Thank you so much for joining in Dave, and for the links... I have downloaded all and will be doing much reading... wonderful stuff... All the best John...

soundproof: The skirt is a thick, fibre-resin plastic that is shaped to avoid standing waves, and which absorbs resonances very well. The design is solid - you can trundle BL5s along in the same way you would a beer keg, rolling them by the larger disk. The disks are also solid - the visual impression is of a drum-kit high-hat, until you touch them

Thank you Puncher and Soundproof both, for your welcome and kind comments. I'd love to be able to A/B the B&W 801d' and the Beolab Fives side by side to determine more accurately not just what I feel to be the better speaker objectively (or as objectively as I can manage from my musical and Hifi background) re comparison to live acoustic

Greetings and a warm hello to all from a 'lurker' that finally decided to make a first post... a great thread and one I find very interesting. I hope this doesn't sound like an opening from an AA meeting, but: "Hi, my name is John, and I'm a recovering Audioholic"... Putting jokes aside, and as a little personal history and