I’ve wanted to upgrade forever, so I decided to man up and drop some coin.
I decided to stay with B&W (Bowers and Wilkins) so that I now have a full 7.1 setup for a future basement built, my old fronts will become my new rears. I’m Bipowering them using a Marantz pre and a Rotel amp.
before = 601
after = 683
The beauty of the 683 is that you get a lot of the components from much higher end B&Ws in a smaller / simpler / more affordable package.
the day that I got them, before installing the base and spikes.
MSRP on the speakers is around $1600 I think… you can normally haggle 10%-20% off with higher end audio stuff.
but remember that you’ll need a receiver / amp combo (or integrated) that’s going to set you back $1500+ (or they’ll sound like crap), decent gauge speaker cable (regardless of if you believe in buying boutique brands or not) $200+, and so on… most people work their way up in stages unless you’re rolling in cash.
stuff like this really is a hobby where ignorance is bliss… everything sounds great until you hear better, then you hate your current setup and want more.
Tell me about it… I did tech support for a local high-end audio component manufactuer. Just the receivers cost 2-6 grand and I would help installers over the phone who were in the process of setting up $25,000+ home theatre systems. True audiophiles are something else and would be appauled at setups we think are siqq.
when I was in the store they had a replacement diamond tweeter that I got a look at… a cool $2000 each (tweeter only) if something goes wrong outside of warranty.
I like B&W, but at that price point I’ll switch to Martin Logan or something more exotic.
if those speakers had a wet hole i’d stick my dick in them. congrats.
and i’m with you on the martin logans. i’ve never heard the CLX’s in person, but i’d love to. just a couple weeks ago i was at a martin logan training and i listened to the vantages and was floored by them. i’m hoping this summer a series of potential events will happen and i’ll be able to tour the martin logan factory in kansas.
I just got a personal tour of the Martin Logan factory on tuesday. If you ever find yourself in the Kansas City area then call them up and request a tour. They don’t show one on the website, but if you call they’ll try to accommodate you.
