Audio Emporium
Newsletter B&W
N805D Now On Display! $5k pr. When B&W announced its N805 before the new millennium I was delighted. We have lots of customers who want very high quality performance in a modest size. She is often OK with the money and the hobby, so long as it doesn’t take over HER house. N805 at $2800pr was the hot ticket! It was a smallish speaker that took advantage of B&W’s strengths (Nautilus & Matrix technology) of the late 90s. It had the Nautilus tweeter design to drink up excessive highs. It used B&W’s famed Matrix design to usurp unwanted cabinet resonances. N805 wasn’t tiny. It had some real muscle and gave us a strong horse to ride! In 2006 B&W cranked its game up a notch. It introduced DIAMONDS into the equation for tweeter diaphragms on its top several towers. That was great. But (with lower lip quivering) what about those of us that need a bookshelf sized speaker to work with? Now we were no longer equal to the top tier of performance. I started a one man email campaign blatantly harassing B&W. “Where the hell are my 805Ds?!” Better late than never, huh? It took me four solid years of persistence to badger them into making the 805D. At $5k per pair, the 805D is everything we hoped it would be! It has the smooth high end of its DIAMOND brethren. The DIAMOND tweeter has been improved. So 805D owners will have the latest greatest. It has an improved mid/woofer driver with more extended bass than its predecessor. We know you’ll be impressed! While they were at it, B&W brought the DIAMOND down to the 804D as well. We haven’t received those yet so I won’t comment on their sound. They should be here soon- a four element 3-way at $7500pr. Bryston 7B-SST-2 Mono Blocks $4600ea: 600 watts Bryston has improved its classic Mono Block power amp, the Model Seven. The latest iteration is called the 7B-SST-2 (squared). Upon receiving the new 7s, we tossed them on to the new B&W 802D2. Wow! What a match! We’ve always known that all things being equal, there’s no such thing as too much power. When you hear it in practice, you’ll be a believer. The Sevens are fast and controlled. If you have discs that show off percussion and bass slam, you will experience things you didn’t even know were there! The thunder and tautness in the bass are world class. Of course we suspect most Model Seven owners will have large speakers like the B&W 802D2. But just for the education of it all, I tied on a pair of N805Ds to the mighty Sevens and Holy Cow, what an amazing pair of speakers! The N805D revealed that it had even more in the tank with these Herculean amps. You can nicely round out the equation with the Bryston BP-26 two chassis preamp ($4550 with remote) and the Bryston BCD-1 CD player ($2900). With this gorgeous stack of Bryston at mere $16,650, you’re ready to get the most out of any speakers out there! “After Hours” CD Andre Previn is a talented musician! As a young man he played piano for a guy named Sinatra. He was equal parts jazz and classical pianist/composer and has become a world renowned classical music conductor. In 1989 after performing in a classical concert in LA, he went to a studio to record a jazz CD with a couple of friends- Ray Brown and Joe Pass. The result of this session is a gorgeous sounding jazz CD with Previn on piano. There is no overdubbing. There are no touch up corrections. It’s just an hour of great jazz! Previn’s style of play is beautiful. He’s not in a rush to play a million notes just to prove he can. Stop in to buy it! |
