They look impressive, they have deep bass and a wide frequency response. Cabinet resonances are near zero, and they're well finished and look impressive. And yet, although they have higher highs, lower lows, and wide dynamic range beyond their asking price, I don't find them engaging. The Stereophile test & measurements reveal an inconsistent power response with a suckout at 3.5 Khz at a mere 5 deg. deviation on the vertical axis. And the step response is anything but phase coherent. I suspect these aspects plus the dissimilar driver materials and the deviations from linearity (wide +5dB bass hump from 60-100 Hz, another 5dB rise from 5-10Khz) combine to disengage me.
OTOH, I found their little PM1 plus PV1D sub mesmerizing with a great sense of involvement and musicality. But if you're looking at the 800 Ds, the PM1 probably won't scale up large enough for your needs.
For a $24K floorstander, some of the alternatives mentioned above (Crescendo, Aeris, S5, etc.) plus some offerings from Sonus Faber (Elipsa SE, Olympica III) would give you a nice range of alternatives. Also, if you have the listening room space, consider Magnepan 3.7s or 20.7s plus some serious (e.g., JL or Velodyne DD+ series) subwoofers.
OTOH, I found their little PM1 plus PV1D sub mesmerizing with a great sense of involvement and musicality. But if you're looking at the 800 Ds, the PM1 probably won't scale up large enough for your needs.
For a $24K floorstander, some of the alternatives mentioned above (Crescendo, Aeris, S5, etc.) plus some offerings from Sonus Faber (Elipsa SE, Olympica III) would give you a nice range of alternatives. Also, if you have the listening room space, consider Magnepan 3.7s or 20.7s plus some serious (e.g., JL or Velodyne DD+ series) subwoofers.