new b&w owner

[jsmalley]

i am lookin at a set of b&w dm 604 s 3 would like some others idea on this speaker

[Dr C]

Hi John

I have a pair of 604S3's. Prior to buying them, my requirements were to get floorstanders as i wanted the extra bass volume they would bring (being very much of a rock fan). Having read up and after a listening test, I plumbed for the 603S3s. Well the agent said that unfortunately they were out of stock and would I consider the 604s ? Having had a severe case of the "I want it NOW" bug, I agreed as I had listened to the 604s as well and they were ok except more expensive.

The story stops here if you're into 2 channel as the 604s do a decent job. Verdict is the sound is ok - not unpleasant - but the speakers require decent amplification. I'm using a Rotel RB-1070 to power them but now wonder whether I should have plumbed for the RB-1080. Sound levels can go quite loud, midrange and highs are adequate but not as sweet as some other high end kit (which costs double but not quite double the improvement).

But in my case, I started out being a 2 channel fan but realised that I had better invest some money into multichannel as this was the trend. So I ended up getting a LCR600 as well. Bottom line is I bought the 604s as part of a home theatre system and in this regard it does it job very well. You could get the 700 or 800 series but they cost much more and except for the floorstanders, the bass output is rather lacking.

Many months later, while searching for better bass oomph, I decided to get a new subwoofer. Because the new sub (Adire Dharman) was capable of quite high outputs, I decided to try and put all my speakers as "small". This had the effect of tightening the musical experience and the bass now sounds great ... except it's not coming from the 604s (interestingly enough i listened to a surround sound system powered by 5 Nautilus 804s and the sound was awesome - only later did i find out that the Nautilus' were set to "small" with 2 B+W subs driving the whole show). New bottom line is that I could have saved some money by sticking to my earlier 603 purchase or even the 602 (but having to purchase the stands meant that there would be negligible cost savings).

My feeling now is that I've paid for the advantage of floorstanders plus an extra bass unit on the 604 (as compared to the 603) and now don't make use of it. That said the 604s + LCR600 are quite good in a home theatre environment and I would not hesitate to recommend them.

Hope you have fun ...

[jsmalley]

well thank you very much for the info dr.c . well iam off to go get the dm604s3 for the front,lsr600 s 3 for the center , and finally the dm601s3. i went and listen to them again yesyerday. damn it sound good, i will be powering them with a denon avr reciever the 4802. my wife and children love movies. myself i listen to old rock and some jazzy music every once in a while.well thanks for the help and go slow.



j.l. smalley