Need help from the experts here: Which to buy?

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  • RADIANT
    Junior Member
    • Nov 2004
    • 4

    Need help from the experts here: Which to buy?

    Hi all,

    This is my first post here. I finally saved up enough money to buy some b&w's. I currently own a set of Tannoys and a couple B&W ceiling speakers.

    I own and operate a recording studio. I use JBL LSR28p's and Meyer HD-2's for monitoring so I'm pretty particular with my audio. About 1 year ago I went on a mission to find some HT speakers. I ran accross the B&W CDM 1NT's and absolutely loved them after a/b'ing tons of speakers. However, that has been a year ago. Now that they have discontinued that model I can't a/b the new 705's to the 1NT's!

    I appears that I could save about $500 purchasing the older 1NT's over the new 705's. I'm planning to buy used left/right/center channel speakers.

    Any thoughts on the 1NT's vs. the new 705's? Is it worth spending the extra $500-700 on the new 705 & HTM-7?

    Thanks!

    KYle
  • RJS72
    Junior Member
    • Nov 2004
    • 8

    #2
    Hi,

    I just recently was able to demo the 705 in my home. I used to own a pair of CDM 1NT's and the matching center. A while after that, I purchased the CDM 9NT's and moved the 1's to the rear for surrounds. I no longer have this set of speakers...so most of this will be from memory. The list price on the 700 series did go up from the old CDM series.

    For my in-home demo, I had the 705's and Nautilus 805's on hand. I had compared the CDM 1NT's and the 805's back when I purchased the CDM 1's. I really liked the 805's better, but they were out of my price range.

    I personally liked the 705's much better than I remember liking the CDM's. The new 705's have a lot more of the Nautilus technology than the older CDM's seemed to have. It seemed (at least to me) to be much closer to the Nautilus 805 than the CDM 1NT's did. In fact, at times it was very hard to tell them apart. The 805's did have did have a bit fuller bottom end, and some extra upper-midrange clarity (which was most evident on female vocals). But to be honest, the difference between the 705 and 805 was pretty slim. Maybe that's why B&W is coming out with a new update to their 800 series. Also, the 700 series HTM7 center is just killer. Just as good (if not a hair better) than the Nautilus HTM2.
    Whether or not it's worth it to you to spend the extra money on the 705 is really a personal decision. It's not really a fair comparison because the CDM's would be used. I've never been a huge fan of used speakers. You just never know if some kid was blasting NSYNC while mom and dad were gone.
    Also, because the CDM line is discontinued, you're kinda stuck trying to find what you can if you decide to add anything to your setup. Like if you want to go to floorstanders for the front (like I did with my old CDM's), or add great matching rears for things like SACD and DVD-A. Not to mention, used you may have trouble finding them all in the same finish, unless you get somebody selling their whole set. Hope this helps a bit.

    RJ

    Comment

    • RADIANT
      Junior Member
      • Nov 2004
      • 4

      #3
      Thanks so much for the very informative reply. That was exactly the kind of information I was looking for.

      Kyle

      Comment

      • jlee
        Senior Member
        • Aug 2004
        • 337

        #4
        I've owned both the 1NT and 705 and managed to AB them for 1 day before returning the 1NT's in trade. The 705's had a bit more bass and clearer more tonally correct highs. Those were the things that were immediately obvious. There was some other subtle improvements I recorded in my notebook, but those are the 2 that come to mind from memory.

        Comment

        • BlazeMaster
          Senior Member
          • May 2004
          • 644

          #5
          I just demoed the 805s vs. 705s and too came to the conclusion that the difference between them is really small, with the genre of music that I usually listen to. Even my salesperson admitted that the 705s are about 80% of the performance of 805s and they're priced according to that. But, he did gave me a little bit of rumors about the new 800s that are coming out that will incorporate a new type of drivers that will make the difference between similar sized 700s and 800s more noticeble. Which will also mean that the newer version of the 805s will be even more expensive than the current 805s. Nobody has heard the newer version of the 800s yet, but I do think that the 705s are very good bang for the buck. And like the posters said, the 700s has alot of the technologies used in the 800s which makes them really close in performance with most genre of music. I think if classical and jazz music is more of your flavor, you might see the difference between 805s and 705s more.

          Comment

          • RADIANT
            Junior Member
            • Nov 2004
            • 4

            #6
            Thanks for all of the great comments! As you guys already know, I'm really after the most flattering speakers rather than the most neutral. I usually have my fill of neutral speakers all weekend. The thing I love the most about the B&W's is that they are fun to listen to. They tickle my fancy for sweet top-end. This is one of the main reasons I've been steering away from Dynaudio's.

            Judging by the general tone of this forum the 805's seem to be outstanding. I just found a set of Matrix 805's for a reasonable price. How similar are the matrix and the Nautilus series? Do you think the MAtrix 805's would be a good choice in comparison if the 705's were high on my list?

            Thanks!

            Kyle

            Comment

            • BlazeMaster
              Senior Member
              • May 2004
              • 644

              #7
              If you can afford it, why not go for the used-current 805? Or even used 705? The newer lines obviously has improvements over the previous line. Besides a 2nd hand seller may rate something as anywhere from 8-9 out of 10 themselves, but you might rate them as something a little lower, not saying you can't trust used stuff, but you can never know, til you receive them.

              Comment

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