The B&W 803 is a pleasant speaker, with a musical midrange and relatively free of major flaws. However I found the overall presentation to be somewhat less than exciting. The low bass is deficient, some of the deep notes on my test CDs were only marginally audible. Dynamics were restrained. The soundstage was a bit more compressed and less lifelike than I've heard on other speakers in this price range.
IMHO the $2200 Hales Revelation 3 and $2500 NHT 2.9 are both better speakers, and the first generation Von Schweikert VR-4 (which listed at $3450 - now replaced with the $3950 VR-4 Gen II) is far, far better.

Overall, I found the 803 to be a good example of a 3-star value in the $2500-$3000 price range.

I find it amusing to read the reviews and opinions of the B&W 803 series II speakers. I am firmly a believer that you get out of a speaker what you are looking for. If you are one who is looking for absolute, accurate sound reproduction you will probably choose one type of speaker, while if you like lots of bass, or crystal clear treble, you will choose another product. The 803 fits the first scenario. When my wife and brother-in-law went with me to shop for speakers, we traveled to two states and spent a lot of time auditioning different products. We were looking for a system that reproduces exactly what the artist puts into his or her recording. Who are we to add more bass, or less treble to what they want us to hear?When a painter paints a picture, we don't add a little more blue or erase some yellow. The same goes for musical artists.
The 803, with the right electronics (tubes at the least) makes you feel that the artist is right in your room. We go to many clubs and concerts. We watch a stage, usually in front of us. The artists play, we hear the sound come to us in the right and left ear, and we feel the music. Bass or highs usually are not extended. The 803 presents the same accurate stage and response. Not too loud but moving nonetheless.
We tried the 801 and 802, but the look and shape were prohibitive. We have small children and wanted a more conventional look. The 803 Series II sounded every bit as accurate as their larger brothers. I searched out and listened extensively to the Von Schweikert 4, 4.5 genII, and even the VR6. We were sorely disappointed. They sound neat, and the company seems first class, but they seem to be a selling a gimmick. After over an hour of the VR6, my brother in law said it sounded like two speakers, and not "really" real. We felt for the price, these were a joke for what we were looking for. Sorry.
We tried Martin Logan, Vandersteen, Apogee, and a lot of other makes, but we kept coming back the the B&W 803's. After two months we picked them up, bi-wired them to our Conrad Johnson Cav-50, and we haven't looked back. Our Saturday nights are filled with a little wine, some candle light, and a visit almost in person with our favorite artist.
My daughter said it best when we fired up our system. I asked her if she liked the new sound and she said "No. Before it sounded like music, but now it sounds like different musicians standing in our family room playing their instruments!" What more can I add?
A hearty five stars.

Recently I have decided to upgrade my 10 year old system, and i have been auditioning new speakers from KEF, B&W, MAgnaplanar, Martin Logan, etc...
I have heard the entire B&W 800 line, and IMHO I have to agree with some of the reviews below.

a) in side by side comparisons of the 801's and 803's I found the 801's had very apparent added Base response...whereas i actually liked the 803's highs and clarity better
b) in side by side comparison between the 802's, 803's and CDM1SE's...the CDMSE's (although good) were no comparison to the 803 and 802's...the 803's sounded very nice but the 802's had a much wider soundstage than the 803's...I found i could really hear the fact that the 803 midrange was located in the same cabinet/box as the base units...the 802's midrange and highs were much wider and airy (is that a word?). Note: the same high end equip was used in the side by side comparison.

Overall I'd rate the 803's a 3, the 802's a 4 and the 801's a 3.5 to 4 (depending on type of sound you like).

Still have not made up my mind yet...I'm in luv with the New Nautilis 802's but at 12,000 (list CDN) compared to about 3000,4200,5400 for the 803/804/805's im having a hard time not saying that B&W is just doing the price gouge tactic with the new lineup.

I have to disagree with Dana's review of these speakers below. I have been on a quest for quite some time to find the perfect speaker for me. Well, I stumbled on to these speakers while I was looking to upgrade my cd player. A speaker purchase was the furthest thing from my mind when I entered a local high end store. We auditioned the cd player (a Pioneer Elite PD-65) through a Proceed Amp/Pre-amp combo and B&W Matrix 801's. I was immediately awestruck. This combination of components played beautiful music together.
However, the 801's were just too massive for my listening room and my wallet. So we swapped out the 801's for the 803's. To my surprise, the midrange and treble clarity were enhanced with these speakers. While the bottom end was not as deep throated as with the 801, it certainly was not lacking. The key element of the bottom end is not just to produce bass notes, but to produce them cleanly without overpowering the rest of the musical spectrum. All too often people are impressed with power of the bass, regardless of how muddy and terrible it sounds. This speaker produced some of the cleanest and solid bass I have ever heard.

Anyway, I purchased the 803's and Pioneer Elite PD-65 (a good day for my high end shop). I took home the CD player and waited 5 long days for my speakers to arrive from the local B&W distributor.

The sound of these speakers is even more incredible in my listening room. Midrange clarity, deep soundstage, sparkling highs, and clean bass. I find these speakers a pure joy to listen to. I do not know how anybody could listen to these speakers and feel they are boring or clinical. They are true to the music.

