B&W 685 S2 or Monitor Audio mass 5.1

[phoenixranjeet]

Hello friends,
I am new to this forum and want to say hello to this wonderful set of people who share their views about anything and everything about home theatre. It's really wonderful to see so many reviews and feedbacks about any product so much so that the person who is concerned is spoilt for choices.I need your help for buying speakers.
My room size(hall) is 18x8 feet. I have already bought a marantz sr5008 receiver. Depending on my room size , i would like to buy a 5.1 set up. I went for an audition at decibel where mr.john demoed us a b&w 685 s2.it was awesome.smooth fluid sound. Then i went to audio people. The manager mr.abrar demoed us with monitor audio mass 5.1 with denon avr x2100w. It was awesome.the bass from the sub was simply outstanding.
Having bought already a marantz receiver , my head is spinning whether to go for b&w or monitor audio. I mean both are excellent.i have rs 1 lakh. MA mass 5.1 costs 1 lakh. B&W 685 S2 pair costs 60,000.
Now the question is my friends.. is my room sufficient enough to go for MA mass 5.1 satellite set up or should i go for B&W 685 S2 bookshelf and slowly as money comes should i add surrounds and sub for B&W set up?my interest is 50% movies and 50% music. Kindly suggest the best friends.

 

[Srinath_seshadri]

B&W's that have the basket weave yellow woofer and the matrix tweeter are about the best B&W's made. I like those. No idea monitor audio, never heard those that I recall.

However B&W's like high current high power amps. I ran them with a Nakamichi PA 7 and they just about sounded out of this world. They fall way short with any home theater amp and even a lot of power amps. You need 100-200 watts of high current clean power. A massive crown, krell, nak etc etc. They have an idiotic 6th order butterworth crossover. If you dont have that, or dont want to buy that, I'd get something simpler. Maybe the MA, I dunno much about those.
BTW The B&W 801 s2 I tried did not like my carver silver 7 monoblocks. 575 watts into 8 ohm, and they sounded harsh and thin and horrible.

Cool.
Srinath.

 

[paramesh]

I have demo monitor audio mass 5.1 with Marantz AVR, it was very good. I dont have any idea abt B&W 685 s2. MA Mass 5.1 is very good for movies.it is like punchy

 

[Flash]

Now the question is my friends.. is my room sufficient enough to go for MA mass 5.1 satellite set up or should i go for B&W 685 S2 bookshelf and slowly as money comes should i add surrounds and sub for B&W set up?my interest is 50% movies and 50% music. Kindly suggest the best friends.

Your room is in excess of 2900 cubic feet which is not small . If i were in your place and willing to complete a 5.1 i stages then yes the B&W 6852 setup would be a lot better. Lets face facts here Bookshelves would outperform Satellites for music as well as Movies especially in your room

However you would need to factor in the price and willingness to spend. Considering the cost of the 685's at 60k + center + surrounds and a Decent subwoofer your overall budget for the 5.1 minus the receiver would be to the tune of Rs 150k+ .

So it boils down to patience and money If you have both .. Go the B&W or alternate bookshelf way

 

[kestrel5915]

I have demoed both MA Mass 5.1 (powered by Denon)and B&W 685 S2 5.1 (HTM61 center, 686 S2 surrounds, ASW610 sub, powered by Onkyo), at different places.

I felt that the Mass system was very good for movies, the sub was also pretty good.
Given the size and price, it is an excellent compact system and can be driven easily by your AVR.
Other such compact systems that you can consider are Q Acoustics 7000i, B&W MT50/MT60D and Golden Ear SuperSat series.
I have auditioned the B&W MT50 and the SuperSat system.
I felt that the B&W MT50 system was the best satellite package that I listened to.

However when it comes to music, you can't really compare any satellites to a pair of good bookshelves like the 685 S2, etc.
Even with movies and gaming, the 685 S2 (paired with a decent amp and surrounds) will easily outperform any satellite system.
So it's not really a correct comparison.

Basically if size and money is not a concern and music is also in consideration then bookshelves is the way to go.
However, I'm not really sure how good would a Marantz SR5008 perform with the 685 S2.

 

[phoenixranjeet]

First of all , i really thank you guys for your generous replies. Srinath sir.. you replied that power is an important factor to be considered for a B&W set up. Frankly speaking i cannot afford to buy a krell or nakamichi.sir , you mean to say that marantz sr5008 at 100 watts per channel will find difficult to drive 685s thereby straining the avr.. kindly reply sir.
Kestrel sir.. you have suggested to go for a B&W set up and later on we can add surrounds,center and sub. i value your suggestion sir.
Friends , does anyone has an experience with 685 S2s with marantz sr5008? If so, kindly share.

