seethroughyou wrote:
Dear Playdrv4me,
I have for a very long time been keen to hear from someone who has had either the B&W 802d or 800d in the same room as the BL5 and compared the two...! How does the best from the two companies stack up? Please tell us more...
How would you rate the two on:
Treble, midrange, bass, stereoimage, volume / sensitivity, detail, dynamics?
Absolutely. I would be glad to answer your question :)
I have actually been going around doing a little of this already on some other forums where I remembered the BL5s being discounted by supposed "audiophiles". Two such threads came to mind, and in one of them a very neutral buyer was actually comparing BL5s and 800 Diamonds (!), the 25k big boys in the line-up. Now in that case the buyer did end up going with the 800 Diamond after many auditions of both, but said his impression was that B&O were on to something with ALT and that he hoped to hear later refinements of the technology. I personally considered that quite an endorsement, rather than a negative.
As to *my* impressions of the older 802D (there have been 3 generations of 802, which slots beneath 800... Nautilus 802, 802D first with the diamond deposition tweeter, and 802 Diamond with some refinements to the "D"): Well, I should start out by saying that the 802D may already be at a slight disadvantage from the word go, as the listening room I have is also my bedroom. Perhaps because this is a rather small room, many of the potential benefits of the 802's FST midrange and diamond tweeter are lost to a rather slow and sometimes overpowering, even "tubby" bass. I have to turn down my preamplifier's bass control by 1.5 to 2db just to make it tolerable. Supposedly, one of the improvements in the 802 Diamond that has been noted is a tighter, cleaner bass. This is a good thing, because the bass is not up to my standard at least in my listening situation. As for the rest of the spectrum, the 802D is a world-class speaker, from a family utilized in many recording studios across the globe, and it shows. You can never ask the 802 for MORE detail, as it is very present, due in no small part to the diamond tweeters. Do I think the diamond tweeters are some kind of revelation, though? Eh, not really. They are very very nice no doubt. The 802 also has a wide dynamic range and the sound is a little more "full" bodied and slightly less "hollow" in the low-midrange end than the Lab5, and this is taking into account the bass issue. Make no mistake, the 800 Series in general, are a force to be reckoned with.
However, that leads me to the BeoLab 5 and some of the aspects I enjoy most about it. First and foremost, is the silky and very present mid-range. Mids on the 802 are just a little too laid back for my liking. This is made more evident by the overpowering bass issue I have. Total contrast with the Lab 5, I like my mids potent but not fatiguing because I feel this is where so much of the important information for vocals and strings and other instruments lies. The Lab 5s don't disappoint here. They do an amazing job with mids. Highs, while not as crisp or sparkly as the 802, still very much hold their own and are also never fatiguing on the Lab 5. The bass on the Lab 5, while not particularly outstanding in any one aspect, simply does what it needs to do, and that the speaker can exert as much control as it does over such a massive lump of woofer, is truly amazing! Never does it feel to me like you have "Speaker + Subwoofer", which is an incredibly hard science to master with such a large single driver. I continue to be amazed that the Lab 5 handles bass so well overall, so much better than the 802 with roughly equal surface area (two 8 inch cones vs. the Lab's single 15) in just ONE woofer. Again, this could possibly be chalked up to an inadequate listening space, but who cares? If the Lab 5 can do so well in this same space, why should the 802 get a pass here? And perhaps that is the Lab 5's greatest strength. It's remarkable ability to simply "blend" into a room. Perhaps almost ANY room and just be forgotten altogether. The combination of ALT, ABL and the automatic calibration functions all come together to produce this spectacular feat in my opinion. Another often forgotten point that I think aids the Lab 5's overall presentation is that it is almost a FOUR way rather than traditional three-way design, carefully crossing over from the 15, to the 8 inch mid, to the upper mid ALT and treble ALT. It is a clear case where more technology does NOT impede the musicality of the speaker, it most certainly HELPS it. Many audiophiles swear off DSPs and such, but if you want a truly versatile sound system, that can handle wherever you choose to put it, it is absolutely the best way. I could theoretically create a similar (but not perfect) situation for the 802s with something like the McIntosh MEN220 room calibration system, but that system requires you to place Microphones in a few areas by hand, and costs roughly $5,000.00.
So, I hope my answer was not too wordy, but there you have it. For those wondering, the answer for me is that I find that while the 802 is a world-class speaker in ideal conditions, not everyone HAS ideal conditions, and thus the Lab 5 just slightly edges it out in my opinion. Lab 5 is an excellent example of technology aiding the listening experience in a very positive way, and a way that is bound to be more useful for far more people. Add in the fact that all of your amplification and DAC are built in and you have to spend NOTHING more on equipment if you don't want to, and the deal becomes even sweeter. Considering that you can get like new late model Lab 5s secondhand now for 15-18k, it makes the value proposition much tougher for the 802 Diamond which costs 15 grand all by ITSELF withOUT equipment.
And speaking of equipment. For those wondering, the source for both speakers was a Classe CP-800 preamplifier (Classe's latest) connected to the Lab 5s via RCA line-in and the 802's amp via balanced XLR (this in theory is actually an advantage, or should have been, for the 802). The amp for the 802s is a Classe CA-5200 and the listening positions for both pairs were damn near identical in the same room.
