Soundstage, accurate frequency response, build quality

value

First, everyone has a right to his or her opinion. But the people who are listening to these speakers in a showroom and then commenting are doing everyone a disservice. Speakers need to be listened to in your room. There are just to many variables to make an educated assessment at a showroom.
Second, anyone comparing these speakers to tower speakers are comparing apples to oranges. These are bookshelf speakers. They are usually bought because significant others won't stand for large tower speakers to be used in their house. These small bookshelf speakers can't produce truly deep lows. How can they? B&W hasn't figured out a way to change physics. Deep lows need to move a lot of air. However, these speakers produce very clean upper base. Further, paired with a good subwoofer, these speakers absolutely rock!
Third, B&W is definitely onto something with putting the tweeter on top of the speaker. The soundstage is huge. The depth and clarity is superior. These speakers are truly uncolored, clean, and open.
I am very happy with these speakers. They are great music speakers. Paired with a subwoofer, B&W HTLM2, and surrounds, they are outstanding for movie playback. I think the cost is high and only a fair value. But if anyone wants the best bookshelf speaker on the market, then these are the speakers.

Middle area is neutral

Bass is too strong and boomy, not accurate,littlt soft, little soundstage orinal stands

I am very amazing how much john atkinson (stereophile) likes b-w loudspeakers.We listened over week different loudspeakers and we all think that nautilus is not so good what Ja say.Dunlavy is much more accurate, bass is tight, soundstage is bigger and very amazing germany speakers Acapella Fidelio (best two way speakers what i have ever heard)is better and accurate in all areas.My ears and my friends say that B-W bass is boomy and slow, soundstage is small and treble is good but little low level.I think orinal stands are too low, how everybody can listen 60 cm stands???. I think because JA has born English he likes English products more than they really are.However B-W Nautilus is good but not so good.

Similar Products Used:

dunlavy sc 1 av, maggie 12, pen audio, acapella fidelio

Exceptional highs and midrange, no coloration

Would like a lighter wood veneer. Matching stands are 2 expensive.

These speakers are exceptional in reproducing music. The Highs are excellent, smooth not piercing. They are extremely truthful and will make you hate bad recordings. The 805's need to be driven by 1st class amplifications and electronics to bring out their true potentials. You will not find a better monitor than the 805's.

Similar Products Used:

Toten, ProAc, Thiel & Dynaudio

Detailed Highs, Excellent Mids and Believeable Lows

Pricing and Packaging

These are the first pair of speakers I have purchase in ten years. My wife selected these about a year ago from Martin Logan, Maggie's, and Proac. My choice was the Proac (don't remember model). My wife has a better ear than I do, so she won the debate. The N805's are incredible speakers. They sound better every day we play them (~100 hours played). I have never experienced breaking in speakers before. They popped, hissed, and squeaked for the first 20 hours. This could also be coupled with the new MIT cables, but I would definitely recommend these speakers to others who enjoy a smooth, crisp sound from such small speakers. I have not found them to be bright as other have. We have more upholstered furniture in our room than most.

I found the speakers to be very sensitive to placement as others have suggested. I finally found good places for them in my room. The speaker are going to head up my slow progression to better components.

Yahama S700 CD/DVD
Yahama RX905
MIT 4 Bi-Wire
Def tech c1 (center) to be replace B&W HTM1
Bose 301 S1 (rears) need to be replaced soon(?)
Sony 36XBR200 Vega


I would also like to thank Progressive Audio Columbus,OH with there help in selecting these speakers. They are a first rate business. The saleperson Mike checked the speakers before they left the store. The tweeter cover was broken on one. I have also read that on this site. They replaced the cover and sent me home with some incredible speakers.

I would also like to add that these are some interesting looking speakers.

Clarity, soundstage, speed and accuracy.

Get a good Sub to complete the low end.

These are wonderful speakers. Driven with quality electronics, and adding an appropriate sub will yield
music reproduction of the highest caliber. They sound larger than they are and have a wide deep soundstage with great clarity. Mine are new and I can't wait to go through my music library, breaking them in and discovering new nuances missed before. Listen to them and enjoy!

Associated equipment:
McIntosh MA6850 Integrated Amp.
McIntosh 831 cd/dvd player
B&W ASW2000 subwoofer

After reading a retort to my review below, I returned to listen once again to the 805s. The system I listened to is: Adcom GFP-750 pre, GDC-750 CD, GFA 5300 amp, Monster 850i interconnects, Transparent musicwave biwire speaker cables. The 805s were on Sound Anchor stands. The GFA 5300 at 80w/ch is the weakest link here of the Adcom trio. The speakers were well broken in, being often played in the stereo shop. The room was large, the speakers about 2 ft away from the back wall, about 8' part. I was sitting in a chair about 10' from the speaker plane. I brought along additional CDs such as Japan's Gentlemen Prefer Polaroids and Grace Jones's Island Life.
My conclusion: The 805s had little bass and sounded boxy and the treble sounded tinny (like tin, not tiny). They imaged very well -- That's the nicest thing I had to say about them. They didn't sound well integrated across the audio spectrum. I also listened to a nearby set of Cantons E2.2s (also hooked to an Adcom system) to see if those were any better. Well, the Canton's at least had some bass, but they didn't sound great either. Could it be bad Adcom gear that I'm hearing?? I went home and listened to my system through my Dynaudio 1.8s. They sounded every bit as good as the 805s didn't. But my gear is lots nicer than the Adcom stuff, and the Dyns go for $3x the 805s. Not a fair comparison. I still generally stand by my opinion on the 805s but hope I can listen to them some day on much better gear to ensure that gear dependency isn't the driver and/or limiting factor. 2 stars for sound, but 3 in case it's gear sensitive (benefit of the doubt).

