From very limited experience (I have only heard the 5700 playing once and not in good conditions) I would favour the 3800. I have a pair of these! Very interesting speaker as it was a UK only model designed to take advantage of some bizarre purchase tax regulations by fitting a really big woofer - bigger than that in the 5700. The 5700 compensates by being larger in cabinet size and having an Auxiliary Bass Radiator. I tend to find that speakers so equipped tend to sound a bit ponderous. I would still be interested in the 5700s though as they were supposed to be very fine speakers. They do suffer from rot of the ABR I understand though.

Welcome to Beoworld.  

I have a pair of Beovox 5700 speakers. Awesome speakers although you will need a powerful amp to drive them and the are BIG!! They don't suffer from any foam rot at all. Worth a look as they don't come around very often.

 P.s. They weigh 22.5kgs each!!

francoisvl:

Unfortunately I don't have the stands. I can't imagine them on stands though due to their size! They take up enougth space as it is. As I said a powerful amp is needed for these speakers. I use a BM 4400. Sounds great

So they are large and heavy...

I'll bet the shipping-costs to the Netherlands would be sky-high 🙂 

😂 I'm afraid so!! total of 45kgs!

I'm lucky enough to have the trumpet stands which are a work of art. The 3800's really are wonderful and I'm sceptical if they'll be beaten. It's worth a shot...

 I run them using a Tripath 20W amp (T-class). IMHO beats the latest B&O stuff.
 

If you drive the 3800 very hard with certain types of music it can damage the tweeters.

They sound a quite a bit more top end than the 5700.

The 5700 are probably not as good as the 3800 at low sound levels, but crank up the volume and the 5700 are rather better, you'll need a big room though, and you might want to stand a goodly distance away because they have quite a kick.

 As for putting them on stands, in terms of floor space the 5700 don't take up much more room than 3800 on stands, its just that the fomer need to be away from a back wall a couple of feet.

Well I missed out on the 5700's but now have an opportunity to get some Penta Passives. How do these sound compared to the 3800?'s. I've found out the 3800's have distortion between 0.5-1% and Penta < 0.5% more than likely due to the bass reflex design.

 Anyone heard both and can comment?