Opinions?

Specifically the 684 model

I am, they’re good. Very good.

only thing that could improve them would be a little more bass in my opinion, but that’s what subs are for 🙂

A decent pair of speaker shouldn’t need a separate sub.

I have some B&W 601’s and they are a little lacking the bass extension isn’t great and the treble / hi freq stuff is average at best.

Problem nowadays is trying to get too much out of a small box.

I still stick by 70’s speakers with big solid wood cabs for best sound.

I think maybe I didn’t explain that too well. The only thing i’ve missed on listening to live recordings is the ‘thump’ of the bass drum on my chest, that is what subs are for 🙂

I’ve got a pair of 10+ year old B&W CDM7 floorstanders, they are brilliant, really nice mid range and treble and shift plenty of air when they need to.

Can’t really go wrong with B&W speakers

It’s kind of pointless making (or asking) for recommendations like this unless you’re also saying what you intend to use them with. The speakers in question may be great in and of themselves, but pair them with the wrong amp and they’ll sound dreadful.

Yamaha AS500 amp
Arcam Alpha 8SE CD

You should be fine but I would suggest you take your amp along to the dealer and ask to hear them with it.

The 684 is pretty sensitive, which means it will play louder for a given level of wattage than a less sensitive speaker. The other thing to bear in mind though is the speaker’s resistance. The 684 is nominally 8ohms, which is reasonably high but it does drop to 3 ohms minimum, which is quite low.

The resistance that the speaker presents to the amp is important; the lower the resistance, the more wattage it will draw from the amp. So very low resistance will mean the amp would need greater capability to continue doing its job.

At 8 ohms your amp will happily drive your speakers. At 3 ohms, it may struggle. If the speakers rarely dip to that level then you shouldn’t have any problems, but get a test to make sure.

I have a pair of 705s and they are lovely standmount speakers (they have been blighted by my son when he was younger though, grrr! ;)) and actually produce a reasonable amount of bass as well.

B&W speakers when coupled with decent amplification can really sing.

(they have been blighted by my son when he was younger though, grrr! ;))

Quick Poll…

How many folk with kids still have speakers that don’t have pushed in tweeters!!!

Mine was my own fault, I took the covers of one evening and forgot to put them back on after a few beers.

^^^^

😆

I actually blame my wife the-muffin-man because she wanted the covers off because they did not suit the lounge, grrr!

How many folk with kids still have speakers that don’t have pushed in tweeters!!!

Me – primarily because they are in a dedicated and locked listening room that I tell the lad is full of crocodilles, sharks and monsters 😯

My speakers are especially vulnerable because while floor standing, they are only about 0.7 metres high the drive units are situated on top of a 45 degree sloping baffle, i.e. right at a 2-year olds sticky finger height.

^^^^

What are they geetee1972? Never seen those before?

A dedicated sound room would be lovely, get a big plasma in there and set up a decent surround system as well, mmm, heaven 🙂

very happy with mine, but don’t know the model number. they’re on stands, does that help? 🙂

I have a pair of floorstanding P4’s-ages old but still sound beautiful.
tweeters intact-no kids!

What geetee said above… I’ve tried various B&W models, standmount and floorstanding with my MF amp and without exception they’ve sounded dull and lifeless.

As was mentioned above, you really need to go and listen to them, ideally with the amp and source you are going to use with them. Personally, the ones I have listened to have never quite done it for me. Hard to define what was missing but I have never really got on with them. Prefer Tannoy or some of the nicer Missions in the past although not had a good look around for a while.

I have a set of B&W DM620’s from the ’80s being powered by a Meridian 101/105 setup and they sound absolutely cracking.

😀

GT – Shehailions? (sp)

I’d prefer limited tight bass than wallowy bass (as I’ve heard from B&W among others). Your amp also affects this.

Yeah Dull and lifeless is a good description of the modern B&W’s ive heard and own, however the pairs of B&W DM2 monitors I had were awesome, had the celebrated celestion HF1300 tweeter.

Infact like these :- B&W DM2

on the kids/tweeter thing, first time I let my little girl into the home cinema room…finger in tweeter of my lovely Sonus Faber. Almost had a heart attack I did. Thankfully a bit of sticky tape pulled it out again. Tweeters have some magical kind of child attraction, it’s uncanny.

Anyway, B&W, very nice as a rule ime…but demo demo demo. And there’s nothing wrong with subs if you get the right one…infinite baffle for the win 🙂

I’ve got a set of kef iQ5’s for sale if your interested? Lovely sound, would go well with your set up. Come boxed with reciept etc. Couple years old but inont condition. Selling as my 13 month old son has just learnt to walk and they are in the firing line. Mail in profile. Cheers

GT – Shehailions? (sp)

I’d prefer limited tight bass than wallowy bass (as I’ve heard from B&W among others). Your amp also affects this.

Almost – they are Shahinian, the model is the Arc. The founder/owner is called Dick Shahinian. It’s a pretty esoteric brand, run to very individualistic principles. Basic premise is that they aim to radiate sound as far as possible so the higher levels models (the one above the Arcs now costs around £5500) use drivers facing in four different directions on top of a pyramid shaped baffle.

The Arcs are designed to fire upwards and radiate forwards off the baffle.

Whatever it is they do, they do it very well and sound just sublime.

Loose baggy and wallowy bass is also likely to be induced by a room’s acoustic characteristics and to a large degree the placement of the speakers relative to walls etc.

Don’t take your kit in to the dealers, get a home demo or cooling off period – they will sound very different in the dealers room unless it is exactly the same as yours in terms of dimensions/ratios, furnishings, wall composition, floor composition, etc.

I had a home demo for my 705s.

One of the chaps from the shop brought them around, we set them up, listened to some tunes for a couple of hours and I bought them 🙂

i have an arcam system and just upgraded to some B&W Nautilus 805’s from some B&W CDM 1NT. The difference was night and day.

As said above you really need to take your existing hi-fi setup and play it through your intended speakers as every system sounds different with the same speakers.

I have a way of pulling out pushed in tweeters; glue some thread to the middle using a rubbery glue so that when it dries you can carefully pull on the thread to pull out the dome then gently peel off the glue. Worked for me on my KEF 104/2s.

James

I have B&W 684’s.
Have used them connected to a Denon solo unit (M37 & M38) – sounds lovely, but the Denon unit is quite handy itself, as these solo units go.
Did have some Kef Q series speakers to try, similar size book shelf to 684’s and they were no where near as nice to listen to as the B&W’s.

Now use the 684’s as my rears in the home cinema set up. 685’s at the front, using a Pioneer AV amp – does really well with surrond sound as well.

Ive got 601 s2’s bought them over 10 years ago and they sound immense for my stereo upstairs.

Also got a surround sound system with PV1 subwoofer:

and M1 satellites, I love it!!

Ps why cant I get the “and” / “ampersand” symbol to work on here, where I use it only the post up to it displays?

Almost – they are Shahinian, the model is the Arc

Nice, I tried a pair of their cheaper speakers (c.£600 ish) 10 years ago. I really liked them…dunno why I didn’t buy them (well I do actually…I was up my own ass thinking Linn / Naim were the holy grail of Hifi 🙂

Lodius – would they have been the Super Elf?

My Arcs are used in an all Naim set up. It’s not the holy grail but I do really like what it does and the Naim electronics do seem to work very well with the Arcs.

Yes, Elf sounds familiar. Great speakers, they had rubber feet! A pleasant change from metal spikes. Lots of holes drilled in the bottom if I remember right.