 

[kanna.sridharan]

First of all , i really thank you guys for your generous replies. Srinath sir.. you replied that power is an important factor to be considered for a B&W set up. Frankly speaking i cannot afford to buy a krell or nakamichi.sir , you mean to say that marantz sr5008 at 100 watts per channel will find difficult to drive 685s thereby straining the avr.. kindly reply sir.
Kestrel sir.. you have suggested to go for a B&W set up and later on we can add surrounds,center and sub. i value your suggestion sir.
Friends , does anyone has an experience with 685 S2s with marantz sr5008? If so, kindly share.

If your budget is 1L, you could go for the 685 & a sub from their stable, should offset you by a little more.
The major factor here is the B&W's are generally power hungry speakers and their impedance level drops low which may not be comfortable for an AVR to handle, like what Srinath has mentioned. There are options in your Marantz AVR where you could bi-amp the speakers, you could take a try with the B&W's.
Alternatives I would suggest are the Wharfedale 100 series or Dia 10 series, which would go well with your amp or the Qacoustics 2050i, I'm surprised you didnt get to audition that @ Decibel.

I recommend you take your AVR and audition with the speakers you intend to buy, and your ears will tell you the rest.

Cheers and happy hunting.

 

[mpw]

the A26 for boston acoustics is a nice deal at Rs 13.9k approx on hifimart..

take a basic pair of stands from soundfoundations...

the money thus saved can be put into a nice subwoofer and they do have a center channel and complete the setup with a wall mountable rears like WH2 or the new diamond series..

njoi !

 

[Srinath_seshadri]

B&W subs are another big disappointment to me.
I ahve a ASW 3000 - I think their biggest sub ever made. The thing weight 120 LB (as much as my wife and near 20 lb more than my 12 yr old boy) and the bloody hting has a few opamps with out a grounded pin that should be grounded.
Their speakers have a 6 th order crossover.
Its almost like they are making their speakers sound bad on purpose.

I am all for Hard dome tweeters, cone or soft dome mids ,and good high power woofers, but anything tha thas a 6th order XO or even a 4th order I have to think there is something they are covering up.
Lets try this for size.
We found out about crossovers almost as soon as we invented the speaker. I'd conservatively guess 50 year run, where we had 1 st order and 2nd order. Then we have these clowns re inventing the XO. What next ??? a square wheel.

Simpler sounds better IMHO.
If your driver has a crazy spike after its intended XO freq - maybe the issue is your driver ... dont muddy the issue by goobering up the XO. That isn't the problem.

If you have a square wheel ... you can climb stairs, but you cant do much else.

Anyway I am working on acquiring a B&W with only a 4th XO. LOL. Hope it sounds good. I have tons of power on hand to drive anything. But that guy sounded best with either a Crown CE 1000 or an adcom 535. I plan to experiment with it if I get it one of these days.

Cool.
Srinath.

 

[Srinath_seshadri]

Why not do this -
Buy hard dome tweeters, soft dome mids and a 10 or 12 woofer of high quality. Ideally they should be matched for SPL and have a few 100 hz of overlap. Then design the XO. Get a carpenter to make your favorite style cabinet, I would do a bass bin, a mid cab and a tweeter bullet like B&W did, and put it all together.
You could do a floor stander just as easy though.
Cool.
srinath.

 

[Srinath_seshadri]

The India I remember used to have carpenters etc etc and good wood all available cheap and easy.
Maybe its changed. In Chennai, between Mylapore and Triplicane there was a road with wood dealers on both sides. You buy the wood and get the carpenter reference and get the guy to build for you. We built beds, and all sorts of things.
Does somehting like that exist now ?
Cool.
Srinath.

 

[BLASTO]

@OP, monitor audio mass and marantz is a perfect match. Go back to AP and demo this combo, its much better than denon+ MA.

I sldont know about Chennai but hyd showroom demo room of AP is bigger than your room.

I don't think SR 5008 can drive 5 B&W 685. They cant mostly. But individually they are much better speakers that need better amplification.

 

[raj_krish]

If your are interested more in watching movies its good to go with MA Mass
As you will get a complete 5.1 package and you wont be in a hurry to add matching equipments into your set-up
Some times when you plan to upgrade you cant find the required stuff (might be outdated and hard to find)
Later you can plan for a stereo set-up by adding BS/FS with the Marantz AVR or by adding a power amp as it is having a pre out

 

[miltondcunha]

What is the current price for mass 5.1 is it available in mumbai