently running 800D2s and to be honest don't hear the deficiencies the OP mentions. With great amps and a decent sized room the D2s sing. No doubt the D3s are better as you would expect.

I'm hankering after a pair of the larger MBL speakers to go with my amps. Having heard their reference speakers recently I've had my concept of what speakers can do rewritten. Watch this space!
 
Great write up. I had a listen to some seven speakers last year in order to replace my old 803s. These had been left behind by the various upgrades over the years. I finally had a demo of the 802D3, plus a direct comparison with a pair of 800D2s the dealer had on hand. I can confirm the new 802 aces the older 800. By quite a margin. I did not dare listen to the new 800's sitting outside the door. There is quite a price change at this point. Perhaps I should have gone the extra yards. I bought the 802's. They have about five months on the clock now and are really stepping up. They do enjoy being pushed but also perform so well at low volumes.
 
Bodger said:
Great write up. I had a listen to some seven speakers last year in order to replace my old 803s. These had been left behind by the various upgrades over the years. I finally had a demo of the 802D3, plus a direct comparison with a pair of 800D2s the dealer had on hand. I can confirm the new 802 aces the older 800. By quite a margin. I did not dare listen to the new 800's sitting outside the door. There is quite a price change at this point. Perhaps I should have gone the extra yards. I bought the 802's. They have about five months on the clock now and are really stepping up. They do enjoy being pushed but also perform so well at low volumes.
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Just to clarify, you bouth the 802 D3 or d2?
 
Well, I'm a week away from having these beauties delivered. Im excited now so come Sunday I'm going to be foaming at the mouth… or I'll have possibly gone into cardiac arrest.
 
Thanks for the write up.

A couple of thoughts on your questions, particularly relating to the tweeter sound change between generations and models. I think the tweetsr is in a different housing which looks similar from the outside. The mid similarly looks to be in a similar hoising but is very differently shaped on the inside and is a different material. Crossover components and possibly relative drive unit output levels may also have changed. One of the things using SPACE in a Linn system teaches you is the importance of well controlled bass in affecting the rest of the frequency range. SPACE touches nothing above 100Hz yet when it tackles room modes at the low notes, it unmasks stuff much further up the frequency range in a way you're not prepared for, but which is very obvious when heard. I'm not clear on the exact technical reason for this, but it seems to be related to the upper harmonics of the bass notes being removed and therefore the wanted signals at those higher frequencies become easier to pick out. Perhaps the better bass behaviour of the 800 over the 802 is bringing a similar benefit.
 
So if you have already heard the new D3 series and your not interested what is the point of your reply? Those people who are interested would perhaps be the most relevant responses to this post.
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Sorry to get in the way of your PR - do the new ones have a decent midrange, then?
 
abbydog said:
Sorry to get in the way of your PR - do the new ones have a decent midrange, then?
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Theres no PR going on here just sharing my experiences for the benefit of those who are genuinely interested in hearing them. As for the mid range, as I said in the narrative this is a completely differently voiced speaker. The mids are difficult to compare to the D2 because it is so very different and when analysing these speakers I realised very quickly that I had to forget my loves and hates of B&W and view this speaker range on a brand new sheet of paper. I would say that the entire frequency range is very different and at the same time without any of the previous criticisms I had of B&W. Yes that does mean that many of the things I loved about my speakers have changed in the new model but in my opinion in a very positive way.
 
Got to love B&W threads. Invariably greatest thing since sliced bread until the next generation makes a quantum leap forward at which point the flaws of previous models are suddenly in plain sight.

Yawn.
 
notevenclose said:
Got to love B&W threads. Invariably greatest thing since sliced bread until the next generation makes a quantum leap forward at which point the flaws of previous models are suddenly in plain sight.

Yawn.
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Great contribution on your part I salute you…but then I suspect your revelation of envy was not intentional moreover unrestrainable. Lol
 
His contribution is valuable. It keeps the trade alive and kicking! If there was one speaker that suited all and was audio perfection to everybody life would be bloody boring...

Great write up. How interesting that B&W have felt the need to change the voicing of their flagship (In the OP's opinion) ...I wonder if it was to improve on what they had already achieved slightly, or had they set out with a complete change in mind? I've never had a pair of B&Ws, didn't like them compared to other speakers in demos when I started buying proper speakers a couple of decades ago. I started down the PMC path instead, but have just left and gone vintage instead.
 
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