So I visited a HiFi dealer this weekend and spent like 8 hours listening to a few speakers. I really liked the B&W 805 D3, and since they offered a relatively good price on the demo pair, I bought them. Since this is still a LOT of money for me, I want to get the most out of them without having to spend too much more.
I already have a B&W PV1D sub, so I’d continue to use that one.
Question 1: For the Amp, I‘m planning to buy the Bluesound Powernode 2i – that‘s like a third the price from the amps the HiFi-store recommended to me, but online ratings are excellent. Do you think I‘ll lose much audio quality compared to say a NAD M10 on the 805’s?
Question 2: The majority of my library consists of tracks purchased off iTunes (256 kbit/s AAC). Will they benefit at all from being played on higher end speakers or will they just sound bad because of the missing detail the 805’s might reveal? I‘ll probably start buying music lossless on Qobuz, but since that’s super expensive, I’m not sure if I can sustain doing so.
if you listen to anything but dsd512 or 384khz dxd then you might as well buy airpods
Liam Lopez
>spent like 8 hours listening doubt it 8 hours on the store?
Jayden Robinson
Anyone dumb enough to pay that price for a pair of speakers is going to be woo'd by audio snake oil. So it's a yes to all of your question, for you.
Liam Sullivan
What is your actual budget? How big is the listening space? What kind of music will be played?
Chase Cruz
AAC isn‘t that bad - there‘s definitely a lot of detail judging by B&W P9 signature headphones. But the 805‘s sounded a lot less forgiving.
4 hours on Friday, 4 hours on Saturday. I think that‘s acceptable given the price range of these speakers.
Colton Edwards
I‘m already kinda over budget, but I could stretch it a big further if it‘s worth it.
Listening room is like 6 x 4 meters. Music will be a mix of alternative and punk rock, a little country and some orchestral stuff.
Robert Phillips
I don‘t think that‘s the case - the speakers genuinely sounded better than any cheaper alternatives I listened to, with all other factors being equal (amps, cables, room, ...). Won‘t overpay for expensive cables and amps though.
Liam Foster
absolute kek, you fell for the easiest trick in the book by a salesman, use your brain a little bit
Not sure what you mean, I trust my ears that‘s about it.
Angel Nelson
Not that guy but what speakers did you compare them to, and what amp was the dealer using?
NAD is also somewhat meme-y. There are much better options.
Chase Gonzalez
Not sure what they used on the first day, it was a super expensive black box so I didn‘t pay close attention. On day two I demanded a more realistic pairing, so they set up an Auralic Polaris, which sounded fine, though the setup seemed kinda buggy.
Compared them to the cheaper 705 D2 (thought they might sound similar due to similar continuum midrange driver, but they weren‘t close enough imo), and otherwise mainly to the KEF Reference 1. The 805 sounded a bit more detailed, with a more refined soundstage and they were a bit brighter (which I liked, though I know a lot of people don‘t).
These are excellent speakers with excellent resale value. Somewhat bright. They are moderately hard to drive based on the impedance beneath 8 ohms. You don't necessarily need a good amp right away, but you may get much better results with an older amp with good current, like Bryston or Krell or Classe, and then add on a dedicated modern streamer unit. When you purchase all-in-one units, you tend to pay more for the more modern parts, like the DAC, and get cinched on the more basic parts like the amplifier circuit. All-in-one units are also harder to service, and take a hit on resale. But its your money, as they say.
>going to buy class D amp >buying $4000 speakers to be driven by that POS >all to play middling AAC
You came here to get razzed didn’t you?
Liam Diaz
I will upgrade my library down the line, just can‘t afford to buy all my albums lossless right away. That‘s why I‘d like to know just how bad AAC sounds on higher fidelity speakers.
Don’t know much about amps, that’s why I‘m asking for advice.
Carter Rogers
Thanks for that informative reply. I think I might have to settle with a lower end amp for now, but I might look at a used one with a decent DAC.
Angel Stewart
There are tons of used amps out there which are class A or AB, why bother with class D?
Alexander Scott
AAC will sound "synthesized" on high end speakers; once you add a DAC the sound will be even clearer which drives some people crazy, enough so that they go "all CD".
Your speakers will sound great powered by anything. Adding the DAC will give you a very audible boost in transparency and soundstage. Adding a very good amplifier will give you a fullness and subtlety of sound that will sound lifelike.
Enjoy your great speakers.
Noah Lee
Dealers like profit. Some people like less heat.
Henry Murphy
>Buy albums >Buy What the fuck, if you already own the albums what moral issue do you have torrenting them in a different format?
Grayson Parker
>buy digitarded compressed music once >upgrade >need to do it again The proper way to buy music is to get giant boxes of loose CDs at thrift stores, throwing out the 90+% garbage and keeping the good albums.
I've done this a couple times, out of about 4000 CDs I found 300 or so keepers, total outlay on my part was $60. I've even found 4 SACDs so far.
Sebastian Wright
Or just buy FLAC from the start and it’s a non issue. 24-bit FLAC is more and more common these days so you can get higher than CD quality
Jason Powell
>buy FLAC Why buy FLAC when you can buy CD's? That's the source material for FLAC files 99.999% of the time anyway. It costs about the same, too, even less if you're willing to buy used CDs.
