801's a month later

Dejavu, and a month later brings back fond memories of these.Forgot just how good they really are! There is a reason why B&W has sold so many.  Bumped into my friend Bob who I sold the first pair to and he asked me how much I wanted for them. He got rid of them as well a few years ago.  "Not for sale, I just got them". "Oh, ok, the capacitors are probably all dried out, though". "Oh, ok".

Anyway, forgot just how power hungry these really are. The Fosgate Audionics pre needs to be at about three o'clock to get fairly loud but not screaming volume out of these. Have tried bi-wiring and bi-amping them. With both the Mc-275 on the top end and a couple of different solid state amps on the bottom. Tried my 200 wpc Forte, settled on a five channel B&K bi-amping with four of the five channels. 125w X four driving the heads and woofer cabinets, mainly because the amps are the same. Got a quality pair of Y adapters from my buddy Richie C. at Rowe.  Pretty good result, wish I had a pair of the 275's, not in the mood to come up with another $4500. right now, though.In a perfect world I would have a pair of these amps vertically bi-amped, one amp bi-amping each speaker.

Although tubes are generally not the best choice for large woofers, I think somehow this might work. My family room is fairly dead being mostly concrete and also fairly large. Also considered moving them up into the living room where I could sit closer to them. Strapped one to my hand truck with bungee cords, intending to walk them up the steps one at a time. Said "If I take my time and go slow I can do this myself". Somewhere around 150 lbs each and not a mark on them. Sat on the bottom step and tugged. "UGH! UGH! Not......  Back in the family room. If someday I get in this mood again, I will invite one of you over to help me......

  Meanwhile, Zanny, the peach of a guy that I bought these from has found the casters and is again going to hand deliver them to me.  This will complete the R2D2 look.