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B&W 804 Nautilus help

Have a friend who wants to build a system around B&W 804 Nautilus'. He has a rather awkward room, a bit on the small side with many varying dimensions which don't permit equall distances or surfaces to the side walls, little distance to the rear wall and a requires a near field listening postion. The room does have quite a few openings to adjoining spaces how ever.
Now to the heart of the matter, any thoughts on complimentary components. B&W indicates that these speakers drop down to 3 OHMS and suggest 50 to 200 watts per channel. First prioroity, power amp and line level only pre-amp (remote would be nice, but not absolutley required). Would like to keep these two units under $2500. Second priority is the digital source. He is interested primarily with CD playback but has some interest in DVD and digital recording. Would like to keep this under $1200. He currently has some single ended and balanced Wire World Eclipse interconnects and Wire World Polaris speaker cable. He is willing to consider other cable options after the first and second priorties are resolved.
He has requested a warm yet detailed sound and has eclectic taste in music.
As always thanks in advance for your help.
unsound
goone
136 posts
 
Helo, I have try a lot of amps with the 804 it is really what your friend want does he want music or hi-fi sound, music try the classe or bat, HI-FI neutral control the bass ML or Sim, conrad is very warm and sweet sounding forget about Bryston will hurt your ear. Best of luck
joeb
121 posts
 
Ok, I have a set of N804's. Tried them with underpowered gear and they were a waste of a fine speaker. I now have a Classe CA 300 and Classe cp50 pre-amp. That really brought them to life. Dynamic range, and clarity, good sound stage and decent base, highs are good and mid's exceptional. They need plenty of power to sound their best, don't skimp on the amp.
good luck
joeb
hifineubee
56 posts
 
I also second what sugarbrie said above, amp that double down is 'key' to getting the B&W 800 series to perform.  I've been struggling with proper gear matching with 805N and 805S past two years.  Many may call this hersey but I highly recommend the Marantz HD AMP1 + Marantz HD player.   The HD AMP1 has the high currently to push even 803 D3 (see online review on Marantz's demo day in Japan), you have to listen to believe.  Both are available from Amazon and you can return within 30days.  Most of all Marantz has a circuit option that tames the harshness of very high resolution digital music and create warm analog like sound.  I'm so happy I'm now upgrading to 805 D3.  I previously tried NuPrime IDA-8, Parasound Halo Integrated, Rega Brio...etc.   Lesser amps pushing B&W 800series may do ok with pop and vocal but will fail miserably in complex classical and orchestral music where there's a lot of sound variations (current hungry) and huge dynamic range (again current hungry).
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