Moving from B&W 802 Nautilus to 800 Nautilus ??

I have both speakers, the older N800's and the 802's. Driven by a variety of electronics. I have never thought these speakers, 800's or 802's to sound bright and lean. I know electronics play a big part of speaker matching. I have been successfull with German electronics from Octave, a pair of 140 watt tube mono amps on the 800's sounds incredible. I use the 802's with a Sunfire home theater receiver and they sound great as well. I used to drive the 800's with a pair of Bryston 4BSST's and that was a great experience as well. Before that, I had two sets of Soundcraftsman A5001 amplifiers, 20 plus years old, driving the 800's with no problems. One of the Soundcraftsman ended up with a German collector of vintage hifi. Anyway, if you get the electronics right, you will hear great music with these speakers. I believe many others who have had bad listening experiences did not have matched electronics with these speakers. Try them on your system and validate it yourself.

Good luck,
Ciao,
Audioquest4life

Hi Bill,

I have been able to hear them side by side and I think the 800's are a better speaker, top to bottom. They are designed to the be reference piece in the Nautilus line, excepting the actual Nautilus speakers, of course. The 800s use different crossovers and with the 2 10's, they are still musical without being bass heavy. Jumping to the 800s and getting full return may require a look at different electronics - the 800s can create a tough load depending on what you listen to.

For what its worth, I also have the 802s and am looking to jump to the 800s. I don't care for the "processed" sound of the diamond series, so I think it is going to be the 800 sigs for me.

Good luck!

You got to hand it to B&W, they have done a good job of marketing plausible options for customers who want more from those who have purchased their speakers. Somewhere someone is thinking if they had only got the 802 instead of the 803.