tvgeek
Member
Someone asked this on the home theater sub and I thought it was a fair question rather than a naive one. Scroll through setup threads and you see Klipsch, SVS, Polk, JBL, Monitor Audio, KEF if the budget stretches. B&W barely comes up, despite being one of the best known speaker names on the planet and despite the 600 series sitting right in the price bracket people are shopping in.
My read is that it is three things stacked. First, B&W sells itself to the two-channel and lifestyle buyer, not to the person building a 5.2.4 room, so the marketing never reaches this audience. Second, timbre matching a full surround set means buying B&W centre and surrounds and Atmos modules to go with the towers, and by the time you have priced that you are well past what an equivalent Klipsch or SVS package costs for the same channel count. Home theatre buyers count channels per dollar in a way stereo buyers never do.
Third, and this is the one people say quietly, the house sound leans bright and detailed. That flatters acoustic music and can get fatiguing across a three hour action film at reference level in a room with hard surfaces. Not a flaw exactly, just a different brief.
None of that makes them bad cinema speakers. A pair of 603s with a decent centre and two subs will comfortably beat most of what gets recommended here. It just is not the obvious value play, and this hobby runs on value plays.
Anyone actually running a full B&W surround set? Curious whether the timbre concern holds up once it is all one brand.
My read is that it is three things stacked. First, B&W sells itself to the two-channel and lifestyle buyer, not to the person building a 5.2.4 room, so the marketing never reaches this audience. Second, timbre matching a full surround set means buying B&W centre and surrounds and Atmos modules to go with the towers, and by the time you have priced that you are well past what an equivalent Klipsch or SVS package costs for the same channel count. Home theatre buyers count channels per dollar in a way stereo buyers never do.
Third, and this is the one people say quietly, the house sound leans bright and detailed. That flatters acoustic music and can get fatiguing across a three hour action film at reference level in a room with hard surfaces. Not a flaw exactly, just a different brief.
None of that makes them bad cinema speakers. A pair of 603s with a decent centre and two subs will comfortably beat most of what gets recommended here. It just is not the obvious value play, and this hobby runs on value plays.
Anyone actually running a full B&W surround set? Curious whether the timbre concern holds up once it is all one brand.
