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B&W Speaker Score!

I have a pair of B&W 802 S2 that I like but have had the upgrade bug for a while.  A recent purchase of a pair of Thiel CS-5 fell through so I kept on looking for something interesting and a good deal.  I stumbled across a pair of B&W Nautilus 802 only a few hours away- the final purchase price is $2K.   The seller provided lots of detailed pics and they look great.  The only issues are one of the tweeters is dented (I just purchased a new one for $150) and there are no grilles, which isn't a deal breaker for me as I remove them anyways. 

I'm pretty excited to get them home and see how they sound with my Threshold S500/II and newly acquired Parasound P5.  I just wanted to share my find- the timing could not be better as it takes a bit of the sting out of tax day.

Cheers.
dastro
dastro OP
42 posts
 
Greg- all components have been checked and rechecked.  They're definitely broken in- the previous owner used them frequently.

I don't think there are any technical issues with them- the previous owner is a veteran of this hobby and had quite an extensive collection of various, high end gear.

It's interesting to me that their sound puts me off so much.  They just sound superficial.  Even my wife, who doesn't care about audio whatsoever, commented without solicitation that they didn't sound right.

Oh well, the journey continues...


4425
861 posts
 
You hear what you hear. No way around it. Someone else may love them. Smart to not change system for speakers. My humble opinion is that great musical speakers show their merits even when not perfectly set up. If you have to tweek a bunch and try other gear for mating they aren't great speakers. Also think great audio gear will show its merits out of the box then get better. Moral to story in my opinion is that you shouldn't have to work hard or at all to determine if a product sounds good or not. 
You'll have to sell them as you'll never be happy with them but the next guy might. Best wishes.
djohnson54
396 posts
 
@dastro My first reaction was that that was a heck of a good price for Nautilus 802s.  That said, I wonder if the reason the price was so good is that they didn't sound right to the original owner either.  I'm with the other posters who say check to make sure everything is working correctly.  I've seen reviews where something didn't sound right and it was found that something was wired out of phase inside the speaker.  You could easily check that by reversing ONE set of speaker wires to see if the bass gets better.
dastro OP
42 posts
 
@dastro My first reaction was that that was a heck of a good price for Nautilus 802s. That said, I wonder if the reason the price was so good is that they didn't sound right to the original owner either. I'm with the other posters who say check to make sure everything is working correctly. I've seen reviews where something didn't sound right and it was found that something was wired out of phase inside the speaker. You could easily check that by reversing ONE set of speaker wires to see if the bass gets better.
Good idea, I'll check it.  But I doubt anything is wrong, the previous owner had them for years and was reluctant to sell. 

I should also mention that upon further listening I  hear what seems like a graininess in the ultra high frequencies, almost like a background hiss that stops in between songs.(only present when material is playing).  It is definitely noticeable, more so now that I picked it up.

At this point my thinking is either this model's sound just isn't for me, it's not playing well with my room's acoustics, or maybe there are crossover issues. 

The bass leaness could also be a matter of perception since I find the highs so exaggerated. 

rhljazz
1,255 posts
 
Suggestions: See how the bass sounds with the speaker cables attached to only the lower bass terminals taking the highs out of the equation.  Can you use your bi wire cables both connected to the lower terminals and then use a banana terminated jumper to the uppers and check if that improves the balance.  This should help in determining if the bass section of the speaker is functioning correctly.
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