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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

Showing 1 response by audiokinesis

audiokinesis
2,710 posts
 
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!
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