I auditioned a pair of N805 recently while looking for new speakers. I found them detailed but overly bright and lacking in soundstage, body and bass. Neither my wife or I thought they were the sound we were looking for.

The nautilis 805 is a great, detailed sounding loudspeaker. For $1000.00 a piece it is on the expensive side however. Despite this drawback, I don't think one can go wrong with N 805's, as there aren't many bookshelf speakers on the market of this quality.

Best speaker in it's size and price range

Lacks the lowest octave

I have had these for a few months and they have opened up nicely. The break-in period is long and well worth it. I had a set of CDM 7CNT speakers also a great speaker,had to go with the 805 because they are sheilded. I'll keep this short, I would highly recommend these speakers to anyone, add a quailty sub and your in business. Give them time to break-in and you won't be disappointed. Paid $1585.00 new, and 350.00 for the stands. Great Deal!

Similar Products Used:

none

Clarity and transparency with a warm natural sound balance.

None so far

I have used Matrix 805 for years as a primary reasarch tool. I design SE triode amplifiers. I did not know what to expect, having only a limited audition of N-805 before purchase. I am very pleased with the N-805. It is faster and more transparent than the 805 matrix, and yet is warm and sweet. The bass is clearer with more snap, where the Matrix 805 seems a bit plummy. I have heard very few speakers sound so right in such a short time, and it is not something that has to be figured out. The bass of course does not go really deep, but the pace of the music is sustained beautifully by the bass that is there. I also have auditioned many other compact speakers such as the little Sonus Faber and Totems-both of which sounded like they had a rising treble response-a little on the bright side of life. The Nautilus 805 does none of this. I feel very fortunate to have these speakers as a compact reference. They also seem happy on 20 watts. If you liked the M-805 check out the N-805. N comes after M anyway!

Similar Products Used:

B&W 805 matrix

I was able to listen to the Nautilus 805 at home for several days, and found it to be a speaker with very perplexing characteristics. On the one hand, it has an exceptionally clean sound, and is extremely detailed and refined throughout the midrange and treble. However, I also found that, on certain instruments, depending on range, it tends to emphasize the upper partials at the expense of the "body" of notes, which imparts a somewhat miniaturized, disembodied sound, lacking in presence. In my system, the real weakness of this speaker was the bass, not a lack as others have complained, but a far less degree of refinement compared to the tweeter. This may be due to the ported design; but the end result seems to be a discontinuity between the precise, refined tweeter, and the resonant, imprecise bass (I continue not to be a fan of ported speakers). On classical music the presentation was one of a too resonant bass and a forward treble framing an attenuated midrange. I was surprised, given that B&W speakers are presumably frequently used to monitor classical recordings, that these speakers did a rather poor job on orchestral music. It seems that the quality of the sound produced by this speaker is highly dependent on the range of the instrument, or voice, it's reproducing. In my system (in my house, to my ears, etc) those higher in range (e.g., female vocals, oboe, violins) tend to be a little edgy, on the small side, and lacking in body; those lower in range (e.g., male vocals, trombone, bassoon) are full, well projected with good presence. Instruments very low in range (e.g., double-bass, bass drum) tend to be boomy. So, there is much potential here for a truly spectacular speaker (the tweeter really is a fine piece of work), if only B&W would can the port design, tighten the bass, and rebalance the midrange/tweeter (if only; easy for me to say).

Very revealing speaker. Easy to get lost in the music.

Shows weaknesses in system (this could be a strength)

These babies are great. They have shown weakness and strengths in my system. Must agree with most of the reviews: long burn, easy to listen to, low-low bass missing.

How the speakers are connected to the amp does effect several aspects of the quality of the sound. On the back of each speaker are two pair of connectors. When using a single wire set (not BI-wire) it is best to connect to the top pair and then patch wire (using the same wire type that is being run from the amp) to connect to the lower set (don't use the wires supplied by B&W). Was running mine just the opposite for 10 months and after connecting to the top connectors the sound quality improved so much it was like opening the doors to an auditorium while a concert was playing and then walking in. I wonder how BI-wiring would sound? (since that is the recommended connection by B&W) Having an amp with more than 100 watts will help in allowing them to sing.

Equipment:
Rotel RC-995
Rotel RB-991
Pioneer DV-09
Transparent Music Plus & Balanced

Similar Products Used:

Matrix 805, Byston .5 and 3B

Transparent highs, surprising bass, clear midrange and superb soundstage

Nothing aside from expected design compromises for small speakers

There are a lot of opinions about this speaker out here, mostly positive. I'll add my own positive review. I've had mine for a short while, just getting them broken in (about 30 hours on them so far and still getting smoother). They are really starting to sing now.

