Seriously doubt they gave speakers to anyone. They did solicit input from recording engineers and ended up with their "house sound". At best, they might have sold speakers at dealer cost to professionals. I'll see if I can find the article I read about why B&W speakers sound the way they do. They could make speakers like Revel (any manufacturer with the proper resources could) but chose not to. Floyd Toole recently said they may be changing their way of thinking.
Many British rock and classical studios have used them for decades, started with the 801F ca 1976? I bought a pair because they were THE monitor for classical recording and that was my job. It's one reason a lot of recordings don't sound great. When you monitor on a speaker that's bright, you make recordings lacking high end.
http://seanolive.blogspot.com/2009/1...confusion.html