Welcome to BeoWorld Mkondratov!

The current B&O headphones are regarded as nothing special, even by a majority of BeoWorlders. I have a pair of A8 earphones (listening to them right now!) and actually like them. I always love listening to the P5 whenever I go into the Apple store (they must have nearly 10 demonstration pairs!)

The topic of loudspeakers (B&O vs. B&W) hasn't really been debated here, at least for as long as I've been around. It is interesting to think about, things like the tweeters; the Lab 9 has ALT and the 801D (I feel the 801D is more applicable to the Lab 9) has its diamond super tweeter and both are 3-way speakers. But looking deeper, they start to separate, passive vs. active etc... I'm sure there is a comparo somewhere...

I have precisely zero experience with B&W loudspeakers, so I may be full of it 😂

Apples and Oranges sonically.

The B&Ws focus more on time-domain distortion (transparency, resolution etc...) while the BeoLabs are more about tonality, off-axis response etc...

I wouldn't really want to say one is better than the other, although the 802D really is especially superb...

The A8's are very good in my opinion, not much bass as being a headphone it is a very small speaker, but very clear and same "tonal" quality as the other B&o speakers.

Hello Alex - It's funny my name is also Alex.

Anyway I will like to comment on your view that B&W is more focused on time-domain distortion as compared to Beolabs. If you look at the measurements of Beolab5s you will realize there that it has a perfect time response. It is far easier and way more affordable to correct alignment problems of speaker units with low level signals or under the digital domain, the latter being the simplest. So it is safe to assume that the Beolab 9s have an edge over the B&Ws in terms of time-domain distortion with the inclusion of the fact that B&O uses paper and cloth materials for speaker diaphragms which are superior to the diamond or the metal materials in terms of self damping/ time distortion. The fact that the Beolab 9s are sloped at an angle too place a part.

B&O has a reputation of sounding crisp and incessant in the higher registers whereas B&W speakers favor neutrality but is notorious for the lack of integration between the different speaker units that are made of vastly different materials. 

Simply put B&W is for hi-fi lovers and B&O is for music lovers. 

The BeoLab 9 is not DSP based, the crossovers involved are fairly straightforward/conventional for an active speaker, although they do include some dynamic EQing depending I believe. There is not time alignment going on, although you are of course correct that the drivers themselves are physically aligned. In terms of transient response, I would expect the BeoLabs to outperform the B&Ws as you say, but in terms of decay, harmonic and non-harmonic distortion levels, the B&Ws would trump the BeoLabs due to their cabinet construction, especially in the lowest bass registers where the BeoLab 9 enclosure can begin to break up a little.

You're right about the driver integration though, the BeoLabs are a lot smoother tonally across their bandwidth than the B&Ws!

The problem with the B&W is that you will probably never have enough power (huge boat anchor power amp's!!) to drive them to deliver timing and dynamics like the BL9.

Put simply,with BL9 you listen to the music and with B&W you think about making it better whilst listening to the music!

I have only had experience with Revel speakers and in a direct comparison to BL9 the sound is quite flat and closed in at the top end,the detail is nowhere near on any type of string and the BL9 generally brings out the best in the recording and everything sounds 'right' and you constantly hear new things.

DirtyDiana wrote:

The problem with the B&W is that you will probably never have enough power (huge boat anchor power amp's!!) to drive them to deliver timing and dynamics like the BL9.

The B&Ws are overall more efficient than the BeoLab 9s. Drop 400w of power into an 802D and you will make much more noise than a BeoLab 9 ever will.

IMO comparing passive speakers to active speakers in terms of what it takes to get them driven is kind of irrelavent. It's like saying you have to put a much bigger engine in a Cessna than in a Peugeot 106 to get it up to 100mph...