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B&W 804s too bright

Hi all, I have just purchased a used pair of 804s in good condition. But the thing is, I find that they actually sounded a bit too bright. Before this I was using a pair of Martin Logans and had no such problem. I was thinking whether it is my other equipment which is giving me the problem.

I am running the 804s with Emotiva XPA-3 power amp, ERC-1 CDP and Marantz 6003 as preamp. In between pre and power I have a Yaqin tube buffer to add a tinge of tube taste to all.

Any suggestions?
chaozhoi

Showing 3 responses by lewinskih01

lewinskih01
907 posts
 
I have 804S with McIntosh MC275 tubes and love it. You don't want tubes. At the time I auditioned McIntosh MC252 (ss) which was very good too. Try and audition. Classe was good too, but I myself preferred the McIntosh SS sound to Classe with the 804S. Mc also has good HT amps.

A used Rowland would also be a nice amp for these. Some have mentioned Mark Levinson too.
lewinskih01
907 posts
 
I agree with Elee. To further comment on my above post, I used to have Rotel CD, preamp and RB1080 amp with B&W CM4. I upgraded to 804S and it became bright and painful. I replaced the amp for a MC275 and it was great. So here's an example of the 804S revealing weaknesses of what was going on upstream. Then I replaced the pre with a Lamm pre (also tubes), and I'm loving the combination. Tubes and 804S, in my experience, are a great match.
lewinskih01
907 posts
 
suggestion: get your amp first, then cables. That's assuming you are talking speaker cables or IC between pre and amp.

my two cents.
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