B&W 685 Monitors
Speakers  Bookshelf
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Add your own review for: B&W 685 Monitors
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 I've been living with these speakers for about a month now, and now that they're broken in and I've spent a lot of time with them, I'm ready for a write-up.
I bought these brand new from a local dealer here in town after a brief listening session of B&W and PSB speakers. I originally visited the dealer because they had a massive sale on of the entire line of PSB speakers, and I had it in my mind that I just may pick up a pair of PSBs. My usual sales guy, who I happen to think has a very good ear, suggested that I give the B&W speakers a listen.
I knew right away once I heard the B&W's that the PSBs were completely off the list. Switching back and forth between the 685s and various PSB speakers (in all fairness, I did not audition the Syncrony line, since they were out of my price range). The 685s made the PSB speakers (the Image and Imagine line) sound like cheap big-box store speakers. I was impressed. I even put the 685's up against the more expensive B&W CM1's. I actually preferred the 685's. They just sounded "right".
I gladly bought them. One thing to note is that the finish on these is not wood veneer, but a very high quality vinyl finish. I choose the red cherry finish since they actually looked quite nice.
Once I got them home and hooked up in my listening room, I actually broke into a smile - these were the speakers I have been looking for! As I mentioned, they just sounded "right". They are warm sounding, full bodied speakers without any suggestion of congestion or honkiness that seems to be prevalent in bookshelf speakers. There is nothing unnatural about these speakers - no artificial bumps in the mid-bass to make them sound deeper in the bass, no extra sizzle on the top end to make them stand out in an audition. They are just excellent, balanced speakers that you can spend hours listening to without fatigue. The added extra bonus is that they are very easy to drive. I could see these being spectacular with a SET tube amp.
If I had to find any fault with these speakers, I guess I would say that if you're a headbanger like me, you may want a little extra bass, and it would nice to have a real wood veneer instead of the vinyl. But these are easy to overlook just based on how good these sound!
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Review added by: dmitchell
Added On: 1/8/2012
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Add your own review for: B&W 685 Monitors
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Comments
Added By: Naufal
Agreed about modern music. But that is ealctxy what I wanted the speakers for. The clarity of the mids and highs are excellent and the bass thumps as much as you can expect from a small box. And the bass distortion is not too bad. Nothing like a set of JBLs of course. But JBLs wouldn't fit on my computer table. The bass distortion I did notice may have something to do with the fact that I have the bass boosted to the max.
Comment Added: 3/11/2012 6:07:11 PM
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