What makes more sense?

[Rod#S]

Hello all, I have just been doing some thinking this evening about the future upgrade paths I have before me and was curious what others would do in my shoes.

For those not aware I am a proud new B&W family member having purchased a HTM2 Diamond in February and a pair of 802 Diamonds in April and absolutely love them. I am replacing my old but loved Paradigm Reference v2 system which was/in made up of Studio 100s, Studio CC, Studio ADPs (surrounds) and Studio 60s (rears). So the front-end has been replaced, the Studio CC has been boxed as has the Studio 60s. The Studio 100s are now being used in place of the Studio 60s. The Studio ADPs are temporiarly not being used but should be back in action within the next few months.

My upgrades will include replacing the Studio 100s and Studio ADPs with at the very least 805 Diamonds but I do love listening to music, both stereo and discrete multi-channel and prefer towers for that with the added low end, at least for the rears so I do see 803 Diamonds or 804 Diamonds as the likely speakers and it would be my rears that I replace before my surrounds. What I have been tossing around lately though is delaying getting the final 4 speakers and instead getting 2 Bryston 7B-SST Squared amplifiers to drive my 802 Diamonds. 2 28B-SST Squared amps would be nice at 1000 watts each but they cost more than the 802 Diamonds and I'm not willing to spend more on amps than I do on my speakers Currently I have 2 Bryston 4B-SST amps along with a Bryston 6B-SST so the power going to all speakers is 300 watts and adding a pair of 7B-SST Squared amps would increase the power from 300 watts to 600 watts.

What choice would yield the greatest improvement in sound do you all think? Getting the final 2 pairs of speakers or adding more power to the 802 Diamonds?

Thanks

Rod

[RebelMan]

Final two-pairs of speakers - hands down. The 4B-SST and 6B-SST are not chumps and they match in timbre.

[Miketr75]

Agree, a pair of 804D for the rears

[Rod#S]

Thanks for the responses.

Given that the 2 pairs will be used for surrounds and rears how much is there to be gained from trying to match drivers? Obviously I'm not adding 2 additional pairs of 802 Diamonds but with the HTM2 Diamond as my center would 2 pairs of 803 Diamonds blend noticeably better because of the 7" drivers than say 2 pairs of 804 Diamonds with the smaller bass drivers or the 805 Diamonds with no dedicated bass drivers and a different mid range?

Rod

[htsteve]

Rod,

I also agree that the B&Ws as rear speakers would be the best system upgrade.

As to your follow up question (large, medium and small speakers), my take is the 804 Diamonds will match best with the center channel. that's how I have it in my system. Will the others work quite well? Absolutely. But from a driver synergy point, the 804's would work best, IMO.

You will definitely notice the system cohesion once you get these kind of speakers in the rear.


Hope this helps.

[style]

Rod keep you amplifier and go with a pair of 804di.
is the best solution.

or change all the electronicts with a Classe :W

[Rod#S]

Thanks.

So why the 804 Diamonds over the 803 Diamonds? With the HTM2 Diamond having 7" bass drivers and the 803 having the same 7" drivers, just with one additional driver rather than two 6.5" drivers as found in the 804 I was thinking the 803 would blend better. What do you think it is that makes the 804 a better match with the HTM2?

Both the 804 and 803 have lower frequency extension than the HTM2 but interestingly the HTM2 has a higher recommended power amplifier capacity than the 804 with the 803 rated the same as the 802 Diamonds so 200, 300 & 500 respectively for 804, HTM2, 803/802.

[style]

I have see your "room2 and the 803di are too big, not in dimension but to have a right front (and the cobination 803&Htm2 is perfect) the 804 give a lot more as what do you see!

you have 3 sub on the front!!! around 2 meter front 082di's tweerter!!!:

i iwill go without doubt with the 804di and try with a sub in the rear. is posisble
face to face with a sub in the front.

I had the 804di /803di: Rod the 804 have a frequency "range" from the high to the LF and the 7" is not a necessary "pont" to have a great match!

[Rod#S]

Thanks style great advice. I suspect that I will actually have 4 subs in the future, I have 3 now because my Lexicon MC-12 supports 3 (2 mono/stereo and 1 LFE) however I highly suspect the successor to the MC-12 will support 4 subs like the Mark Levinson No 502 Media Console so my intention would be once the MC-12 is upgraded to the new model to add a 4th sub and place one in the middle, or as close as possible of the 4 walls so ultimately there will be a sub in the rear

[Rod#S]

Thanks everyone for all the advice provided. So the concensus seems to be to go for the speakers over the amps and to go for the 804Di's for the rears. So what of the sides, would I best be served getting another pair of 804Di's?

I am also thinking even a bit further out into the future as I'm sure the next SSP I get will support wides so when adding another pair of speakers to the front what would be the reccomendation there to maintain synergy with the 802Di's and HTM2Di. For the sake of this discussion leave my room out of the decision and just keep in mind I have 802Di's and a HTM2Di.

Hmm, interesting (thinking while typing here ), if I were to get a new SSP before I get the speakers for the rear and sides would I be better served getting the wides before getting rears and/or sides given that the speakers in front are more important than the sides and surrounds? With the new wide speaker array setups being so new I really don't know much about them and how those speakers integrate into a system.

Thanks,

Rod