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Amplifier Recommendation for B&W Nautilis 804

I currently have N804's driven by Musical Fidelity a3CR amp and preamp. While I like the sound, I am finding the combo a bit lacking in weight, particularly in the bottom end. I'd like to see a little more punch in the music without losing detail that the a3 is known for. The A3cr is 125 watts into 8 ohms, and the 804's are rated from 50-200 watts into 8 ohms. I would spend up to 3000 for a noticable improvement.

Does anyone have a similar setup and/or any suggestions? Thanks.
jeffsel

Showing 2 responses by dougdeacon

dougdeacon
3,338 posts
 
I agree with others that bass on your N804's will always be limited. :( Still, a bigger amp or biamping can't hurt.

I drive N803's with an (ancient) SAE s/s amp. 200wpc into 8 ohms rising to 300wpc into 4. The old thing has ample dynamics and virtually never clips. Whatever you pick, make sure its output increases significantly into more resistive loads. All the Nautilus are only nominally 8 ohm speakers. They can drop as low as 3, which puts a huge demand on the amplifier's current delivery.
dougdeacon
3,338 posts
 
Jeff, don't know if you're still amplifier shopping, but I just started feeding my N803's with a c-j MF2500A. Absolutely stunning results. We are immensely pleased because it does *exactly* what you said you wanted: musical bass with slam *and* control, very fast and detailed microdynamics. It also eliminated the last vestige of graininess from our system. Lousy digital recordings are still lousy recordings, but they're no longer painful.

Dealer demo MF2500's go for about $2300 or you could get an MF2500 used for about $1500 and have c-j upgrade it to "A" status for another $500. Strongly recommended.
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