I owned these speakers for 2 months before I realized how bad they sounded. A friend of mine bought some Pinnacle Classic Gold Reference over my house and they smoked the B&K 603 garbage cans. We pulled the woofer out of the 603's to find a passive radiator. I couldn't believe I sunk that much money into speakers with virtual woofers. I agree with the poster below, ports and passive radiators in the same box is a scam. I luckily brought the 603's back and put my money towards the Pinnacle Reference. I speak from personal experience, avoid B&W 600 series speakers. They are nothing more than over hyped and over marketed speakers.

I have owned these 603's for one month and I have found myself exploring my CD and LP collection anew. These are sweet sounding wonderful speakers that play music with accuracy, detail and immediacy. I listen only to the classics and Icannot comment on other tastes or sonic preferences. But, when set up properly the speakers simply disappear in a soundstage that reveals as close to live performance as I hope to come anytime soon. And for $800.

Riegal and Greg,
Just how retarded does one have to be to buy a $1000 speaker without understanding the way it functions?

Don't be disuaded by these two aeronautical engineers, these are fine speakers for the money. Suitable for a wide variety of two channel stereo and HT equipment.

heard these at my local dealer the other day - have to say they are poor performers, especially at the price. the dynaudio audience 50 bookshelf speaker walked all over them in every area (they were hooked up to the same electronics). plus the dynaudio's are cheaper, and a nice compact bookshelf speakers. of course the monitor audio silver 5's trounce both speakers emphatically & are in the same price range ($999). there are many speakers out there that are better than the 603's, even paradigms can keep up with this speaker & they are nothing to write home about. nht, dynaudio, monitor audio, hell even sound dynamics all make vastly superior speakers in this price range. i give them 2 stars because my 1 star ratings are reserved for bose/cerwin vega equipment. but these are still very poor value by today's standards. (not that i have anything against b&w speakers, i think their nautilus speakers rock & have said so under their review postings) 2 stars for the 603.

I set out to buy a $500 pair of floorstanders for my new apartment and ended up with some display model 603s for $700. I got spoiled for B&Ws after hearing the 305s, but they didn't have enough bass.
I started out driving these with my old, inexpensive Kenwood integrated amp. With this setup, the bass could get pretty boomy sometimes. I upgraded to a new Sony STR-DA333ES receiver and bi-wired at the same time and the boominess is gone. I assume it is the better amp rather than the wiring, but the difference is amazing. The bass is now tight and articulate. I almost feel like I must be missing something saying this, but the bass port plugs don't make all that much difference now. The bass sounds great with or without either of them.

I have been listening to Lauryn Hill (heavy bass!), James Taylor, Sublime, Peter Gabriel, Third Eye Blind, even old Madonna and these speakers make some beautiful sounds. They make me smile from ear to ear. I am disappointed to say that some of the heavier rock like Ozzy and some Zappa does not sound all that great, but the quality is so different it seems it might be the recording. I had some big cheap speakers before that could make anything sound mediocre it seems. Now the good recordings sound so good it is hard to listen to the bad stuff. Oh well.

My receiver upgrade also completed my home theater setup where I have the 603s working with a CC6 center and 302 rears (all B&W). I have no sub. This setup far exceeded my expectations. The dynamics are phenomenal and even the bass is great. I have heard some mega-buck HT setups, and I was delighted to find that listening to mine gave a similarly exciting audio experience.

Summary: The DM603s are very musical and dynamic without being harsh. The bass is surprisingly abundant and can be tight and articulate with a decent amp. They are good for music and HT, but may not be the best speakers for heavy metal and other distorted-guitar-laden rock music.

Full range of sound with punchy bass

I am an avid listerner or techno, alternative type music. These speakers definitely fit that bill when I listened to them in a show room (crystal method). I was even more amazed when I put in The Nutcracker. The highs were very crisp and clear as your could heare the violins being strummed. Overall, I'm very impressed with the speakers as well as the value. I 'm going to try to power them with a Denon AVR 3300 so we'll see if they sound just as good. Any advice would be great.

Similar Products Used:

psb's , dynaudio, infinity (encore2)

i wrote the previous review a couple weeks ago. the dm603's didnt last long, they were amazing, my review still stands, but i just upgraded to the cdm-7se's. my god....... off to post a review there, but i frankly didnt expect this sort of improvement.

The first component I bought for my home cinema system was a budget reciever.To go with this I soon bought a pair of DM 603s and a CC6 center.
For me these speakers have been wonderful all the way through.
I thought they sounded great but needed a little more bass.
But instead of buying a subwoofer I got me a real amplifier,
the Yamaha DSP-A990. Now I'm as happy as a baby with a lollipop.
The bass that was missing has really showed itself.
These speakers are GREAT!

The first component I bought for my home cinema system was a budget reciever.To go with this I soon bought a pair of DM 603s and a CC6 center.
For me these speakers have been wonderful all the way through.
I thought they sounded great but needed a little more bass.
But instead of buying a subwoofer I got me a real amplifier,
the Yamaha DSP-A990. Now I'm as happy as a baby with a lollipop.
The bass that was missing has really showed itself.
These speakers are GREAT!

Just took a listen to the B&W 603's. First impressions? Very rolled-off highs (I had to check that the tweeter was in fact playing); Shallow, narrow soundstage. Reasonably deep (-ish) bass, fairly articulate, though not very involving. The speakers could not handle female vocal very well (Natalie Merchant). In comparison my NHT 2.5i's were on hand and they just walked all over the B&W's in ALL the above areas- clean, open highs, deep, precise soundstage and bass that made my feet dance. I cannot help but feel that this would be an excellent $500 dollar speaker, but really feel that B&W is seriously overcharging for their reputation and (former) name.