My first impression of the N801 and N802 was that they were a bit harsh at the top end. That dealer's system with all Krell front end, but even after listening to them a while there that day, I didn't notice it as much. When talking to other dealers, they all seemed to know the reputation of the bright/harsh sounding B&W setup at that particular dealer. They blamed it on the equipment and the Straight Wire speaker cables. When listening at two other dealers, one with Rotel equipment, and the other with Mark Levinson, I dind't find them harsh at all. Now that I have the N802's at home, I do find them to be revealing, but never harsh. I've heard them with Transparent Ultra, MIT, Kimber BiFocal, Kimber 8TC (which I have at home) and Nordost speaker cables, and the Nordost seemed to make them a bit brigher than I liked, and I guess the same for the Straight Wire, but other than that, I wouldn't say that its a problem for the B&W's.
B W monitors too bright?
In another thread I have been coming accross comments that current production B&W CDM & Nautalis are bright. I have owned nothing but B&W my whole life and have always found them very natural. Am I perhaps missing something? That last bit of sparkle is absoulutely required to my ear. I have only found electrostatics, maggies or the new Nautalis 804s to be more pleasing than my CDM1-SEs. Any comments?