Having read "David from Virginia's" two posts, I think I've figured out the problem. The store where David heard the N805s -- Meyer-Emco--used to be metro Washington's leading high-end store. They have had the exclusive Washington DC area B&W franchise for more than 20 years (I bought a pair of DM-7s from them in 1978). Unfortunately for us (and for B&W if they knew better), Meyer-Emco has moved decidedly downmarket and is chasing home theatre in a big way. Now, B&W is the only "high-end" audio product they sell. And they demo these with Adcom electronics. About two years ago, when I was shopping for top qulaity standmounts, I auditioned the matrix 805s at Meyer-Emco. They sounded horrible. Then I asked to hear the matrix 801's (driven by the same Adcom electronics). They sounded horrible, too -- very glary and nasty. Now, I knew what 801s could sound like -- because I had heard them about three years earlier at Meyer-Emco driven by the much higher quality electonics they were carrying then. So I told the sales guy that he was crazy to try and sell these speakers with this crap electronics -- and he agreed! He offered to let me take a pair of M805s home to audition, which I did. I still didn't buy them; but they sounded a lot better at home driven by my little Krell. David from DC should ask for the same privilege to evaluate these speakers, which I have heard elsewhere and think are a major upgrade from the M805s they replace. And somebody should write B&W that Meyer-Emco should be required to use better electronics to demo the Nautilus line of speakers; or else some other dealer should be allowed to carry them.

I've been living with these speakers for over 6 months now and I still love them as much as I did when I first purchased them if not more. I've compared these speakers with several other brands namely Martin Logon's, NHT, Vienna and KLH to name a few. The speakers that I liked the most were the B&W 805, Vienna Bach's, and the Martin Logons Aerius i. I found that the Bach's has a better sound bass, but I like the 805's midrange and highs better and the Aeriusi I though had better highs with no bass, I felt that the 805 gave me the best of both worlds. I would highly recommend any of these speakers but I went with the 805's because I got such a great sound out of these tiny speakers compared to the size of the others, they don't over take a small room. I was not that impress at all with the NHT line of speakers and they were being driven by the Sunfire Theater Grand which I like by the way, and couple of my friends went with me to listen to them and one of them said that he liked his Quintet better than these, now I wont go that far but never the less they did not impress me.
In listening to the 805 I have finally found what it means when people refer to sound stage, when listening to James Taylor Live at the Beacon it as if I'm their, but let me also mention that the Martin Logons has great image too. If theirs one thing that I have learned in these past 6 mo's of becoming a Audiophile is that you have to know what your looking for in a speaker, research several speakers that interest you than the alternate test is to audition them with your material and don't be afraid to crank it, if you have to ask the salesmen to leave so they wont talk while your listening.

Happy shopping :)

I've been auditioning speakers for four months now, trying to find the "perfect" speaker for less than $3000US. I've discovered that it's pretty much impossible, as each speaker has its strong points along with its painful shortcomings. The B&W Nautilus 805's fall into this category along with the rest.
The mids and highs are wonderful and detailed, with a pleasant lyrical quality. The "toe tap" factor was not significant, although I did catch myself really getting into the music occasionally. The sound is rich and textured, and very coherent. Regardless of the material, the speaker never seems strained, with all material reproduced with an ease that belies their small size.

Where it falls down is in the bass department. What is there is quality, but there's just not enough of it. The entire program seems top heavy (unless the material doesn't contain any bass, in which case you don't notice it). Since the foundation is lacking, the speaker doesn't seem to have a sense of drive and urgency that is necessary to really motivate the listener.

The other problem is the soundstage. Although there is a distinct stereo image, it is definitely limited to 2D (along a thread stretched between the speakers). I never heard one sound above or below another, or in front of or behind.

For those of you who like the general sound of this speaker but would like improved bass support and a superior soundstage, you may want to consider the Enigma Oremus. The Oremus has a similar sonic signature, along with the ease of reproduction and detailed presentation. To top it off, it's cheaper (approximately $1400US). Unfortunately, it's hard to get. The company is based in Montreal, and I can't find a single reference to them on the web (except for a mention of the review in UHF #55 (Ultra High Fidelity Magazine).

The 805's lose one star for lack of bass, and another for paltry imaging.

I have been looking for a good pair of speakers for sometime now. I have auditioned a wide range of brands and have narrowed my list down to B&W and Dynaudio--both very respected speaker manufacturerers with distinctively different sounds. With the B&W's being a little bit more upfront as opposed to the laid back sound of the Dynaudio's (Contour 1.3's) I have decided that the speakers serve different purposes. For rock and very lively classical, I prefer the B&W's; on the other hand, jazz and acoustical guitar sound perfect on the Dyn's. All I can conclude then is that it would be great to have two different listening rooms. For me, I went with the 805's because they fit my music better; however, I plan on purchasing a pair of Dyn's in the near future (a couple of years on my budget)--maybe something from the Audience line. As far as performance goes, the imageing/soundstage are brilliant and I thought the low end was great, not only for a bookshelf but for all speakers. I also loved the highs (so superior to the 602's I have bought for rears). Obviously, this is only my opinion. Your ears are 100% better than mine at telling you what you like--let them be your ultimate judge.