Ah ok, didn’t know. However Classé is leaner sounding vs Naim and gives a better neutral match I think with BW.
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I’ve never heard a Classe, so won’t be able to compare, but in general it will be interesting to wait and see what any new Classe will sound like.
Regardless of whether more than just the name was bought, as it was first discontinued people will be gone, so definitely knowledge will have gotten lost.
Anyway, neutral or not, the most important is the individual taste. Some like BW/ Naim, other not.
Absolute neutrality is also boring…
I was so busy boring you all with my tale of recklessness that I forgot to add something which is relevant to the OP’s query:
General consensus, especially among dealers, is that B&W speakers need prodigious amounts of control (or ‘grip’) from the amplifier. This usually means you need lots of Watts available: I’ve seen people recommending half-kiloWatt beasts ‘to really get the best out of the 800 series’ but, with Naim, I would say just go for the best amp combination you can afford. FWIW, when I bought my 804Ss, the seller (a Naim and B&W dealer, as it happened) recommended a 200 power amp as a bare minimum to run them, which is why I’m saving up for a 250!
Mark
Or second hand 135s…
It’s now manufactured in Japan, not Canada. So that answers the above, it’s the name Classe and perhaps the designs, but not the knowhow.
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Here the equipment used at Abbey road studio recording
The Penthouse
- Avid Pro Tools HDX
- Avid S6 mixing console
- Bower & Wilkins 800D monitors and Classé Audio amplification
That picture has an older line of B&W, that’s not the D3’s which they currently use. Don’t they use the 802d3, or is it the 800d3?
I think it’s the model they still use, because I copied and pasted from their official site.
It clearly shows how many tone controls one need to get BW working in a room.
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A mobile phone picture I took in 2018 while on the Abbey Road Studio Tour - sorry for the poor quality, I now have a much better device.
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A reminder - Please don’t post unauthorised links to commercial websites here in the Hifi Corner. Thank you.
If you go to Studio One and or Studio Three, they have pictures of the new ones. There’s also an whole article on it if you use the search (no idea how to get there via the menu)
The B&W site also has pictures of the new ones in the studio
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No idea neither. Did you seen still Classe electronics?
yes power is needed to drive these demanding speakers, but power isn’t everything
Some speakers have ability to convey rhythms better than others, and to my ears, B&W seems to have competition in this area…
I would also audition Proac, Neat, PMC, Kudos and Dynaudio…
Classe is normally the electronics with which they demo the speakers. I don’t like the B and W speakers so much, have demoed all the top end ones and they didn’t touch me. However I belief you are well advised to start with the 250 to drive them, as they are hungry…
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I preferred a bit BW with Simaudio Moon vs Naim. However I prefer faster and spacier speakers.
I’m with Ebor on this. I’ve got B&W 805D3s on a 300DR and before that a 250DR and they sound phenomenal.
They like the power and control of a Naim NAP for sure.
The integration of the Bass/Mid Continiuum driver with the Diamond tweeter is excellent.
Vocals have an intimate breathy quality to them, and they can still deliver a natural resolution even whilst driving a sub bass and mid bass attack element to the song.
An example of that is like in Massive Attack’s Paradise Circus, which is an interesting test of a 2 way speaker and its amp paring. Can the amp stop and start the speaker with enough grip to deliver fine grained mid bass, whilst delivering the sub bass and still allow the vocal to sound delicate?
The 805D3 on a NAP 300DR do that very well.
Nothing ‘flabby’ at all about. The construction of the speaker cabinet is so rigid and the Continuum driver so light, with a very high quality cross over into a decoupled and immensely rigid tweeter assembly, with the tweeter grown from carbon (hence Diamond tweeter - and the designation D in the model number) make for a very high performing and great sounding studio montor.
But it really comes into its own with an amp like the 300DR which has such power reserves to start and stop the drivers with impeccable timing that you are left with invisible speakers and just the performance in front of you. A very special combo.
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Again…
Sorry Richard, if your post is directed to me.
But I was posting with intention of answering the question “what does Abbey Road Studios use” - the links I provided are there for the same purpose as ‘reference footnotes’ to back up the answer.
Whilst I’m aware that Abbey Road studios is a commercial operation, I’m not sure I can buy audio HiFi products from them, nor am I endorsing them, nor am I encouraging others to buy anything from them.
We allow other website postings with ‘specification’ details for example. Roonlabs being an example. We allow website postings that include Amazon linking to specific CDs or LPs.
So can you articulate for me where I’m going wrong here?