My first thought: the dealer cheated me

It was always my dream to own the Bowers & Wilkins 800 Series Diamonds. I saved for them, auditioned them at length and brought them home. The first thing I noticed was that my dealer had cheated me.

They destroyed my sound. Too harsh, the soundstage gone, a lot of the elements I used to hear with my Klipsch Reference Premiere simply no longer there. I picked up the phone convinced I had been sold the wrong speakers.

My dealer's first answer was gear, and I don't blame him. But he had not cheated me. The 800 Series was a step up the ladder, a more revealing speaker, and a more revealing speaker makes the room's problems sound even bigger, not smaller. The equipment was true; the room was the liar.

And here is the truth, my truth: the upgrade worked perfectly. It showed me exactly what my untreated room was doing, and I did not want to hear it. I was about $10,000 thinner before I started reading about acoustics, and speaker positioning was the first thing that finally helped.

When a better component sounds worse, suspect the room before the dealer. I suspected everyone else first.