B&W 803S, are they the right speakers for me?


I purchased B&W 803S three years ago after trading up from the 805S. My system currently consists of:
803S
MC352
MC41
Denon 2810 (Transport)
TADAC w/Tele NOS smooth plates
Upgraded Power cords
Tara Lab interconnects
Anticables (recent purchase)

My room is 20' wide and about 30' long, but I have a sofa about 10 feet from speakers (which are 9' apart and 2' from back wall). I do have a fair amount of furniture in the room with little opportunity for room treatments (wife issue). Speakers are very slightly toed in.

Speaker dilema- I have to crank them to get well rounded sound with reasonable imaging. I have tried for three years to make them really work. Where have I gone wrong? Thinking of a great smaller speaker that may be more efficient with better imaging (Dynaudio C1 is being considered).

Your help is greatly appreciated!
dmm53

Showing 3 responses by brianmgrarcom

I may be wrong about this. But I am fairly sure that using the 4ohm tap will lower the power output for an 8ohm speaker.
These speakers, while stated as 8 ohm, perform more like 4 ohm. Years ago when using N803's, I contacted a B&W rep. and was told to use the 4 ohm taps.
It could be any of a number of things, somewhere there isn't a match or possibly a room issue; I do not subscribe to all speakers with aluminum twweter guaranteed to sound "hot", it is all in the design/execution of the speaker.