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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
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?)
rlb61
789 posts
 
I really like the sound of Musical Fidelity gear with the N804s. I'm currently running a MF A3cr preamp and A300cr power amp (225 wpc). I'm expecting a Nu-Vista 3D CD player tomorrow. The N804s really do love power and bi-wiring definitely makes a positive difference with them.
xcellentaudio
1 posts
 
Digital Source suggestion:

The Pioneer DV-47a; a non-fatiguing optical source with first rate audio and video performance…Not only does it play CD, but DVD, SACD (multi channel), DVD-Audio (multi channel), and CD-R. The DV-47a is a truly universal optical disc player that will prevent your friend from upgrading soon because of incompatibility.
Lowest I’ve seen
Retial~$1,200 Online dealer new~$799 Audiogon~$699

If your friend decides to allocate funds to the digital source, then I suggest the Pioneer DV-AX 10. This is also a “universal” player. I have not auditioned this optical drive, however numerous favorable reviews have been written. The cons? It won’t play multi channel DVD-Audio or SACD, however it has balanced outputs, unlike the DV-47a, which is advantageous in my system. Finally, it is about 2K more then the DV-47a from Audiogon.
Lowest I’ve seen
Retail~$5,000 Online dealer new~ $3,300 Audiogon~$2,600

Best Regards,

Jayson
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