I don't know about any of the technical or mathematical reasons, but I have found that the 802's are dramatically different if you give them as many watts as you possibly can. I ran them with about 170W per speaker solid state for awhile, then started bi-amping them w/170W to the bass portion of the speakers (lower terminals), and 200W to the mid/tweeter portion (upper terminals). Only bass above 80hZ is going to the 802's, anything below that goes to a Velodyne subwoofer.
The first time I fired them up after the bi-amping I almost fell on the floor. The music was so much more real that it was scary. For the first time I fully undestood the term "dynamics". Every type of music has an unbelievable presence and detail. From unacommpanied vocal and guitar to full symphony orchestras, it is now all right there in the room. In fact, just for fun, I would like to give them 300W per terminal (600W/speaker) but that is not financially possible right now.
At one point I emailed B&W and ask if it was possible to overamp the 802's, and the engineer replied that the biggest danger to damaging the 802's was in underpowering them, and that they are built to take huge amounts of power and that their 500W per speaker is a very conservative rating.
I have read similar remarks in other online reviews/chats from 802 owners, saying that to really open them up and take full advantage of their capability you need to give them as much high quality juice as possible. They will still sound really good with lower wattage, better than most speakers out there, but these things are heavy duty speakers that were made for lots of power.
You don't necessarily have to bi-amp, but the engineer also confirmed that they were designed to play more efficiently and with more purity in a bi-amp setup.
Anyway you do it, they are awesome speakers that I intend to enjoy for a long time.
The first time I fired them up after the bi-amping I almost fell on the floor. The music was so much more real that it was scary. For the first time I fully undestood the term "dynamics". Every type of music has an unbelievable presence and detail. From unacommpanied vocal and guitar to full symphony orchestras, it is now all right there in the room. In fact, just for fun, I would like to give them 300W per terminal (600W/speaker) but that is not financially possible right now.
At one point I emailed B&W and ask if it was possible to overamp the 802's, and the engineer replied that the biggest danger to damaging the 802's was in underpowering them, and that they are built to take huge amounts of power and that their 500W per speaker is a very conservative rating.
I have read similar remarks in other online reviews/chats from 802 owners, saying that to really open them up and take full advantage of their capability you need to give them as much high quality juice as possible. They will still sound really good with lower wattage, better than most speakers out there, but these things are heavy duty speakers that were made for lots of power.
You don't necessarily have to bi-amp, but the engineer also confirmed that they were designed to play more efficiently and with more purity in a bi-amp setup.
Anyway you do it, they are awesome speakers that I intend to enjoy for a long time.