B&W 805D vs. Dynaudio Contour S1.4

Jdec - Sorry for the late response, I don't frequent these forums and get no notification of new activity.

Anyway, the Auditor M's were neutral from about 70Hz up through the treble, but they are a small speaker and sounded like a small speaker in the bass. Other than being well-behaved from the mids on up, the detail, imaging, soundstaging, and treble extension all seemed satisfactory rather than exceptional in any way.

The 805Di on the other hand had exceptional detail and imaging, and bass deep enough that I would not be left wanting when listening to most music. The trade-off being a bit of disconnect / character mismatch between the sound of the midrange and tweeter and some mildly unpleasant sharpness in the high treble.

"A few years back when I was looking for monitors I auditioned the 805D and the S1.4." -Goatwuss

The 805D is a recent model. There's no way you auditioned it "a few years back".

Sorry guys, it must have been the 805S that I was talking about. I strongly preferred the S1.4 to them as in my auditions they had much more dynamic range.

HEard em both the B&W imaging blows the Dynaudio away

Imaging is only one of the aspects of the sonic reproduction, not the most important imo...

I have heard the 1.4 and the new 805Diamond, both with an extended listen. I own C1s. I think they are all great speakers, however the 805Di and the C1s are better than the 1.4s. I listened to the 805D with musical fidelity m6i amp and the Krell evolution and they were very impressive - I preferred it the Krell - like Dynaudio they seem to like a lot of SS power. I have plinius tautoro+SA103 with the C1s and I felt that my home system was preferable to me, however, I have found that the C1s took a long time to burn in. I prefer the bass from the C1 to the B&W. In Australia the B&W are a fair bit cheaper than the C1s. Also, my wife really likes the sound and looks of the C1s so that's a factor for us.