I auditioned the Wilson Sofia's and the B&W 802D's. At first I was very amazed by the Sofia's and was leaning toward buying them. However, the more I auditioned, and the more I compared the two, I came to the conclusion that the B&W is (IMHO) the better speaker. The Sofia's began to sound very bright...and sort of gimmicky. At first, I was lured into the bright sound of the Wilson's but after more and more listening they just didn't hold up (too bright). I had a chance to compare the B&W's side by side with the Sofia's at three different locations and with many types of music. In the end, I bought the B&W's and they are wonderful, especially with lots of clean power they love. To sum it up, the sofia's had a sound of their own (very bright and tight), the B&W's seem to simply reproduce exactly what was fed to them. They are great speakers and I am not sorry I chose them over the Sofia's...in fact, I feel I did my homework and worked my way through "initial" reactions and the political hype. You should buy what you like but give yourself time. A few years ago I would have bought the sofia's right away. I am glad that I spent the time and work to find, for me, what I believe is a speaker I can live with in my home for a good number of years.
Any feedback on the new B&W 802D's
I have auditioned the new B&W 802D's in my listening room and I am looking for feedback from anyone who might have heard them or read reviews. I also plan on listening to the Wilson Sophia's soon. My set up includes Conrad Johnson 16LS pre-amp, Premier 8 monoblocks and Wadia 860x cd player.