I've owned a pair of 802 Nautilus speakers for 20+ years. The problem with the speakers is they require a lot of electrical current, which many amplifiers cannot supply. For the 800 series speakers, it has nothing to do with the Watt rating and everything to do with the amount of current that can be delivered. If they are driven from amplifiers without an adequate power supply, the output section of the amplifier soon runs out of enough electrical current and the sound stage collapses, the bass is reduced, the mids become honkey, and you soon wonder why you paid all that money. They need a high-current amplifier with at least a 200 Watt per channel rating. I drive mine from individual 200 Watt amplifiers and they sound really good. Are there other speakers that sound just as good? Of course, there is always competing equipment that sounds equally as good - and today the speakers probably cost a lot less than B&W 800 series speakers. Shop around, or be prepared to put a sizable chunk of money into an amplifier (or amplifiers) that can drive the speakers.
