Used vs. new

It’s down to selective shopping I’d say. So you buy great used then refurbish and or upgrade. Depending on the cash layout one generally ends up with a system of a quality that new few could afford ! Speak to people with older or vintage equipment outside of maintenance I’m sure complaints are few. Buy affordably Great vintage, and in most cases you will exceed performance of Very good equipment of today’s standards. So you don’t get a curb side warranty odds are you won’t need one. After a couple of years the modern good stuff depreciates by 60%, factor that into repairs and/or bad luck.

OP,

You have no way to audition?. I would think about that. These are, I think $7K speakers. It would be worth 10% of that to experience them? I am sure you can drive or fly to a city with B&W on display. Make it a weekend trip for the fun of your pursuit. Nothing wrong with confirming your love of the sound of these speakers. B&W are great rock speakers with substantial bass and a pretty hot high end. Set up auditions in advance… with a couple competitive speakers. Take your wife with you… take her out for dinner and a show. Make it fun for both of you.

The differences folks here are talking about are pretty small nuances unless you are very familiar with the sound of B&W.

Thank you everyone, really appreciate all the advice and suggestions . I definitely

have so much to learn about all the high end audio, and looking forward to it.

I have had so much fun just researching all this.

so thanks again.

one last question- Keep hearing that the b&w speakers

are hard to drive.  What exactly does that mean ?

@geosims1 The Stereophile review of the 804 d4

states that although the nominal impedance is 8ohm, the minimum impedance is 3ohm, so you’d you’d probably want to drive them with an amp that is 4ohm rated with a fair bit of current on tap, i.e. comes near to doubling it’s output when the impedance of the load is halved.