Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I use a Rotel RSX-1065 which power the B&W 603 S3's, I bought these speakers used on ebay. Although i am still breaking these in, because as you know anything that sits for any period of time needs a little break in again, they are starting to sound fanatastic, i never buy anything i don't audition first, but by taking a chance from reviews, the gamble paid off. I got a great deal on these speaks, 510.00 for the pair in mint condition. My room might be a little large for these speakers, but as long as i don't stray to far from the sweet spot they are awesome, as always room size, acoustics and speaker placement all come into play, so plan wisely, no need for a subwoofer. If i deaden my room a bit that would take care of what i'm looking for, the speakers are by no means harsh or bright, warm, breathy and airy. Can listen to for a long time and not sound fatigued. I am also using Xindak FS-1 speaker cables, which for the money are more than what i expected. Those too need to break in a bit, but from the time i hooked everything up till now, it all just keeps sounding better than my expectations.

raklerks

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
Have had the 330i for more than 20 years. Since I moved my old speakers to be used in another room, I had to search a new set. After having listened to the small 685's I was not sold. Even though they were the best in their class. Going back to the reviews on audioreview I sought a new set of floorrstanders. I have seen the 603 s3's going on sale and set out to listen to them. Went for the S3's after having read that the S3 are still a bit better than the S1 and S2.
They look sleek and tall (in black) and best with the fronts off. The aluminium cone looks awesome.
The mids and highs are flawless, especially listening to vocal or live sets. The low is quite flat when the volume is low, but when turned up the music comes out best. Well balanced filling up the space with music on all ends.
I am sure I can hold out for another 20 years on these ones. I have not been so happy with a purchase for quite some time. If you see any pair you cannot go wrong.

Set used with Onkyo TX SV545

Sergio Serra

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
3.86 of 5, 7.00 votes

Price Paid:  $1500.00 from Curitiba- Brazil

Summary:
At a reasonable price, an excelent pair of speakers.

Strengths:
Clarity, exact bass, image, soundstage, very nice looking and of course that logotype that makes the difference.

Weaknesses:
Don't say this!!

Similar Products Used:
Speakers= paradigm monitor 5 v1, mini- monitor, energy, infinity, b&w 602-s2, 603-s2, cygnus, gradiente, sony.

diehardmonte

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
3.39 of 5, 23.00 votes

Price Paid:  $1000.00 from India

Summary:
Hi friends! This is my second review for these speakers and if you scroll down n read my last review, i had mentioned that i would be discussing my system from a more techincal view point. My setup consits of the Marantz CD7300 player, Arcam A70 Integrated stereo amp, Kimber's Timber analog audio interconnect and Kimber's Kwik 16 (standby, 8VS is on way) speaker cable in biwire mode. The setup looks quite simple, though its a midrange setup with a true class A quality sound. The speakers are kept about half a feet ahead of the walls and atleast 6 feet apart. The speakers are on spikes, with the room being acoustically done partially. This helps me in minimizing the bouncing and boomy sound in the small room. The setup runs on a singaporean make surge protector till the time my power conditioner arrives.

Now, i must highlight the differences in the performance i noticed about these speakers when i switched them from Yamaha RVX457 amp to Arcam A70. The first thing was the sound totally changed. The sound becme huge as if there were double the size of speakers playing. Secondly, the detailing factor improved so much so that everything now seems lovely listening to. All those complains about lack of bass is absurd. The bass response that i get is better than what a midrange sub can offer. The vocals are damn strong and the speakers deliver the same fastness at almost 90% of the volume on the amp without any distortion! The treble or tweeter is more soft. It wasnt harsh earlier, but the difference is noticiable. The level is gone much much higher n it was earlier. Truly magnificient....the more i listen to them, the more i love them...the amp is burned only 30 hrs so far...so it would be more interesting to see the performance after almost 100 hrs.

The important aspects for any speaker to perform wonderfully is to spend on a good CD player, which i did with Marantz CD7300, good cables, Kimber's mid range cables though but decent enough, a very decent amp...though wattage is low in my case, but the quality of 55 watts are more preffered than quantity of power. I could have gone for a nad 150 Watt C372, but, the quality wont be there. So try getting something which delivers more quality than quantity. Because, every human has a very limited Then do a smart bi-wiring and try to keep as small cables as possible. Avoid any bend or ground touching if possible. Try n route power cords seperately and you will see, the sound improvement with these mid range twin towers are fantastic.

The best part i liked about B&W is, they dont have a proper showroom except in Bombay. All the other places have Onkyo showrooms which do not have such competent equipments to run these speakers. Nonetheless, the still sounded far ahead of any other brand set with right n matching equipments. So you can now imagine the sound from these guys with this pidegree of my setup. They sound simply fantastic.

Shut your eyes n ears...just go n buy it!

Strengths:
Perfect sounstaging. Nothing in its range to beat these guys!

Weaknesses:
None!

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diehardmonte

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
3.55 of 5, 11.00 votes

Price Paid:  $1000.00 from India

Summary:
This is a first cut of my review on these pair of handsome and amazing sounding guys. The one that i bought is a Maple color. The brown cabinet with black baffle looks very expensive. Not to mention, they are way ahead as compared to any other brand in this category n level of performance.

The first thing that i noticed about these speakers are that they are very fast...means there is no time lagging even at extreme volume levels when the speakers are mechanically driven to the limits of their surround. Simply a fantastic thing to observe, that the speakers simply dont loose any steam with what ever is thrown at them. The vocals are too good n has a perfect balance in the overall music. Which makes a perfect soundsatge. The bass is more than enough. For all those bass fanatics here, plz refer to an ENT specialist or need to check with ur CD player, amp n cables/interconnects & of course they way u have positioned the speakers. There r no placement problems, its as simple as placing them close to the wall when u need more bass n vice versa!

The tweeter is soft n not at all harsh...again its the problem with the equipments used with these guys...i have personally tested these guys on different combos of amp, cables/interconnects n ofcourse very important - the CD player. Believe me, not only i but my very casual listening friends have noticed the differences too!

The crossover is also well balanced and ensures that the raw bass frequency goes only to the bass driver even though its precisely difficult in a 2.5 way configuration. Its damn good n u must notice this. The best song that can shows this is - Snoop Doggy Dog's 'What's My Name (remix). The bass is extended so well that u dont hear much of it...the bass driver is vibrating (u can c that) n there is a rattle kindda feeling in ur body!!! thats true bass and not the boom that u get outta those subs. boom is artificial. This bass is very addictive...i was about to purchase the 604s but bought this due to non availability of the right amp for that pair in Indian market...but believe me...i made a good decision...the 604 bass would have thrown me out...what sounds in a studio will never sound in ur house...so u need to understand the requirement also....for me bass is extending well upto the sub levels...Adding a sub to these guys is a total injustice...dont do it for the sake of pure music.

Wait till my next review, when my description will be more in audiophile terms & specially with the right equipments n the way i have set my system up. It will b kindda tutorial for u!!!

Strengths:
Very powerful, very fast speakers, never smears with time, excellant soundstaging..larger than life sound...sweet n dominating..very B&W. All perfect in this 2.5 way config which easily puts many gr8 3 way config guys to shame...u name any brand n its model n i'll tell u the difference. If paired with right equips...they can perform well ahead of anyone's expectations.....

Weaknesses:
This is not weakness...u need to spend very well on the source, cables n interconnects...these guys are totally neutral n would disappoint u on many of ur favorite cds if run on budget equips. You'll need to spend generously with these guys...

Similar Products Used:
Marantz CD7300 (excellant CDP)...a host of many more high end audio equipments and speaker brands n their models...list is very very long....