13-Nov-2014, 23:57
Hello everybody.
Thanks for the very warm welcome!
I will try to bring in some more of my experiences in the future.
It is nice to meet some guys from other forums here as well.
Concerning the 802's (and also all the other B&W's): I had a very bad time when these came new out of the boxes. These speakers need some really serious time of burn in. And I am talking about HUNDREDS of hours with raised up volume!!!!!!
Especially the first 100 hours were a real nightmare and I only played them when I was NOT at home. The SQ in the beginning is really bad! So please keep this in mind when you visit a dealer. Very often people do not pay enough attention on this detail.
Moreover I can tell you that I have tested the 800 Diamond already as well (and with SAM, too). My impression was that these seem to need the 800 Devialets what makes this combo much more expensive.
Right now I do a lot of tests and I have already borrowed one B&W DB1 subwoofer which I want to use with the 802's! I have experienced in the past that the addition of a really fine active subwoofer helps even the very best speakers (such as Wilson Sasha) to play more relaxed. It seems to be a phenomena similar to the effect when using SAM....
One last word to the effect of SAM on the 802's: in my setup the use of SAM makes a "night and day" difference!! Without SAM the 802's are just good speakers among others. But with SAM switched on the speakers really shine and outperform all other setups in my "neigbourhood". As I mentioned before some of my buddies spent much more for their setup (i.e. WILSON W/P 8, AVM MA8 and Linn Klimax DS, all cables NBS and Straight Wire Crescendo) and even though we are tweaking these systems for years already the performance / SQ can not keep up with my "inexpensive" chain which I started to bring up only five month ago......
From my experience SAM is a big step and a real game changer.
And now lets go to bed. Have a good night folks!
Thanks for the very warm welcome!
I will try to bring in some more of my experiences in the future.
It is nice to meet some guys from other forums here as well.
Concerning the 802's (and also all the other B&W's): I had a very bad time when these came new out of the boxes. These speakers need some really serious time of burn in. And I am talking about HUNDREDS of hours with raised up volume!!!!!!
Especially the first 100 hours were a real nightmare and I only played them when I was NOT at home. The SQ in the beginning is really bad! So please keep this in mind when you visit a dealer. Very often people do not pay enough attention on this detail.
Moreover I can tell you that I have tested the 800 Diamond already as well (and with SAM, too). My impression was that these seem to need the 800 Devialets what makes this combo much more expensive.
Right now I do a lot of tests and I have already borrowed one B&W DB1 subwoofer which I want to use with the 802's! I have experienced in the past that the addition of a really fine active subwoofer helps even the very best speakers (such as Wilson Sasha) to play more relaxed. It seems to be a phenomena similar to the effect when using SAM....
One last word to the effect of SAM on the 802's: in my setup the use of SAM makes a "night and day" difference!! Without SAM the 802's are just good speakers among others. But with SAM switched on the speakers really shine and outperform all other setups in my "neigbourhood". As I mentioned before some of my buddies spent much more for their setup (i.e. WILSON W/P 8, AVM MA8 and Linn Klimax DS, all cables NBS and Straight Wire Crescendo) and even though we are tweaking these systems for years already the performance / SQ can not keep up with my "inexpensive" chain which I started to bring up only five month ago......
From my experience SAM is a big step and a real game changer.
And now lets go to bed. Have a good night folks!
