Crowds of people were constantly waiting to get a chance to listen to the complete CT800 series set-up B&W created in an entirely acoustically treated room at the recent Salon Hifi & Home Cinéma in Paris. What an experience for those who were there!
CT is short in the model name for Custom Theater, which represents the flagship in the famous 800 series from B&W. The concept behind this series is to create a concert environment at home as the 800 Series is used extensively in recording studios like Abbey Road (see recent press release).
The configuration at the show boasted 9 speakers in total, three CT8 LR and four CT8 DS speakers with two 15” CT8 SW sub woofers using the fibre/Rohacell® sandwich cone bass, powered by 16 (seeing was believing !) 500 watt Rotel class D amplifiers for complete bi-amplification. The CT8 LR used as a center speaker was behind an accoustically transparent screen as you will see.
Weighing in at 187 pounds, the CT8 LR has exceptional power with technology derived directly from the flagship 800 Series; twin Rohacell® bass drivers, a woven Kevlar® FST™ midrange driver and a metal dome high frequency driver. Integration of the drivers is semi-active via the CT8 XO active crossover/equaliser.
The tear-drop shaped tube midrange and high-frequency drivers are held in a super-rigid spherical pod (photo left) that incorporates Nautilus™-derived tube loading, and the pod is in a socket so it can be swivelled to adjust for perfect alignment with the listening area.
The price tag, well maybe you will want to dream a bit more and watch our clip first …
Lionel Nunney, Managing Director of B&W Group France, gives us insight in our video clip into the philosophy leading up to this superb series as well as more details about the configuration, which in its “optimum-optimum” state, could have had 42 amplifiers of 500 watts… Click here to see the clip.
For more pictures of the configuration at the show, click here.
For more details on the Custom Theater 800 series, click here for direct access to the B&W website.