Ridiculous Question?!?!?

[worldys]

this thread has gone off on several tangents, to try to get back to your original question, i think it is a bit premature to listen to the wilson's in a different room with different gear, different cables, etc and conclude the wilsons were better at creating a 3 dimensional soundstage; relative to the options that were discussed, IMO the ones with the biggest impact are: (1) room treatment (actual acoutstic treatment on wall or even just painting sadn the like) and optimal speaker positioning, (2) getting rid of the tube tv and installing a retractable screen (consider putting wall treatments behind the screen so when listening to music you can raise the screen and minimize reflections). Next comes upstream gear. You already decided to purchase the ayre gear, so be patient and wait till it is all hooked up then re-optimize speaker position. You are probably sending a fair amount of revenue to your dealer, convince them to send out their best guy to advise you on the room and speaker position. Then consider buying spikes and toing the speakers up a bit. Only after all of this do I think you should re-evaluate buying the wilsons.

I think mixing and matching is a bad idea and should be a last resort. There are so many variables and tweaks that end up yielding very similar sound results. You don't jump to buy a ferrari if the porche just needs an oil change.

[JKalman]

I think you're nuts. Seriously though, I've heard the WATT/Puppy 7's, again just a few days ago. Very neutral and natural. B&W is a more vivid speaker, even the 800 series. I think you'll hear a distracting difference by trying to match those speakers. I'm not familiar enough with Wilson to know if they carry a surround speaker. If not, I'd consider a different brand to match (Thiel, Aerial, etc).

Also, I missed what you were doing for a center channel? I don't see one at all in the photograph there. My guess is you're not using one? Given the recent development with repositioning your speakers and the expanded 3-d sound stage, I think you should try movies in just 2-channel and see what happens. Your best solution at this point may be to eliminate the surround channels. If ya don't mind, please give it a try an let us know what you find.

I'm actually not too interested in surround I guess. I was just wondering if I could use the 802Ds with the Wilsons in case I keep the 802Ds and still get the Wilsons. I like how both spekaers sound, but they do sound very different. I like the idea of being able to switch between them depending on the mood or music I am listening to. My wife won't give me any more space in the house for audio, so I'm stuck using them in the same room which is why I was curious about whether they could integrate together, which I assumed wouldn't from the start, but was hoping someone would say "yes"... LOL

I think I'm just going to have to choose between one and the other.

[JKalman]

Jeff:

Personally, I wouldn't invest a huge bundle into your surrounds if you’re only going to be doing movies with them but, they should be voice matched to your mains. For MC music it's recommended that you have identical speakers in all 5 locations. You should go with B&W or Wilson but, not both. Not being flush with cash, I compromised and got N804’s and an HTM1 to go with my N802’s. This combo does very nicely for MC music and is great for movies with a big sub.

One other thing that I noticed from your pictures, if you don’t you should, try removing the woofer and mid-range grills from the speakers when you listen. Your 802D’s will sound a lot better.

Yes, I will probably remove them soon enough. I have not wanted to so far in case I decide to sell them soon, I'm worried about dust and other crap in my basement settling on them. I think I will try and do some heavy duty filtering of my space for dust, and then put in an air purifier of some sort. When it is clean enough I will take them off permanently.

[JKalman]

I heard an ayre setup today on some magnepans. I was very impressed with the setup. I can see why you like it. this dealer did not carry b&w so I have no idea what it would sound like on a different speaker, but I imagine it would be good.

Yes, the Ayre gear is really quite mind blowing, especially when you stack their gear all in one system. I'm definitely replacing my Bryston gear with the Ayre equipment. I am probably going to wait on selling the 802Ds for awhile and see how they sound with the Ayre gear and with their new placements in my office space at the wider end of the office where they will breathe more. I will finally be able to do some major treating of my space once I get my equipment moved, but unfortunately moving my gear will have to wait a few more weeks.

[EastCoaster]

Not only did I receieve help, but, interestingly enough, I was fortunate enough to receive a lot of advice from Kal (Kalman) Rubinson, who wrote Stereophile's stellar review of the 802Ds, as well. I saved his posts to a word file so I may explore programs he mentioned, which look like they will be great help in treating my room down the road once I iron out the initial kinks in my listening area, but this is beyond the scope of this post.

Jeff - would you mind sharing some of the advice on room treatments? I'd be really interested in reading up on what is the thinking on this... I'm still waiting for my speakers (which should be in this week), and will probably want to do some room treatment... Thanks!

[JKalman]

I'll do even better and give you a link to my Audiogon thread where I received some excellent advice from the experts there, including advice from Kal Rubinson of Stereophile magazine. :T

Audigon Forum Thread

[EastCoaster]

I'll do even better and give you a link to my Audiogon thread where I received some excellent advice from the experts there, including advice from Kal Rubinson of Stereophile magazine. :T

Audigon Forum Thread

Outstanding - thanks a bunch Jeff! :T

[JKalman]

Outstanding - thanks a bunch Jeff! :T

NP. I actually saved an offline copy of that thread for myself for future reference as I finish getting all the components for my system. There is lots of great advice in that thread.

[amdan]

Just found this thread. Jeff Kalman - help

I followed the Audiogon link to see the advice regarding positioning 802 speakers but it is not there any more. Any chance you could post your copy?
TIA

[Relentless]

I can't say enough good things about the Ayre equipment, you really must go demo their equipment. What it does to audio is beyond my capability with words.

I was at Audio Consultant and they are an Ayre, Boulder, Mac, Classe dealer just to name a few. I was talking to one of the dealers about amplification for the 800Ds. I was saying how I would love the 2060 that you are running the 800 with but unless I inherit one of those I will go with Classe or Mac. So I asked him what would his choice be between the two for his own system. I just was curious about his opinion because I know it only matters what I like for mine. Well he said he would go with the Ayre monoblocks over all of the amps he has listened to. They also use Ayre CDP's to auditon there speakers there also.

[Birdy]

I followed the Audiogon link to see the advice regarding positioning 802 speakers but it is not there any more. Any chance you could post your copy?
TIA

Interested as well, I confirm the link is not working....

Birdy