Quote:
Originally Posted by IM3CPO
I auditioned the B&W 800D series and was not a fan of the Diamond tweeter; especially when paired with Classe. I have all McIntosh pre-amps and amps and while I bet this would help a lot (as others have said) it still wasnt worth it when there are silk dome tweeters available in other brands.
I ended up going with Wilsons and dont regret it whatsoever. Focal is also intriguing and look to be a really good value. If you have the cash I would go the Wilson route but would not fault someone for getting Focal..  |
See how different the experiences are, due to some free time yesterday I again had the chance to audition B&Ws D2 (notD3) against Sophia and preferred the B&Ws (I knew this before, but wanted to check again, before auditioning the bigger Wilson Audios sometime later this year).
Focal - to my ears - is by far less musical sounding than B&W and still has horrible treble. It took me 10 Minutes to find that I would have the same problems with these speakers than I did 15 years back. Really do not like their sound at all - it`s fatiguing and annoying to me.
Between these three Focal has fallen out for me. Sophia and Sabrina are great speakers that do sound different to the B&W Diamonds but not by far better (especially at the european price level) - thus leaving the Yvette and/or the Sasha as only alternative, should I really decide to upgrade from the 802Diamond.
I have no doubt that they are fantastic speakers - but are they really worth two to three times the price... ?
The option of buying in the states and importing myself is still there, but I do have my problems to hassle a dealer over here to do extensive listening and then buy behind his back in another country.