685 S2 out, 683 S2 in - B&W Speakers, that is *

@Matt Richardson, I know from youtube that you upgraded your 684s with new CM10 S2s. Please tell me if they are worthing the $4000 price at that time of purchase. How do you feel about them after 2 years? Sorry for the offtopic but I couldn't find a way to write you directly. Thanks a lot!

 

Thanks for the interest. The CM10s are the most revealing speakers I've owned. Therefore, they're great for new and older recordings that are well-recorded, but on those cds and records that are not so good sounding, it's still good to have the older 684s to use. That said, I love the CM10s. They go great with my Mac preamp and Parasound amplification. Yes, they're too big for my 15' by 10' space, but my wife and I are in process of designing and building a house, which isn't scheduled to be completed until summer 2020. Then I'll have a much larger space to use as a home theater/listening room (25' x 15'). I've stopped making YouTube audio vids until then.

 

Thanks for your quick answer. Do you think I should pay $3000 for a 8 months demo pair or should I wait and go for the new 702 S2 ? There are big differences in sound between this 2 speakers ?

 

I guess that would mean how much does $1,500 in savings mean to you (I don't know about that).

I don't have much experience hearing the new 700s series, only what I've heard at ABT and Magnolia. From what I have heard though, my CM10s sound a tad warmer than the 700s . Perhaps it's due to the CM's Kevlar midrange or perhaps it's just due to my Parasound amps that are known to be on the warmer side of the spectrum.

Either way, I think you'll be happy. They're wonderful speakers.

 

I better spend those $1,500 on a new amp

I am upgrading from 684s just like you, how do you compare them with the CM10s ? I'm assuming you used the same Parasound amp for both speakers.

 

I bought a pair of 683 S2s last year and tried them out at home for about a month and a half. They were OK, but nothing special. I went to a local store and compared the 704 S2s side by side with the 683 S2s. Man, what a difference! The 704 S2s are in a completely different league. SO MUCH better than the 683 S2s. Never harsh, solid sound, top to bottom. And the 704 S2s were $2,250 for the pair. (I got a 10% discount from the dealer.) The 704 S2s are a great looking speaker, too:

 

Great looking speaker, George! Thanks for the beautiful picture!

 

You'll find more clarity, detail, and more of a three dimensional sound picture with the 700s . But like I said, these speakers are very revealing. They'll show limitations not only in your source recordings, but also in your electronics.

 

Parasound Amps and B&W Floorstanding speakers? I feel right at home in this thread. I have an A21 (can't recommend this amp highly enough, warm yet packs a punch but never harsh) running my B&W n804's. Those 700 series speakers are gorgeous. Same with the C10's. I'd love to sit them side by side with my 804's and compare them. BWT if you are vinyl fan I just picked up a JC3 Jr. phono preamp and can give it a hearty recommendation. Here's my setup:

 

This was my exact experience with jumping from my old B&W CDM7se's to the nautilus line of speakers (yes I'm about 20 years behind this thread). When I first got the 804's I found them to be slightly better yet begging for a better chain. In fact, I was awfully disappointed in the improvement for the $2250 I had just spent on the speakers. I felt they were under-powered so I picked up an A21 to run them. The bass improvement was substantial, still unsatisfying overall sound. Enter a Rogue Tube preamp and I was starting to see potential of the speakers. This week I added a new phono preamp and whoa, these speakers just keep getting better. Source is much more important than it was before.

In other words, this speaker upgrade is simply the start of a whole new upgrade path. And that is a huge compliment to these higher end B&W's. Their ceiling is very high. They are extremely revealing and can shine with a $20,000 chain in front of them. And will continue to reward each upgrade you make.

At least this has been my experience. I spent way more than I ever thought I would. But goddamn this system keeps getting better and better. And that's what it's all about, innit?

 

I auditioned the 683 s2 today. I was impressed with clarity and detail in the mid range. I thought it was very good on that. However, sometimes it sounded a bit too bright and the bass didn't impress me that much. It was very good in some songs but in others I found myself wanting more. Source was Tidal playing through iPad to the receiver so not sure what could be expected anyway.

 

Well said. I compared a pair of 683 S2s with 704 S2s side by side last year.It was a night and day difference. Next to the 704 S2s, the 683 S2s didn't sound very good at all. The 704 S2s sounded more refined, more coherent. I bought the 704 S2s.

 

Yeah given the front end you are assembling ahead of your speakers, I can't imagine the 600 series being for you. Nothing wrong with them, but I think you'd be itching to upgrade from them sooner than later. The 700 series seems to be getting positive reviews.

 

Can't find it here, I found 803 and 804 but not for demo, only to order online.

 

I just auditioned the 704 S2, the 804 D3 and the top 800 D3. Let's take the 800 out of this conversation. It seemed to me that the difference between the 683 and the 704 is bigger than between the 704 and the 804. 704 is far superior than the 683, while the 804 is superior than the 704 but not that much. That's interesting because the 704 is less than twice the price of the 683, while the 804 is three times more expensive than the 704. Diminishing returns playing its role.

 

Happy to read this! I was scared to heard the 800 series, as I thought it might be way better and I didn't want to know what I was missing.

 

First I tried the 804. It's very good. Then I tried the 704. It is audibly inferior but not that much. I kept thinking, wow, this lower price model is almost as good as the other one. Than we went to a different room and I heard the 800. Well, you better be scared of this one. Over ten times more expensive than the 704 and it's very superior. Stay away from it.

 

When does it end......

 

Yeah, the 700 series is much closer to the 800 than the previous CM series was, and it's a big jump from the 600 series. But the top end 800 speakers, the 802 and 800 are definitely at another level! But that's true (imo) relative to the other 800 series as well. The jump from the 804 D3 to the 802 D3 is pretty big, while the jump from the 700 series to the 804 is much smaller. The current 700 series is one of the great audiophile bargains out there.

 

Haha yes the 800 is ridiculously awesome sounding. Plus to properly feed it you are probably looking at 10k in mono blocks at least. Those suckers are power hungry. But that's why I'm such a fan of the Nautilus 800 series. I got a pair of 804's for $2250 delivered. The new pair is $9k. It might be a little better but its still a very similar design, same drivers, same stats. And I promise if you hear the Nautilus 801's or 802's you would not be disappointed. There is a pair of 802's going for 5k on eBay right now. So you can get those or pay like $18,000 for the new 802's.

the 804's have the same tweeter and midrange driver as the 802's and 800's though. So I think they are more similar than different. Overall soundstage and deep bass would be far superior on the 802's and 800's. At quite a price.