Last week B&W delivered a brand new pair of 803 Diamond speakers to my house. I haven’t listened to them yet. I haven’t even taken them out of their boxes, and I probably won’t do so for many months.
The new Diamonds are replacements for my 803D speakers which took a tumble in the 22 February 2011 earthquake here. The cabinets were scratched as a result of their fall. B&W don’t supply replacement cabinets so my insurance company agreed to replace them. B&W New Zealand provided me with great support to achieve this result.
We are still experiencing aftershocks here so I don’t plan to deploy the new Diamonds until the earth settles down a bit.
Normally a new piece of hi-fi is cause for great excitement, especially if it happens to be the most expensive piece of equipment that you own. I feel no excitement at all about the new Diamonds. Strangely I’m not even really interested in listening to them.
One reason may be that I’m really happy with my 803Ds. I’ve owned them for only 16 months and they sound fantastic to me. They are a huge step up from the CDM9NT speakers I owned before. I was ready for that upgrade whereas I feel no upgrade-itis regarding the 803Ds.
I’m also slightly concerned that the Diamonds will be a backward step. Mark_NZ has just posted an excellent comparison of the 803D and the 803 Diamonds here: http://www.htguide.com/forum/showthread.php4?t=39555. His review is generally positive in favour of the Diamonds, but it also raises some negatives that I have read elsewhere too.
Fortunately the sound of my 803Ds hasn’t been affected by their fall so I have no compelling reason to swap them out. OK, I am a little bit curious about the Diamonds but the thought of unpacking and re-packing those monsters does not appeal to me.
Some of you will think I’m crazy not deploying the new speakers but if your city had recently been devastated by an earthquake followed by over 5,000 aftershocks you would understand why.
Nigel.
Christchurch Earthquake 22 February 2011
181 lives were lost. 1,550 commercial buildings and 11,000 homes were destroyed. 30,000 homes have suffered damage in excess of $100,000 and 100,000 more homes have suffered damage less than $100,000. The estimated cost of the rebuild is $30 billion. From an insurance perspective it is the third-costliest earthquake ever after the 2011 Japan and 1994 California quakes. 30,000 workers will be required to rebuild the city once construction starts.
The quake was mostly horizontal movement with some vertical movement, with the vertical acceleration far greater than the horizontal acceleration. The peak ground acceleration was one of the greatest ever recorded in the world. There were eyewitness accounts of people being tossed into the air. The acceleration would have totally flattened most world cities, causing massive loss of life. Thankfully New Zealand's stringent building codes limited the damage and loss of life.
The new Diamonds are replacements for my 803D speakers which took a tumble in the 22 February 2011 earthquake here. The cabinets were scratched as a result of their fall. B&W don’t supply replacement cabinets so my insurance company agreed to replace them. B&W New Zealand provided me with great support to achieve this result.
We are still experiencing aftershocks here so I don’t plan to deploy the new Diamonds until the earth settles down a bit.
Normally a new piece of hi-fi is cause for great excitement, especially if it happens to be the most expensive piece of equipment that you own. I feel no excitement at all about the new Diamonds. Strangely I’m not even really interested in listening to them.
One reason may be that I’m really happy with my 803Ds. I’ve owned them for only 16 months and they sound fantastic to me. They are a huge step up from the CDM9NT speakers I owned before. I was ready for that upgrade whereas I feel no upgrade-itis regarding the 803Ds.
I’m also slightly concerned that the Diamonds will be a backward step. Mark_NZ has just posted an excellent comparison of the 803D and the 803 Diamonds here: http://www.htguide.com/forum/showthread.php4?t=39555. His review is generally positive in favour of the Diamonds, but it also raises some negatives that I have read elsewhere too.
Fortunately the sound of my 803Ds hasn’t been affected by their fall so I have no compelling reason to swap them out. OK, I am a little bit curious about the Diamonds but the thought of unpacking and re-packing those monsters does not appeal to me.
Some of you will think I’m crazy not deploying the new speakers but if your city had recently been devastated by an earthquake followed by over 5,000 aftershocks you would understand why.
Nigel.
Christchurch Earthquake 22 February 2011
181 lives were lost. 1,550 commercial buildings and 11,000 homes were destroyed. 30,000 homes have suffered damage in excess of $100,000 and 100,000 more homes have suffered damage less than $100,000. The estimated cost of the rebuild is $30 billion. From an insurance perspective it is the third-costliest earthquake ever after the 2011 Japan and 1994 California quakes. 30,000 workers will be required to rebuild the city once construction starts.
The quake was mostly horizontal movement with some vertical movement, with the vertical acceleration far greater than the horizontal acceleration. The peak ground acceleration was one of the greatest ever recorded in the world. There were eyewitness accounts of people being tossed into the air. The acceleration would have totally flattened most world cities, causing massive loss of life. Thankfully New Zealand's stringent building codes limited the damage and loss of life.
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