How much power is enough for B&W Nautilus 804's?

I run my system including the 804"s" with an anthem statement p5. works great.

I haven't owned N804's, but I've owned several b&w's, inc. Matrix 802's. No matter HOW much power I fed the 802's, the bass was never tight or coherent enough.

I sold them & bought Totem Mani 2's, way better bass (& almost everything else). So you might want to check out other speakers, & not necessarily floor-standers IMO.

Exactly, if you want bass similar to open E string of double-bass Bowers will be your worst investment.

Thanks all for the info! This was 1st post on AudiogoN. Took me a while to find where responses live.

Other details on my kit: low end Bryston preamp (.4B), only source is PS Audio DAC 3 w/ Cullen Phase 4 mod, RCA connectors thru out including Y adaptors from pre to amps for bi-amping, no electronic X-over

Seems to me I have 4 courses of action to consider:

1) get different, more bass-capable speakers
2) add a subwoofer (heard REL Stratus III is particularly well suited to 804)
3) add electronic Xover(s) to take advantage of possible bridged 4B-ST's
4) learn the electronics in play to REALLY understand / improve these system choices!

Again thanks all. Great stuff!

Ed

Hi Ed,

I'm pretty certain that the output impedance of the Bryston preamp is low enough to be suitable for use with y-adapters, given the input impedances of your (and nearly all other) amps.

I would rule out course of action no. 3 in your list, though. Adding an electronic crossover would eliminate two of the potential issues I listed in my post (the last two), but would not make much if any difference with respect to the first. The somewhat limited current capability of the amp, as addressed in Bombaywalla's post, will assume increased significance in bridged mode as a result of the halved load impedance seen by the amp in that mode.

Good luck in your quest! Regards,
-- Al