B&W Matrix vs Nautulis

I owned a pair of S2's for awhile. I sold them and built another system later with the N801's. I used BAT solid state amps and BAT's vk40 and vk50se preamp and Wadia cd player.

I found that the matrix s2's were fun enough. However, The N801 tops the matrix s2's by a wide margin. Clarity, drive, size of soundstage, driver integration were all much better. To my ear, clarity is not a bad quality for a speaker to have. I get really frustrated when I feel I'm missing some of the music and details. I felt this way with the s2's.

When I installed the N801's, I immediately felt I was hearing everything there was to hear from my cd's.

The problem with the N801's is that they require a major investment in electronics and are difficult to perfectly position in a room. But when it's right, perfectly right, they are hard to beat. I found them intensly satisfying in the way they resolved music as a whole. Butbwith different electronics, I could imagine my experience would not be the same.

Avnut-

You make a very good point. The N801's definately require extremely top notch source and especialy amplification. In fact many feel they should be bi-amped only.Placement is key of course, as with any speaker, but the N 801's like the M 801's do require room to breath. My dealer experience with the N 801's was interesting in that they ran them with an all Krell source, I believe the top of the line CD/Pre amp combo(20K) affair. yet, amplification was a pair of Conrad-Johnson Premier 140's tube amps wired for mono at 280W/ch. I came away feeling that they were not quite right sounding..perhaps the room acoustics, or the placement of the speakers being about 10ft apart, or perhaps that even though the CJ's were high powered, they still being tube amps may not have been the best choice for the big 801's. But, all this said, I think proper matching and the fact that they require very expensive amplification to display their best, make the M 801 much more enjoyable to listen to and own..Just my 2c!:)--ken

Rocky, Most people believe that newer must mean better. Not always because some products are made cheaper and manufactures cut corners to make more profit "$$$$". I've listend to the Nautilus line extensively and fill the Matrix speakers some how conveys a more musical presentation than the Nautilus line.I just believe that B&W made something really special when they made the 801-series two or three. This speaker will always be a classic and if set up correctly is very hard to beat at any price!! That midrange is one of the best there is bar none!!!

My first love was listening to a pair of B&W 801 FS, in late 1979, how lovely and smooth were the sound. Owned a pair of 802FS since late 1986 until last year, what a beautiful relationship! I always felt that the engineering from this little British guy w/ big ears (Mister John Bowers himself!) was about 10 years ahead of anyone else on the market, with the resulting sounds of mass produced LPs and CDs just a touch "harsh" or bright on my B&W, but well recorded classical CDs sounded wonderful. From the early '90 on out, most recording sounded great on it (better recording techniques and monitor speakers?). I became engaged and married to a new pair of N802 for almost two years now, and sure enough, this system leapfrogs the current speaker designs by another decade in signal retrieval: extreme detail, revealing even of space and depth (or lack thereof) in recording venues, lowest coloration and will mercilessly show ANY shortcomings in recorded materials. Some CDs in my collections are now borderline unlistenable, many sounded better than before, some are a bunch brighter and harsher. The most fantastic sounding ones are newer DSD mastered discs (whether redbook or SACD releases), with ultra wide soundstaging, great depths, superb dynamic range and utmost clarity and lifelike impacts COMPLETELY UNMATCHED AND UNHEARD OF from previous B&W series. Yes, it was expensive, cost nearly three times the price of my old pair (I still loved it so much I gave it to my daughter so just to keep it "in the family"). Is it worth it? An emphatic YES for this music lover!