B&W 685

[admin_exported]

Hi all

Just thought I'd share my experiences of my B&W 685's. I have them in a home cineama setup with M1's as surrounds, the HTM62 centre and ASW610 sub. I'm playing both movies and music through Denon's AVR 2311 AVR.

To be honest, I was a little dissappointed with the setup at first. Watching movies was great but when listening to music, even in pure direct mode, the bass was over powering and wooly. Admittedly my setup is in the corner of a room but with front-ported speakers and a little distance I thought they would be OK. The mid-range also seemed to lack clarity. I ended up putting the foam bungs in to calm the bass which improved things. I stuck with this for a few weeks but couldn't help think there should be more performance in such a system.

One day I thought I'd have a play around and I simply removed the foam bungs. The speakers came alive! The wooliness in the bass had gone and the mid-range was much better. Over the last couple of months the speakers have just got better. I guess there really is something to be said about running systems in! I am extremely happy with my setup now and both music and movies sound brilliant. The sub is awesome although I did have to turn it down from the Audyssey settings (12 o'clock on the volume dial to ~ 10 o'clock).

 

[Anonymous]

Great.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Also worth mentioning that you only get the best out of the B&W 685s with heavyweight speaker stands. A really solid pair of stands helps tighten up the performance - especially that bass - noticeably when compared to more lightweight perches.

 

[professorhat]

Agreed, the Partington Super Dreadnought stands I have now filled with Atabites have improved my 685s noticeably from the Atacamas they were on previously.

[Contentious Post Alert] I also found putting in a Clearer Audio Copper Alpha power lead on my Onkyo amp noticeabley improved music performance when using the Pure Audio setting [/Contentious Post Alert]

 

[RodhasGibson]

Agreed, the Partington Super Dreadnought stands I have now filled with Atabites have improved my 685s noticeably from the Atacamas they were on previously.

[Contentious Post Alert] I also found putting in a Clearer Audio Copper Alpha power lead on my Onkyo amp noticeabley improved music performance when using the Pure Audio setting [/Contentious Post Alert]

:bigsmile:

 

[rendu]

I used to have a pair of B&W 685 for over 1 year and I had to sell them and put back my old Whafedale 9.1. I know that most people think this is no-sense but in my case the 685 did not work for music. Due to space constrains I had them in the wall quite separated from each other and one of them was in a corner. My room is also not too big so, it did not give them the space that they need to breath. I felt that the bass was centered on the 50hz range and was too expansive, not tight and quick. In the high frequencies I the treble did not offer enought clarity with some types of music. In my case I had these with an Onkyo 701 and later with an Arcam AVR280 (my current receiver). Interesting that they paired better with the Onkyo.

That was my experience with the 685 but I still believe that it is a good speaker... with the proper setup.

 

[rendu]

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[Anonymous]

I'm currently using Atacama Nexus 6's and only QED micro speaker cable (free with my purchases) so may have to upgrade these and see what further improvements I get.