Sometimes, you just have to see it – or hear it – to believe it.

That is what I kept thinking when listening to the System 702. This is because as I listened to music that I had heard dozens, hundreds of times, I was hearing things in the music and making a connection that I had not previously made.

The B&W speakers are floor-standing, so we expect better bass and very good dynamics from them. They deliver on this. The Hegel amplifier provides the power and control that helps the bass drive the music but does not become muddled and or overwhelming.

It is the resolving power of this combination that makes it easy to get into the music you like more deeply than perhaps you ever had. While listening to a Rolling Stones song – Melody – you can hear Mick Jagger give direction on how to end the song. That behind-the-scenes intimacy is absolutely engaging.

The sound-staging is remarkable – perhaps the best of any speaker/amp combination we have auditioned. This is a combination of the Hegel integrated amp rendering the signal so well and the B&W speaker being adroit enough to present the music in a way that is intimate and engaging.

At some point it becomes difficult to find different combinations of superlatives – but they are all deserved. The range of music that this combination excels at is breathtaking. The human voice in a sparsely arranged song, the crescendo of the symphony, and the rhythm of a song rich with piano, organ, and horns are all reproduced with ease.

This is a system that has to be heard to be appreciated. We would love to demonstrate it for you.