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Had an extensive audition of the B&W Formation Duo speakers. They are decent, but the Phantom Golds absolutely obliterate them in sonic fidelity and build quality. These are products not even anywhere near in the same category. Duo’s did not sound as good as the 700 S2 series and they’re made in China. If they were made in England, had better cabinets, used Hypex NCore amps, it could have been something special. Bowers missed the mark here. Best sounding and built powered DSP and wireless speakers in the world are Devialet and Bang & Olufsen.
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(07-May-2019, 19:27)invictus005 Wrote: Had an extensive audition of the B&W Formation Duo speakers. They are decent, but the Phantom Golds absolutely obliterate them in sonic fidelity and build quality. These are products not even anywhere near in the same category. Duo’s did not sound as good as the 700 S2 series and they’re made in China. If they were made in England, had better cabinets, used Hypex NCore amps, it could have been something special. Bowers missed the mark here. Best sounding and built powered DSP and wireless speakers in the world are Devialet and Bang & Olufsen.
That's very interesting. I think the Golds are in a league of their own, esp when properly set up.
The Reactor 900 are of comparable build quality and I would love to know if they beat the Formation Duos! I'm talking in stereo config of course.
Once Roon comes to both Phantom ranges I imagine there will be even less reason to consider these.
Cheers,
Guillaume
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(07-May-2019, 20:37)GuillaumeB Wrote: That's very interesting. I think the Golds are in a league of their own, esp when properly set up.
Can you elaborate on this? As I understand it, you put the Golds on a stand and there's not much other "setting up" you can do?
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booshtukka
(07-May-2019, 20:37)GuillaumeB Wrote: That's very interesting. I think the Golds are in a league of their own, esp when properly set up.
Can you elaborate on this? As I understand it, you put the Golds on a stand and there's not much other "setting up" you can do?
I think that Guillaume means that like any real true full range speaker able to deliver real bass with a high SPL, the positioning in the room as well as the acoustic of the room is paramount to enable their complete potential.
Jean-Marie
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(08-May-2019, 17:17)Jean-Marie Wrote: booshtukka
(07-May-2019, 20:37)GuillaumeB Wrote: That's very interesting. I think the Golds are in a league of their own, esp when properly set up.
Can you elaborate on this? As I understand it, you put the Golds on a stand and there's not much other "setting up" you can do?
I think that Guillaume means that like any real true full range speaker able to deliver real bass with a high SPL, the positioning in the room as well as the acoustic of the room is paramount to enable their complete potential.
Jean-Marie
Thank you Jean-Marie that’s exactly what I meant. The Golds generate so much bass etc that they need to be treated like big speakers in terms of placement in the room. Sorry i’ve just repeated what you said! 
Guillaume
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Thanks for clarification 
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Dear All,
Yesterday I was listening to B&W Duo. Far from walls, original stands, connecting IPad Pro through ApplePlay. Using Classical and Jazz, CD and 96/24 quality. Listening at reasonable sound level.
- sound as from small loudspeakers
- missing bass
- high frequencies and transients rather mediocre
I was using recorded locally music from Qobuz, which sounds perfectly on my Devialet Gold.
Dealer was resetting the system to factory presets and it was not helpful. Firmware was freshly updated.
Total price of the system is close to Golds when adding connection box. Cannot connect using Bluetooth without B&W Application. Application for configuring the system is from 1970 ?
Think twice !
Best,
Andrzej.
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