I purchased a set of 800D's in July as an upgrade to 801's I had owned for six years. The one fact that is inescapable about B&W speakers is that they ruthlessly reveal the shortcomings of all upstream components. I am driving mine with a dCS front end and Halcro monoblock amps in a room that is liberally treated with ASC tubetraps. None of the shortcomings you noticed are present in my system. They are the best value for the dollar that exists in high end speakers but..... you have to feed them with the best signal you can afford.