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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
mike7142
23 posts
 
I own a pair of Matrix 802's. When I auditioned them, they were hooked up to a Bryston amp/pre-amp. I owned Krell and Threshold, and found the sound to be far too bright for my taste. I recently purchased Cary gear, and have never heard the B&W's sound better. They are warm and smooth and a joy to listen to. In your friends price point I would recommend the Cary SLI-80 integrated, which I just saw on this site for $ 1,750. I like Kimber hero interconnects and 8TC speaker wires. I wouldn't worry about the power rating, as I am using a Rocket 88 amp rated at only 20 wpc in triode mode, and find the power to be more than adequate in my 19 x14 room. I also heard the SLI-80 driving a pair of CDM-7's and found that to be a nice combo. Give it a try, you've nothing to lose.
unsound OP
7,329 posts
 
Thank you everyone for your thoughtful replies. Sure seems to be some very different ideas out there. It's obvious that there can be many different roads to the same destination.
I will be posting a new thread with the latest development (TacT 2.2).
gthirteen
355 posts
 
Nearfield with Nautilus 805 speakers is heaven. I couldn't get 804 speakers to sound right under 8 feet from the speaker plane. Also, 805 run quite well with low wattage 20-30, and the bass that the 804 picks up is like 6 hz lower at -3db (from memory, may not be perfectly correct) for $1500 more retail. I would heartily suggest to yuor pal that for the budget, the small wierd room, and the general betterness at close distances, to go with the 805.

good luck.
unsound OP
7,329 posts
 
The Audiogon moderators have refused application of a new thread for reasons I am unaware of (perhaps continuity). As such, the quest goes on with the system at this time including the a fore mentioned B&W 804 Nautilus' and TacT 2.2. With this update are there any new thougths on transport, digital cable and amplifiers?
As always thanks in advance ( and to all those who have already responded).
cdc
1,785 posts
 
The 150 wpc A300 is $1,600. If you go seprarates MF is $3,200 new. I would agree that McIntosh is warmer still. I found Krell harsh and fatiguing (over listening over time), Bryston bright, and Krell, Bryston, Sim all had mid-bass bloat that was really annoying.
Here's where I'll draw the ire of people here but for MY ears (which are exceptionally acute) I am perfectly happy with a Marantz CD burner - the DR 6050 is excellent, warm and got some great ATS I/C's from http://www.accessories4less.com for only $9.95 a set.
If you want to bi-wire the leatest take I heard is only if high/low imepdances differ greatly and speaker cables runs are long (over 12 feet?)
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