The AN E is designed for home audio not a recording studio - and there are limitations to listening to recording studio designed speakers at home - there is a reason for their differences. The AN E is full range enough to cover everything but the pedal organ and even then only not capable at loud levels - Dynamics is not the same as sheer volume level.

Every single person I know who has made the switch from an 800 series B&W to an Audio Note E (and I know of zero on line or in person who went the other way) will talk about cohesiveness. The B&W's let you hear what the driver is doing - that may in fact be a desirable attribute for an RE but not for a music listener. And I am NOT even remotely close to being alone on hearing this "lack" of coehsiveness of B&W tweeter on top technology. The gap is audible and it completely destroys the belief that one is listening to an instrument but a speaker reproducing an instrument. It may very well be acceptable in a recording studio. It also may be that a lot of folks don't hear the separation or are less sensitive to what I hear as a major failing of the tweeter on top B&W's. Again TAH - this is subjective - If I hear it and it annoys me - and a lot of other reviewers and owners all complain about the exact same thing - then it's not just in our heads - it's actually a problem. However I admit that another 10 individuals either don't hear it at all or do hear it but the problem is less of nuisance to them.

I do not buy speakers for ultimate SPL or ultimate bass response. Full scale classical music is not done justice to except for the live event. The N801 or D800 with my classical music discs is no better produced in room than on the 2905 or Westminster or AN E. I hear an audible gap with B&W's which sounds nothing like the real thing. And I keep saying it but it may very well be a reason so many complain about so many recordings being bright, thin and generally poor.

The quality of reproduction on the 2905 is far better IMO but it is dynamically limited, the Westminster is a champ on the dynamics SPl and "scale" - The AN E captures 90% of what the Westminster does but simply requires a smaller room at lower listening levels. And it sounds "subbjectively" better on microdynamics and nuance and cohesivenes than the Westminster does - despite the dual concentric. Ultimately to say the Westminster is better - it is in some respects but the AN E is also better in other respects. I would rather listen to the 1812 at high levels on the Westminster over the AN E perhaps but Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata I would rather listen on a set of AN E's. And since much more music across genres is not like the 1812 then for me the AN E is more practical. In a studio I could see the choice being made for the speker that could handle the 1812 at 130decibals and obviously that is not the 2905.

My strong held opinions about Audio Note and B&W may irritate you but if you were in my shoes you would not see it that way. Whether the speaker is in a showroom or my home is completely 100% irrelevant because a speaker is supposed to be designed to operate in many rooms not any one single room. While it is true that at home one could "tweak" it to get the best from it - it is also true that most of the dealers I go to set up gear well, in appropriate sized rooms, putting them in the best possible light in order to sell them.

I have heard B&W for more than 15 years liked many disliked many. When I do the direct comparisons, and listen to other "customers" sitting in the room and in every single case every single time everyone comes to the exact same conclusion and with the guys selling both lines (with no inherent "stake" in either) all have the AN E in their homes and people bringing their B&W's in for Audio Note - perhaps you could understand a little why I get a bit the way I get. From my personal experience of everyone I see listening and know all confirm what I have felt in my listening sessions. It's difficult then to see how it could be heard any differently.