Which amplifier to drive B&W Nautilus 802?

I don't know about any of the technical or mathematical reasons, but I have found that the 802's are dramatically different if you give them as many watts as you possibly can. I ran them with about 170W per speaker solid state for awhile, then started bi-amping them w/170W to the bass portion of the speakers (lower terminals), and 200W to the mid/tweeter portion (upper terminals). Only bass above 80hZ is going to the 802's, anything below that goes to a Velodyne subwoofer.

The first time I fired them up after the bi-amping I almost fell on the floor. The music was so much more real that it was scary. For the first time I fully undestood the term "dynamics". Every type of music has an unbelievable presence and detail. From unacommpanied vocal and guitar to full symphony orchestras, it is now all right there in the room. In fact, just for fun, I would like to give them 300W per terminal (600W/speaker) but that is not financially possible right now.

At one point I emailed B&W and ask if it was possible to overamp the 802's, and the engineer replied that the biggest danger to damaging the 802's was in underpowering them, and that they are built to take huge amounts of power and that their 500W per speaker is a very conservative rating.

I have read similar remarks in other online reviews/chats from 802 owners, saying that to really open them up and take full advantage of their capability you need to give them as much high quality juice as possible. They will still sound really good with lower wattage, better than most speakers out there, but these things are heavy duty speakers that were made for lots of power.

You don't necessarily have to bi-amp, but the engineer also confirmed that they were designed to play more efficiently and with more purity in a bi-amp setup.

Anyway you do it, they are awesome speakers that I intend to enjoy for a long time.

I agree with Greg try many different amps, but I would definitely stick with Solid state.

1. Chord abbey Road studio uses them on their N801's
2. Krell Used KSA-250 or FPB series are plentiful
3. Mark Levinson Good deals can be had on 335 or 336.
4. Plinius 250's are out there
5. Electrocompaniet Not many of these out there but
they have an amp designed to drive B&W speakers.

I would carefully read and re-read the comments from all of the above posters. But once you get the amp you like, then concentrate on the rest of the components. Unfortunately, you cannot begin to understand what these Nautilus series speakers can do until you have top quality in the entire audio chain. I don't belive they are without flaw. But they can sound really crappy when not set up properly.

Also, if your budget is tight after the amp purchase, start to experiment with different cables to dial in the best sound for the gear you have at that time.

Let us know what amp you decided to buy.

The Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista Intergrated amp sounds fantastic with the 802s.

Bombaywalla gives some very good choices. I can simply share my experience with N803's; I had a Levinson No.383 and a BAT VK-200 powering them with ok results, at best. A switch to the Rowland Concentra II, more powerful btw, and this made a HUGE improvement in the performance. That said, I would obviously recommend JRG, but I believe the others Bombay lists also would be a good match.