B&W 600 Series Home Theater Advice

Originally Posted by Tankarma 

I've decided to spend some money and upgrade my home theater setup. I have a room that's 15' x 14' and 12' ceilings.
I'm in NYC and finding a place that will give me some attention and answer my questions seems impossible. The only way I've been able to research is to walk into best buy / magnolia and play with the equipment on display my self.
Starting with things I've narrowed down after some research and in-store demos.
- I like the B&W 600 series, they sound great and fit the budget I'm aiming for.
- I like Marantz receivers but Denon these days seems like the better choice for similar/same thing.
So here's kind of what I had in mind:
Denon AVR-3313CI Receiver
B&W HTM61 For Center
B&W 683 for Fronts.
B&W 685 for Rears
B&W ASW 610XP for the sub.
Now my only concern is that I've looked at a few 683's in store and all the aluminium woofers are distorted with finger print size dents, even the ones that have the grills on. I'm almost certain the finger dents aren't part of the design so are they just really easy to permanently distort if touched?
I'm very concerned by this, that someone might touch my speakers by accident and then those dents would bother me forever. So I was thinking about getting the 684s, which are more practically sized, and considering I live in NYC I can't really crank my speakers too loud anyway. The problem is do I then change the centers and rears for their small counterparts, is there any advantage of still keeping the higher end rears and centers. I also think the smaller size are better looking / more practically sized but either way I can make it work.
Looking for advice from the masses, particularly those who own this receiver and/or speaker series.
Tank

Originally Posted by fatuglyguy 

I'll echo most of what postrokfan said here. My front stage is currently comprised of B&W 600 Series speakers (685 for L/R, HTM61) powered by a Marantz AVR [SR5006]. The 3313 is a fairly powerful receiver, and will do well for the 683s - I have found that the 683s sound cleaner and more open with better amplification. The 600 Series centers don't get much love here or from reviewers, since they have off-axis dispersion problems. I"ve read here that the B&W 600 centers sound better placed vertically rather than horizontally, but have not the space required to test that out. If you're sitting directly in front of the center most of the time this won't be an issue. I almost bought a CM center instead, but since my room layout only allows for on-axis seating, the HTM61 works fine for me.
If you're going to get 600 series B&W floorstanders, I agree that the 683 is the way to go. They are better speakers overall than the 684. From my listening sessions with the 600 series towers, the 683s had a more defined midrange, better imaging, and less boated bass. In fact, I was originally going to get the 684. When I compared them to the 685, I found I liked the bookshelves better. The 684 sound like a slightly bloated, more bass-heavy 685 to me. After getting the 685, I was was also originally set on an HTM62 center and came away not liking it at all. It sounded weak, probably from the lower sensitivity, and lacked presence. Perhaps the FST midrange drivers in the 683 and HTM61 are what make them sound better.
As far as the dents go, to put it simply and for the sake of brevity: people are dumb. For whatever reason, they think expensive loudspeakers are meant to be poked and prodded and that the dust cap over the tweeter is some sort of button. Once they get to pushing in the tweeter, they get curious and start to push the drivers. This was a huge problem when Best Buy/Magnolia started carrying B&W product, and B&W reps came to install protectors for their tweeters (Fun side note: I had heard that people pushing in the tweeters were actually B&W fans angry at BB for starting to carry their product); If you have small children running around, it may be a problem, Otherwise I wouldn't worry about it. You can also keep the grilles on the speakers when not in use. In any case, the most commonly damaged part, the tweeter, like I mentioned is just the dust cap and shouldn't impact sound quality should it accidentally get pushed in.
While the 600 series are great speakers, I'd also advise that you try to find a Monitor Audio dealer in your area (http://www.monitoraudiousa.com/dealers shows quite a few NY dealers), and give their Silver RX line a listen before committing to purchase anything. They occupy about the same price bracket as the 600 series and IMO offer a better value, not to mention more finish choices and exemplary build quality. To me, they were sonically closer to the CM range, definitely more refined and controlled than the 68x. I actually preferred the sound of the RX over the CM, I think. The RX center also sounded really good. Full disclosure: I recently purchased a pair of MA RX6 hat are going to replace my 685s. Doesn't hurt to check them out.
Whatever you end up doing, I wish you luck. Hope this post helped!

Originally Posted by fatuglyguy 

Ears to You,
Unfortunately, I never compared the MA bookshelves the dealer had on display (RX1 only) in any serious capacity to the CM5, Since I was looking to purchase floorstanders. I compared the RX6/RX8 to the CM8/CM9/684/683. I can tell that when comparing the floorstanders, e.g. the RX8 vs. the CM9, the Monitors did not seem to have quite as wide a soundstage or as precise imaging as the CM9, but at the same time I found the upper registers a bit thin and maybe a bit too forward on the CM9. The MA retained a lot of what I liked about the CMs, though - better separation and localization while eking more refined detail out of recordings, but maintained a more pleasing treble to my ears (less forward), and a more rich, dynamic quality that I like about the 600s. I guess you can call the Silver RX line a mash up of what I like about the 600 B&W and the CM series. While I didn't compare the bookshelves, I suppose the sonic qualities of the floorstanders largely carry over to their smaller counterparts. Also, keep in mind the standard disclaimer: I'm not an expert, I don't have a golden ear, and these are my opinions from listening to these speakers via the same source through the same amp in the same room without any room EQ software running. I only know what sound I like, and the best answer I can give you is to get out and listen to MA speakers yourself
Without getting too off-topic here - If you really are looking for something detailed, I remember months back comparing the CM5 to the PM1. The PM1s were incredibly detailed and sounded much more pleasing to my ears. They sounded almost as good as the 805D for half the price. With that said, they were in separate rooms and driven by different electronics so a direct comparion between the diamonds and the PM1 wasn't possible. I would definitely give them a listen though.