705 vs 805s

[alpina]

hi all,

we have heard the 705s and love them - fits the aesthetics of our room perfectly.

given the price differential (nearly double), we are now wondering what the difference between the 705 and 805 are? i appreciate that its all relative, but those that have heard both (i haven't), how do you justify the price difference, if at all?

we intend to use our system 80/20 HT vs music. our pioneer 506 arrived yesterday (this is a very nice screen). yamaha 2600 also arrived yesterday but still in box so we now have a plasma on the wall with picture but no sound as we dont intend to fit the plasma speakers - lol. after speaking to you guys, we think we will go with a rotel 1075 to drive 5.1 setup as opposed to going with a 1080 and driving center and rears off 2600.

our fronts have to be bookshelves - been looking at 705 with htm7 and dynaudio focus and contour series. btw, whats the matching center for the 805. if we go, b&w we are going rosenut

we have a tannoy ts12 sub but looking to go with a sealed unit, possibly velodyne. as for rears, we have no idea but the stealth look is very important to us so we are still looking.

cheers,

julie

[junior77blue]

Regarding matching center channel speakers:

805S would be HTM4S (new 800 series)
N805 would be HTM2 (older Nautilus 800 series)

[grit]

Julie, it looks like you're mostly looking at HT with a bit of music thrown in. Personally, for a primarily HT system (such as yours), I'd not spend the money for better speakers. It'd be a "must", but for now, I'd go with the 705's. I have a set myself (they're the surround channels, I'm using 703's up front, all powered by a Rotel 1075) and I'm quite happy. The vast majority of movies are dialog and sound effects, and while I don't mean to imply better speakers wont improve your HT experience, I just personally think you hit the point of dimishing returns SOONER in HT than you do in 2-ch music.

To address your original question, the 805's have better separation and provide a clearer sound (IMO). Again, with music, I can tell the difference easily and instantly. With HT, I can still tell the difference, but it's not enough to justify an upgrade. I really wish the 705's and HTM7 matched the 703's rather than the 704's. They'd be an amazingly wonderful speaker, but probably would take away sales from the 805 series. If you listened to the 703's and the 704's, you can expect the same TYPE of difference between the 705's and the 805's (not exact, but the best approximation I can offer you).

What color did you end up picking?

[junior77blue]

Hmm...as far as 'stealth', I believe B&W make some nice inwall speakers. But you may want to have a look at DS7 in the 700 series lineup as well. Not completely stealth, but can be positioned up high to not be such an eye-sore.

"The DS7 offers a choice of both monopole and dipole operation, either via a switch located on the front baffle, or remotely, using a 12V trigger from the surround processor. Some processors allow you to program the 12V trigger according to the type of material being played, so you can automatically switch between the two modes if desired."

http://www.bwspeakers.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/products.models/label/MODEL%20DS7

[alpina]

Hmm...as far as 'stealth', I believe B&W make some nice inwall speakers. But you may want to have a look at DS7 in the 700 series lineup as well. Not completely stealth, but can be positioned up high to not be such an eye-sore.

would the FPM series on rear wall work? they look good

julie

[junior77blue]

I've honestly never listened to them (FPM series). But I'm sure they would 'work'. You would have to demo them yourself or wait for other users opinions.

Your best bet would be to keep all speakers in the same 'set', i.e., 700 series. I'm not a big proponent of mixing/matching speakers from different series.

However, I would definately agree, rear speakers are not the main prioirity for matching for movie applications, but if you were to ever do any multi-channel music the difference in tonal characteristics does make a difference.

[alpina]

What color did you end up picking?

how could you go with any colour other than rosenut?

julie

[junior77blue]

Easy....

Black with 'gold' accent....gotta love the contrast!!

[Loner]

Julie, it looks like you're mostly looking at HT with a bit of music thrown in. Personally, for a primarily HT system (such as yours), I'd not spend the money for better speakers. It'd be a "must", but for now, I'd go with the 705's. I have a set myself (they're the surround channels, I'm using 703's up front, all powered by a Rotel 1075) and I'm quite happy. The vast majority of movies are dialog and sound effects, and while I don't mean to imply better speakers wont improve your HT experience, I just personally think you hit the point of dimishing returns SOONER in HT than you do in 2-ch music.

To address your original question, the 805's have better separation and provide a clearer sound (IMO). Again, with music, I can tell the difference easily and instantly. With HT, I can still tell the difference, but it's not enough to justify an upgrade. I really wish the 705's and HTM7 matched the 703's rather than the 704's. They'd be an amazingly wonderful speaker, but probably would take away sales from the 805 series. If you listened to the 703's and the 704's, you can expect the same TYPE of difference between the 705's and the 805's (not exact, but the best approximation I can offer you).

What color did you end up picking?

Hi.......you've got 703's up front and 705's in back........are you using the HTM7 for the center or something else? Thanks.

[grit]

Hi.......you've got 703's up front and 705's in back........are you using the HTM7 for the center or something else? Thanks.

I am using the HTM7 up front, and I'm not really happy about it. It's not awful, but there's definitely a tonal difference I'm not pleased with. Things I realized AFTER the fact. If I had to do it over again, I'd get 804's, the matching center, and surrounds. I think that would have held me over for far longer. OTOH, if B&W made an appropriate matching center to the 703's, I'd be happy with that. No problem with my 703's... just the HTM7.

[grit]

how could you go with any colour other than rosenut?

julie

LOL! Couldn't agree with you more... even got the sub in rosenut! 8)

[csuzor]

if B&W made an appropriate matching center to the 703's, I'd be happy with that. No problem with my 703's... just the HTM7.

Exactly.
B&W, please, how many customers does it take to make you move and release a decent center to match the 703?

[BlazeMaster]

If they made a center channel w/ FST to match the 703s, I'd upgrade my 704s to 703s right away. It would definitly hurt the sales of their flagship line.