B&W's are to bright for me and they need AMPs I can't lift to really drive them. Midrange is nice though. I also find I needed to play them loud to really make them sing. I'm sure moving up the line and over time B&W's get better than what I had, but so do Meridian's. Comparing similar vintage and size B&W (say Matrix 803's) to similar vintage and size 18-bit 5500s, the 5500's sound like an 803 triamped with 1500 watts behind them (in terms of energy delivered, i.e. bass). Note: 5500's are Quadamped (after the digital crossovers) so they don't need the same watts, Passive burn that power up in heat in the analog cross over. To be fair you'd have to compare 801's (with perhaps $10k worth of amp (say 4 krell mono amps)) to 8000's. And all that space to put those amps and all those massive cables(yuck). And I think I know which I would prefer smile .

- Fiddler (IMHO)

If you think listening to music is fun, try learning an instrument.
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