Do Any High End Speakers Boogie/Rock? BW 804 Blues

Vintage Snell B, B Minor or CV.

jeffsel,i agree with you on the no sub deal,you shouldnt & dont need a sub.

two very good points have been made here,the first being from audiobugged when he suggested a bigger amp.

speaker ratings are for reference only & should not be looked at as if they were cut in stone,your rotel is struggling to supply power to the b&w's & with that struggle within the amp comes a poor quality of power.

the second good point was from valleyplastic(hi dave)in the fact that just because you have more wattage dose not mean you need to use it & by having a bigger amp you will increase overall performance in your speakers 10 fold.

take no offense to this as its not meant that way but the rest of your rig far out classes your amp & the b&w's being at the end of the line are exposing all its weaknesses.

im not a b&w owner but before i settled on my current speakers i auditioned 804's several times & they sounded fantastic with a huge sound stage & slammin bass but each time they were matched with an amp with big balls!

the bigger amp vs reccomended ratings was drove home to me as soon as i doubled power to my xrt 22's & as soon as i did man oh man did they come to life & i believe that will happen for you also.

my speakers are rated for 250 wpc & im running 500 wpc with outstanding results.

of the 2 auditions i did with the 804's one was with a mcintosh mc402 & the b&w's were slammin! & the mc352 that was reccomended should bring your speakers to life.

mike.

Thanks everyone for such a great response. I appreciate the diversity of opinions here and I'm getting some good ideas.

On the larger amp side, I'm not just after more bass, but a fuller, more coherent sound. I'm sure bass would help but I'm not sure it would do the trick. Audiobugged: thx for such an amazing offer. To make it easier, first, I will call some of the dealers in Denver to see if they will let me borrow and ship me a larger amp.

On the speaker front, I would like to see something in the same size range as my 804s and the recommendations along that vein seem to be the Von Schw 2s and the Aerial 9s, among others. Any thoughts on PSB Golds, Paradigm Studios, Kef? Keep it coming. Best Regards, Jeff

A good buddy of mine has a pair of 804's. He's powering them w/ a cheap Denon receiver until he decides on an amp and preamp combo. I brought my Krell KAV-400xi integrated over and we rocked the house down! Pissed off the wives something fierce. The B&W's sounded great w/ my Krell. Wide open, detailed and dynamic, and we were using a crappy old Sony CD changer.

Stereophile just did a review on this unit. It was mixed on the technical side of the review but very positve on the subjective listening side.

I agree w/ all the posters regarding B&W and power. They love it and so will you.