Well, I got to listen to the little B & W CM-1 speakers today. Which leads me to ask the following, philosophical question: Why is it that home theater show rooms are such hopelessly lousy places to audition speakers? There is only one dealer here in Austin that seems to carry the B & W's, and they are a home theater chain called "Modia." They have the speakers literally on bookshelves, practically up against the wall. That was in one showroom. In another showroom, they had them on a very high shelf, separated a ridiculous distance from each other, with a bunch of other speakers in between, and a keypad that the salesman uses to select which speakers are playing.
Given all those impediments the serious listening, the only real impression I could get was that those tiny little boxes (which are amazingly heavy, by the way) pump out some serious bass energy. Other than that, I really can't tell you much about what I heard, unfortunately. By the way, the Absolute Sound reviewer made a big deal out of how these speakers do a "disappearing act." But with the ridiculously crappy listening conditions in the store, you'd never know it. Additionally, I asked the sales guy if there was any way he could take a pair of the speakers off the shelves and put them up on stands so I could hear them at listening height. He said, "No, sorry."
So I think it's between the Rainmaker and the Dynaudios.
Given all those impediments the serious listening, the only real impression I could get was that those tiny little boxes (which are amazingly heavy, by the way) pump out some serious bass energy. Other than that, I really can't tell you much about what I heard, unfortunately. By the way, the Absolute Sound reviewer made a big deal out of how these speakers do a "disappearing act." But with the ridiculously crappy listening conditions in the store, you'd never know it. Additionally, I asked the sales guy if there was any way he could take a pair of the speakers off the shelves and put them up on stands so I could hear them at listening height. He said, "No, sorry."
So I think it's between the Rainmaker and the Dynaudios.