Other speaker manufacturers I have auditioned over the years:
Paradigm, KEF, PSB, Vandersteen, Klipsch, Mirage, Boston Acoustics, NHT

I recently auditioned these speakers at a nice little store in VA beach with a Sunfire Cinema Grand, Yamaha 2092 (Pre) and the Pioneer Elite mentioned below. The only music available was Stevie Ray Vaughn tribute and his greatest hits album. I must say, the detail and clarity were first rate and not a bit fatiguing (this combo was well burned in), yet the base just wasn't there for me. I'm not one who craves the power bass, but with all effects off on the Yamaha (no easy feat I must add), there just wasn't the punch I had expected after hearing both of these albums on my home system. Could it be the DACs on the Pioneer? Does the Sunfire lack in this area? I don't think so. It probably didn't help that just two days before I had auditioned a broken in pair of Von Schweikert VR4 Gen IIs with a Proceed AMP5/AVP combo.
Anyway, good speakers, but not great.

The B&W Matrix 803s that I have are easilty the best speakers I have ever heard. I am not one of those audiophiles who has a good handle on everthing that is out there. I just love great sound. However, when I did my exhaustive research for what I thought would be the ultimate sound match for my receiver -- Denon AVR 5600 -- I listened to many, many different speakers. Among them were high end models of the following companies: M&K, Paradigm, Meridian (yes, the extremely pricey speakers), NHT,KEF, and a few others.
I had an open mind and was willing to spend whatever it took to get to the top level for my receiver without having to go to separates. I find that separates take up too much room and the Denon AVR 5600 is a strong answer to those who despise receivers.

The final "cut" left me with the B&W 803s ( the 802 and 801 were to me not much different and since I had the B&W ASW 3000, I could get even lower than the lows you get with the 802 and 801), the high end of M&K and the high end Paradigm. I do not remember the model numbers but they were the top of the line for each company.

After listening again, I found the B&W to be the best. In fact, I found it very, very much better sounding than the Meridian ( I still cannot believe the pricing of their speakers. I found the Sony S7000 DVD with Denopn AVR 5600 and the B&W ASW 3000 and B&W Matrix 803 speakers to sound BETTER that the Meridian set up with its $5500 DVD player and $15000 speakers and costly amp whatever else they sell to playback music.)

Anyone considering upgrading, go with the Matrix 800 Series. I listened to the new Nautilus Series and cannot really tell the difference. The price is twice as much for the Nautilus line that the Matrix line and the Nautilus line looks funny. Go to your local B&W dealer and you can probably haggle to get a good sale price if they want to move inventory. Beware of others, though, as they treat the Matrix as a RARE find and actually may jack the price up!

Excellent speakers. I listen only to classical music, so my comments come from this experience. These speakers do everything right, though I spent a lot of time experimenting, with placement, electronics (amps, preamps, CD player, etc) and cables. The final result is everything I wanted, but I must admit that it took some time to reach the final and best arrangement. The whole range of frequencies come out even and neatly. Instruments are very clear with wonderful detail. These speakers are really musical. Only trouble is that they reproduce everything that was recorded and I have become a very critical CD buyer, because many recordings are just not up to the 803s. I must insist that a lot of experimentation seems necessary to obtain all that these speakers can deliver. I give them a 5 out of 5.

I have been using the B&W 803 Series II for more than one year now. It replaced my B&W 604. I switched to this model when at one time I dropped by B&W Showroom at TOYAMA and Mr. Joey LIM (store manager) made a demo of the 800 series. I was immediately stunned by the difference in neutrality,musicality,depth and width of the soundstage between the 803 II and 604. MR. Lim immediately referred me to one of their dealers Image Video in Manila where I immediately placed an order for the 800 Series to replace my entire system. I actually replaced my DS6 with the 805, my CC6 with the HTM and my AS6 with the ASW800 active subwoofer. When I hooked them on, it was an entirely different experience. The sound was much cleaner, bigger and closer to natural sound. On two channel music the 803 II is flawless. My thanks to MR. Lim, Edward Masankay of Image Video and also Angel (one of the owners of Image) for the discount. I give a 5 star to the B&W's and 5 star to the gentlemen above.

I recently raised some money (or at least as much as I could squander) and decided to buy a home theater. My max. package price totalled at around $7000-$7500. I'm not into huge screen TVs but into good picture so I settled on a Sony XBR with built in Subwoofer. Total price about $1000. Now onto the second most important part. A good receiver. I decided on a Yamaha RX-V2092. Total price around 1250. Now onto this most important part the Speakers. The one hing I care About most in a Hometheater is the sound and though I'm sure some would argue with me I believe that what decides on the final sound quality is a good speaker system. An example would be that a Theta Casblanca coupled with a fatboy amp and NHT speakers would not sound as good as a Yamaha RX-V992 with a system composed of four B&W Nautilis' with an HTM center channel. Taking allthis into mind I wanted to get the best speakers in my budget. For starters I checked back issues of magazines such as Hometheater, Stereophile, and especially Stereo Review. With the magazines I decided on what caompanies were well represented for sound and detail. I quickly narrowed my search down to B&W, M&K, Citation, and (sunfire for a sub). I then went to test these out and narrowed it down to a definite Sunfire True Subwoofer MKII and B&W for the rest of the setup. I went to All the high end audio stores near me and the first speakers to catch my ears were the 801 but they were way out of my price range. I then tested the 802 and 803 and decided that the they both had SPECTACULAR SOUND but the 802 weren't worth the price difference. My final system wound up being 803 L/R an HTM center and 604 rear surrounds. I must say that the 803 deliviered such amazing Highs and Lows and epecially excelled in midrange that I've never heard another speaker in the $1000-$4500 price range that sounded this good!

I'm presently using the 803 both for music and home theatre. The 803 is very neutral and smooth and it can play extremely loud with no fatigue which is very important in a home theatre environment. An excellent design and highly recommended. But do remember to play this speaker in a big room with not too low a volume otherwise the bass is a bit woolly.