B&W 803d, Martin Logan Spire, Klipsch P-37F?




Has anyone compared any of the above? I am curious to opinions between the various technologies at this price point, all are around $8K, cones, stats or horns. I currently have Klipsch RF-7s but would like to upgrade. I have heard the ML Vantage and the 802d but never the Spire or the P-37F
macallan7
Macallan7 - Well it kind of depends on what you consider superior. The descriptions above are pretty accurate as to what B&W speakers sound like. I maintain that your choice of music has a lot to do with what sound you will like. I know there is the school of thought that a good speaker will sound good with all music - I simply disagree with that school of thought.

I listen to mostly classical with some jazz and a smattering of rock. Classical typically has little energy above 4k - the fundamentals are almost all below 4k and the harmonics above 4k add some body but are pretty attenuated. So you are really not getting much out of the tweeter on a B&W 3 way speaker anyway. Jazz - lot of snares etc gets you in the audible tweeter range - and I find the B&W's fine for that.

Haven't really analyzed why - but B&W's are not the speaker of choice in my opinion for rock or most vocals. (The large classic Spendors were the best speaker I have heard for vocals) This is the reason that for my tastes I heard no advantage from the B&W models with the diamond tweeters. The 802 has a larger set of woofers which doesn't sound bad but I found the 803D woofer setup to be a step down from the 803S. But, I am not all that thrilled with bass heavy sound.

One other point - getting the B&W's to sound to one's liking takes a little work with room acoustics and listening position, but once you have it set it's great. Now, I listen to music alone and with an analytical ear - which makes acoustics and positioning not a problem. If I listened primarily to rock and roll with groups of people (as in my youth) I would not choose B&W speakers. For my tastes in music, I did not hear anything else that I preferred.
Vocals are the most important thing to me, I listen to some classic rock, Zepplin and Floyd but lots of singer songwriter, and Folk/Bluegrass, Damien Rice, Avett Brothers, David Gray, etc. I know that Logans excell at Vocals but have heard they are not ideal for Zeppelin. I like the RF-7s overall but have read that they are somewhat hollow in the midrange. I don't find that to be true but maybe I don't know what i am missing.
Take your favourite CD's like Dark Side, The Wall, Ummagumma to a dealer and listen to them on the 803D and 802D and pay attention to the bass performance, than you choice will be very obvious.

DSOTM pay attention to what the voices are saying and singing on track on, you should be able to clearly understand what they are saying (no mumbling). Pay attention how deep the bass can go and how does it sound (dry, wet) which is the sound you prefer.
Track two with the clocks , pay attention to the chimes and the wooden clocks, do they sound as clocks or like clocks

The Wall listen to that airplane!!

Listen to these two CD's at loud volumes, lesser loudspeakers will very quickly show their weaknesses

Led Zep, my personal preference goes to their live slow blues,

Good luck with your quest and apart from the sound, take also the customer-orientation of the shop into consideration.