B&W 804 Nautilus help

Greetings Unsound,

If your friend is primarily interested in digital sources, here is what I'd suggest:

Get a Pioneer DVD player as a transport ($300), a Birdland Odeon-AG DAC with analog volume control ($1500 retail), and a Plinius 8200P power amp ($2000 retail).

The secret weapon here is the Birdland DAC. I have a customer who sold his $10K+ tube preamp when he tried the $970 Birdland Odeon Lite DAC with volume control, and the Odeon-AG is significantly better. The Plinius is plenty powerful but more importantly nice and warm sounding, and in a small room with a nearfield listening setup, you want to err on the side of warmth.

Best of luck to you and your friend!

I owned N804s for a while and found that the only amps/preamps that could tame down the HF shrill were McIntosh amps. They brought about an incredibly real warmness that I had never heard with my Krells. You can get a McIntosh setup within your budget used (off ebay if you ask me). With all due respect to Sugarbrie, I totally disagree with the power doubling if you halve the impedance since this boils down to marketing and not engineering. In order to really know what a certain amp can do, you need performance graphs which most makers won't readily give out (except for McIntosh, but that has been a trademark of theirs for over 40 years). Power output is somewhat indirectly related to impedance in reality due to dynamic response of the system in a closed loop (which is in turn dependant on many design factors). For the power to double with half the impedance only describes a small portion of the power curve SLOPE. This slope can be easily modified for marketing reasons by means of frequency but essentially, the dynamic headroom can be prematurely compromised if the slope is too high (called degeneration - especially pronounced in field-effect devices). Therefore, slope is only part of the story and, in a good amp design, is inconsequential provided the amp can perform dynamically (music is purely dynamic so this is obviously critical).

If he wants warmth, IMO, he should at least try McIntosh with MIT cables. I ultimately sold my beautiful N804s because even that setup was not warm enough for my taste (I like SS and not tube because all my schooling is in SS design). It is worth a try nonetheless! Paradigm Reference 100s were the key for me. Good luck

I second Sugarbrie's recommendation. If possible try out some amps for comparison, the Bryston does a good job with the B & W but everyone has different tastes. I had used a pair of 3B's as mono's with my 804's and it sounded very good, now use a 4B-ST. Bryston also sends a copy of their test sheet with new amps, I think somewhat similar to McIntosh. You can't beat Bryston's 20 year warranty also if you want to resell. Thats my two cents; also feel free to e-mail me personally if you want. Best, Charlie

Sugarbrie, Audio Kinesis and Aball have mentioned good amps. I think Sugarbrie was probably trying to keep it simple in his explanation. Yes, a company can make up good specs to impress the public, but a serious audio company won't do that. If the amp company honestly lists the specs, and the power curve is bad, look elsewhere. Conrad Johnson makes some warm (tube like) solid state amps as well. Take a look at the MF2250 and MF2500.

If he hasn't bought the 804s yet I suggest your friend tries them first in a nearfield listening situation. I could never get the drivers to gel listening in the nearfield, and this may end up being a much bigger issue than the amp, preamp, or source. Just a thought.

Tim