1990 B&W 802 Matrix Series 2

[JDL]

I picked up a Sony XA30ES CD player.
The Puck was missing so it was pretty cheap. I bought a puck for a different model. I looked at some pictures of my Sony on Google images with their puck sitting on top of the player.vThe puck looked right. I measured the gap in the player with a Vernier guage to make sure the puck would fit through. That was fine but the spindle on the player was too big for the puck. I drilled the hole in the puck and deliberately went right through because the original hole didn't go right through. Did that, put a disc in bunged on the puck (after cleaning it properly and hey presto the player works beautifully. It's a very nice quality player and it sounds excellent too.

 

[JDL]

I'm selling these back to the original owner David. He was really missing them, and gutted that he sold them. He bought them in Australia, while living in New Zealand and realised they're irriplacable to him. He had owned them for years. I decided not to make a penny out of him. Just covering my costs for the restoration minus the diesel to go and fetch them.
Add to that the fact that I realised I prefer the smaller 805s for my set up and space which I couldn't have kept just gathering dust and wasn't willing to part with them.
They definitely suit my amp better than the big ones. I enjoyed the challenge of doing them up as well.fagfg

 

[JDL]

These B&W 802 Series 2 Matrix speakers have been stood just outside the living room in the hallway for about a year.
I had decided, partly because they're so visually imposing, to bring the smaller 805 Matrix speakers back and use them instead.
The original owner is having them back, but what with quitting his job and not wanting to blow all his savings, he hasn't been able to afford to get them back yet.
I've always told him that I'll keep them for him, for as long as it takes, because I really do want these speakers to go back to him and no-one else.
I decided to bring them back in to test them, make sure they're OK. So, out went their little brother's, the 805s and in came the 802s, back on to their stands and hooked back up to my Marantz Model 30.
Funnily enough, while I was doing that, I got a message from him, David, is his name, informing me that he's found another job and he'll be having them back by the middle of July at the latest.
I am blown away by these speakers, this time around. They're bloody sensational. With the 805s, the amp's usually set to around -50. The bigger ones are more room filling on -60, which would be much too quiet with the smaller ones.
It's incredible to me that 36 year old speakers sound this good.
I'm still glad David's having them back because he's told me he's really missed the speakers and doesn't enjoy listening to his Hi-Fi anymore. He bought them in Australia, while he lived and worked in New Zealand, years ago, and then brought them with him, all the way back to Britain, when he moved back here.
It's looking like I might need to buy another car as well, therefore the money may well be very useful. Apparently, Chryslers are notoriously difficult, when it comes to diagnostics and re-setting. That's why my local mechanic hasn't been able to sort out my 300C. He's got a £20,000 Snap-On OBD diagnostic machine, purchased just before Christmas last year and it won't do anything on my car.
I wish he'd told me the problems he was having, instead of letting me think he can't be bothered to fix it. He still assures me that I won't end up having to scrap it and that it's a very good car, but I'm lacking confidence about it. Maybe because I've had to scrap other cars that were, on the face of it perfectly good, but the electronics were playing up.
Hmmm. Maybe someone could say a prayer for me, or my car.