The Nautilus 805's are one of the better values on the market. I only got to listen to them for a short time but I was very impressed. I heard a pair of Nautilus 802's just beforehand, and I thought the 805's were very comparable in terms of clarity and soundstage. This could have been because the 802's weren't in that great of a spot. The 805's were tied in to an all Classe setup and, in my opinion, it worked very well.

I went to audition the 805 and CDM1SE at my local shop with CDs in hand.
First off, I was comparing this audition to an audition last week of Legacy Studios. I use the same songs of my favorite CDs that drive the speakers in many different ways.

I tried to CDM1SEs and was not overly impressed...seem rather flat. Nice and smooth with little bass or soundstage really. Nice speaker, but nothing that pulled me in.

I changed to the 805s and was amazed at the difference. The bass was much fuller than the CDMs but not nearly as tight as the Legacys. What caught me was the soundstage...it had a 3D feeling to it that was even very strong as I walked around the room. It didn't have such pin-point imaging as the Studios, but a much larger soundstage. One thing I notice with some higher end speakers is they reveal bad recordings. I want a speaker that makes the hair on my neck stand up when playing all my CDs. I don't want a speaker that makes me hate my previously favorite CDs because of the recording. These 805s are the best I have heard for this, very forgiving. Great recordings, such as Diane Krall's latest, sound awesome and ok recordings, such as Celine's latest, sound great.

A full five stars. I plan to use these as front mains with their nautilus htm2 center and a pair of cdm 1ses for the rears in my HT setup.

Having just sold a pair of Legacy Signature III's, I've been on a several month long search for a replacement pair that would be considerably smaller but still provide fantastic performance. This led me to a bevy of small monitor-style speakers including (but not limited to): Sonus Faber Concerto/Concertino, Thiel 1.5, Dynaudio Contour 1.3, Hales Transcendance One and the B&W Nautilus 805 as well as the CDM 1SE and 7SE. In this search, I was contending not only with performance issues, but also with aesthetic/livability issues (let's just say there's been a recent change in my tax filing status ... 'nuff said).
The long and short of it is that the Nautilus 805 came out at the bottom of my short list. I have to agree with a previous review (Jack) that these speakers sound overly bright and edgy, perhaps due to their detail though I don't believe this to be the case since I eventually settled on speakers I feel are even more detailed. No matter where or with what equipment I listened to them, I found myself constantly changing music and trying to re-position the speaker. Nothing worked. I could never get comfortable with them. In fact, I actually preferred the CDM 7SE at a significantly lower price (especially considering you don't need stands) for their ability to just sit back and enjoy, though there was a clear step back in openness and transparency.

In comparison to the other speakers, the Sonus Faber Concerto's are utterly fantastic and well worth the same amount of money. They sounded much smoother, perhaps a tad dark, but didn't give up anything in the way of detail or bass. Also a tremendous soundstage both in terms of width and depth compared to the Nautilus 805. Another area I dislike about the 805 is its forward presentation, though some may prefer this characteristic. The Thiel 1.5, Dynaudio 1.3 and Hales Transcendence One also bettered the 805 in terms of soundstange and overall harmonic balance (though these speakers have their own drawbacks in my opinion ... see reviews elsewhere).

In terms of build quality, the cabinet and binding posts are excellent. But the cheap plastic grille and plastic tube for the tweeter "microphone" on top were lacking at this price point. Even the mounting of the tweeter seemed inadequate.

So what speakers did I decide on? Well, I left the dynamic minimonitor realm altogether and fell in love with the sound of Magnepans. I'm sure this will raise some eyebrows, but the full rich sound of these speakers coupled with their incredible detail, transparency and soundstage capability won me over. Besides, a pair of the Magnepan 10.1 (essentially an unltra-high resolution planar minimonitor ... as mini as a planar can be) with a Vandersteen 2WQ sub ends up costing about the same as the Nautilus 805 with stands.

That said, I just can't give the 805's much of a reccommendation ...

Overpriced, over hyped, over marketed speakers with nice highs, absolutely no bass, and average midrange. Your $2K can be spent elsewhere for better sounding speakers such as Legacy, RBHsound, Status Acoustics, Thiel, etc.

I'm a Jazz lover, who started out very slowly with a quest to find the perfect system but as we all know it is hard to find if it exist at all. I started out with the Bose cubes, and then I moved to the energy Take 5, then the B&W 601's and lastly the CDM1 SE. I know everyone has their favorites but I truly have to say that I am very happy with the Nautilus 805; they out perform all the bookshelf speakers that I've ever heard. I found the CDM1’s to be overly bright but overall a good speaker. Natural their are other speakers out their that sound better but I can't afford them and beauty is always found in the eye of the beholder. Each of us has very different taste but I believe these speakers deserve consideration.

I did AB comparison's between these and the CDM1SE. The nautilus is about twice the price and offer's incrementally better midband... but, the bass definition on the CDM1SE sounded better to me! Miderange up, I give the nod to the 805s, but into the low mid and down, I liked the CDM1SE. Either ay, I could'ntjustify the 805s for the money, so I took the CDM1SE. I really can't say that the 805's are overpriced, they probably sound better than most 2k speakers I've heard... it's just that the CDM1SE's sound better than most 2k speakers I've heard too!
I got the CDM1SE and spent what I save on interconnects. Probably a prudent choice.

It`s a shame we all couldn`t hear these speakers in the same room. Because the room has very much too do with the sound the listener hears. I`ve listened to larger speakers (nautilus 801 &802), but non off them have come close to the transparency and soundstage depth that the nautilus 805`s can give you. I`ve listened to them with a TACT millenium all digitall amplifier ( a killer amp) and GRYPHON tabu century. And boy do these speakers sing. I`ve listened to all kinds of music trough them and they perform very well on all kinds of music. They could do with some more bass. I`ve tried the B&W ASW3000 and they performed very well together. I`d prefer a pair of nautilus 805 and a ASW3000 to a pair of Nautilus 802. It seems to me that small boxes give you a better soundstage than larger boxes. And with the ASW3000 you can adjust the bass to you`re own settings. Worth there weight in gold !!!!!!!!!!!!.

Audtioned these with a $2200 McIntosh integrade and the sound was great. Clear as I've ever heard with a glorious sounstage, and great tonal balance. Some people complain about its lack of bass, but hell, these are bookshelf speakers. I really don;t like the bookshelf speakers with that little bass peak in the 40-50hz region. You will need a sub with these, but B&W has the ASW 1000 for around seven hundred. Incredible combination! And good for all kinds of music. I recommend that you also audition the Hales Transendence One and Revelation Two for the same price.

These speakers, like all of the speakers in the new Nautilus 800 series require a huge amount of break in time. Until they do break in they lack bass, sound like you are listening through a tunnel, lack depth and transparency and are very edgy. When they do break in however they are nothing short of magical. Just so you know I am not a Yamaha receiver weenie, I have them with an Ayre V-3, a Wadia 860 and an Anthem Pre1-L (which is the last component I need to replace). These speakers are so popular they don't stay on the dealers shelves very long, they re always selling the demos. Make sure the ones you listen to have at least 30-40 hours on them.

These speakers present a rich, detailed, and accurate soundstage. The imaging is startlingly three dimensional. As others have mentioned, it lacks a low-end foundation, so a musical subwoofer is my next target, but in the bookshelf speaker category, these are WELL worth the money.