SOUND QUALITY

A hard and edgy presentation after twenty four hours of run-in convinced us the B&Ws needed more and we had to give them one hundred and twenty hours in total of heavy running in with pink noise and Monitor Audio’s De-Tox disc before reviewing could commence.

    I still was not satisfied that our ever impressive Musical Fidelity pure Class A AMS50 transistor amplifier was an ideal subjective match and used our Icon Audio MB845 MkII valve amplifier for this review. The softer, well damped presentation of this amplifier, with its machined graphite anode 845s and Jensen paper-in-oil capacitors, was a perfect foil to the obviously tilted tonal balance of the 804Ds.
    ‘What?’ you may ask in surprise at hearing this. Even if you are not technical and prefer to avoid our Measured Performance section, one look at the green Frequency Response trace shows a distinct lift up at far right and this means treble is emphasised – a property obvious in use. The tweeters jumped out, delivering a stream of fine, filigree detail right into my lap. Smallest taps on cymbals on my obligatory Angelique Kidjo test CD, ‘Fifa’, rang out hard.  And 'diamond' does aptly describe treble quality. Apart from being extremely strong and obvious, treble had a sparkling clarity that was aurally alluring. If you want every little detail to sparkle before you, with a purity that is beyond reproach, then B&W's Diamond tweeter is quite an extraordinary performer. This tweeter avoids the metallic qualities of metal domes of all types and in this respect it is unimpeachable. It does not have the resolution of a ribbon or electrostatic driver though, meaning a Monitor Audio PL300 or Martin Logan Ethos will run it hard. But even when paired with our MB845 amplifier, both with hours of running on the clock (i.e. warm voice coils plus warm 845s) I was always aware that treble output was excessive; this is not something that you can ignore even with acclimatisation, making sibilants obviously hissy for example.
    With such strong upper midrange output and projective treble, sound stage images were well wrought, with hard clear outlines, every instrument and vocalist being placed precisely. All vocalists, from Jackie Leven's baritone range to the soprano of Renee Fleming were hard lit centre stage in a way that other loudspeakers would struggle to match. But the 804D can sound a bit remorseless at times. It is conspicuously clean and clear, but not exactly svelte. Its overwhelming upper midrange rather shades the lower midrange, wringing warmth from the sound. This is not a full bodied or warm loudspeaker, yet it has a solid, meaty sound all the same.
    Bass quality was very much B&W, meaning low notes were perfectly pitched and moved up and down the bass scale fluidly, with no sign of one-note effects. That the cabinets are clean and bass distortion is low is quite obvious by the tight yet bouncy nature of bass lines. B&W restrain subsonics to ensure there’s no overhang or sloth and it’s a good strategy in my view. So the 804D does not deliver strong ultra lows, but it got the emphasised bass lines of Fifa out into the room with flawless ability and here the 804D again runs most rivals well. My only reservation, after listening to larger but less expensive Triangle Antals or similarly priced Tannoys was that there was little in the way of upper bass detail. I could not really make out much of the bass synth used in Lady Gaga’s 'Bad Romance'. The 804D has bass power and a lovely exuberant low end quality, but it isn’t expressive in the way larger cabinets can be and at this price a Tannoy DC-10T would give it a hard time (as it would for both tonal accuracy and depth of insight).
    In view of the 804D’s unbalanced nature I was surprised at how well it reproduced Nigel Kennedy’s violin and the English Chamber Orchestra accompanying him. His violin sounded sweet, crystal clear but smooth and especially well resolved, fast little tremolos I hadn’t noticed before suddenly becoming obvious. There was an unbalancing of the instrument's basic tonality but it wasn’t especially annoying. Horns had a lovely brassy blare at the introduction of Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Scheherazade’ and individual string instruments of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra were well differentiated. The 804Ds have a dense yet well lit presentation that sounds refreshingly brisk and modern. You’ll believe you have a high technology loudspeaker when listening to it and so will the neighbours. And it’s one that handles classical music very well I found, no matter what I played. Vivacious, clean and temporally sprightly the 804Ds impress with classical. An absence of cabinet colour and port whoomph helped.