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Nautilus owners upgrade to what?

Hello all, just wondering anyone who has owned B&W Nautilus and sold them for something else that they liked better. I see people here selling their B&W so there must be something they are trading upt to. Every dealer who sells B&W invariably points me to B&W. These dealers also sell: Thiel, ProAc, Monitor Audio, Paradigm, NHT, Wharfdale, DynAudio.
As one B&W dealer told me, once people hear B&W that's what they want to buy. He was saying if B&W started selling at Circuit City, he'd be out of business.
cdc

Showing 3 responses by cdc

cdc OP
1,658 posts
 
You are BAD Kthomas, bad I say. :-).
I think I can resist the call of the 802 for now. At least while I keeping busy auditioning speakers.

psjulian got me thinking about sound anchors. I've got some massive 30-40# 1" thick steel blocks. Maybe I could bolt the speakers to them - sort of like the sand-fill idea.
cdc OP
1,658 posts
 
Thanks all for the input. That's interesting about the high markup on B&W. So overall it sounds like my 804's are a pretty good product.
I will try some of your suggestions -Karma and Audio Physics, Revels, and ProAc Futures maybe. I also found a dealer who carries Dunlavy so will try them out.
Will have to do some searching for the Piega, Totems, and Avalon as these aren't so common in New England.
My amp is a 120 wpc Musical Fidelity and I think the B&W could soak up 200 wpc when it comes to rim shots and thumping bass. Budget is around $5,000 max. The 802's sounded great but I can't justify the $5,000 premium over the 804's.
cdc OP
1,658 posts
 
Hi, I heard the Revel F20 and Aerius 6's.
I agree, the Aerials are smoother, "warmer" than B&W. They lacked detail and dynamics for my tastes.
The Revels were much clearer than B&W. Their lit. says their drivers reduce 2nd and 3rd order harmonics. This made sense to me because they had a similar clarity I heard in ATC active 100's. REF 3A DeCappos were also clearer than B&W - this again left me with a long face :(.
Not to get overly bowled over by Revels, their bass was very unmusical compared to N804. Drums sounded like the driver was bottoming out but that can't be at 85-90 dB. Sometimes violins sounded separated from the rest of the orchestra. So there was a coherence issue.
Finally they must not have the wide dispersion of N804 because the image would noticeably switch to speakers moving my head from left to right.
I think the new Thiel 1.6 was similar in style to the Revel. But Thiel bass was better quality and no image flipping between speakers. It seemed better to trade some bass extension than throw it away like the Revels - my opinion from what I heard.
I was told both B&W and Revel have a rising response curve in the mids and in the highs. This "flat" curve is good for studio monitoring and rock music but not for classical. I don't agree but I guess that's the design technology.
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