First, they have excellent overall tone -- flat and even across their entire range with a tiny bit of upper bass emphasis. They have extremely clear treble, plenty of detail and resolution without "false" detail from extra brightness. You can hear more detail with these speakers than most others I've auditioned, yet there's no sense of overstated "zing" to them. They have much more bass than you expect from a stand-mounted monitor. Overall, a very sweet sounding speaker.

Soundstaging, depth and spatial resolution is outstanding. Voices and instruments are firmly fixed in 3-D space (depending on the quality of the recording -- if it was recorded in a closet, it'll sound like it with the 805's). With good material, they simply disappear.

Fit and finish are excellent. The cabinet finish is beautiful, no rough edges anywhere. Attention to detail is obvious. The somewhat overpriced stands are still the nicest I've seen, and solid as they can be. With sand filling, they're about twice the weight of the speakers. No wobbling here.

Overall, the 805's + stands are an expensive combination, but worthy of their price. Their performance puts them in the top group of speakers available under $5000. Their only drawbacks are lack of really deep bass (you knew that anyway), and limited volume for very high energy pieces. What do you expect for a minimonitor? If you like jazz, unplugged rock, chamber music and other smaller scale presentations, you'll love these. Get something bigger if you're a full orchestra crescendo or heavy metal fan.

Be warned: these speakers are demanding of your electronics, and require LONG break-in time before they assume their real character. They're pretty rough right out of the box. Make certain you audition them from a dealer that mates them with worthy amplification and source material, and that the demo speakers are fully burned in. I suspect that at least a few of the negative reviews are from folks who listened to demo speakers right out of the box, or with amplification and source components not up the 805's standards (or both).

Overall rating: 5 for value, 4 for overall performance. Getting that extra star worth of performance will probably double the price, in my opinion (like the Nautilus 803's for example).

My system:

- B&W Nautilus 805's and matching stands
- Krell KAV-300i integrated amplifier
- Krell KAV-250cd compact disk player
- Interconnects and speaker cables by Kimber
- Analog and FM gear from NAD

Similar Products Used:

None that I've owned. Auditioned ProAcs, Sonus Faber, some others

clean sound, a perfect mini monitor

lack of deeeeeep bass

Altought i own a pair of nautilus 801 (a world apart) i must say that N805 are wonderful loudspeaker. The best way is, naturally, the tweeter. Great match with my Mac 6450!

Similar Products Used:

N 801, N 802

???

a bit slow, a bit flat, a bit analytical

I borrowed a pair home since I like small monitors, had them side by side with my Dynaudio. They just did not do it for me, not involving like the Silver Signature or Dynaudio. Resolution is not quite up to Dynaudio's standard. Bass is a little slow which muddy up the sound. Great for the money, but not the "reference" mini-monitor they claim they are.

Associate Equipment,

ARC CD-2
ARC LS-15
Sonic Frontier Power 3
McCormack DNA-2 Deluxe
Dynaudio Confidence 5
Sonus Faber Extrema
AQ Diamond and Clear

When I returned the speakers, I gave them my honest opinion. The store basically throwed me out and told me they had nothing to sell to me. Thanks a lot.

Similar Products Used:

Dynaudio, Totem, Sonus Faber, Wilson, B&W

imaging, wide and deep soundstage, very revealing,

sensitive to placement, cool looking but expensive stand, not suitable for large room (not enough bass if you have to try)

I've own this nice piece of "instrument" for quite some time now. For the most part, I love it! Maybe because of most people (like my friends) keep complaining about its lack of bass, so I (& my friends) tried to compare it with transmission line speakers.

I managed to try different electronics on it (while comparing to other speakers).

Martin Logan Aerius vs B&W N805 (demo unit)
-------------------------------------------
Classe CAP-80 + Classe CDP-.3 / Adcom GCD 750 + AudioTruth Lapis x3 XLR/MIT XLR (forgot model) + MIT Terminator 2

Before I bought my N805, I listened to it with my electronics at the showroom. It was setup with the speakers facing the long side of the wall (as oppose to more conventional placement used below) seperated by about 8-9 ft. That was my best experience with my system (I don't have room of that size!).

The soundstage is tall (you can see me keep searching upwards for the source of vocal), vocal seems to come from ~7-8 ft off the ground. The Aerius sounded very (ear-painfully) bright compared to N805. Even my friend, who have used the SL3 for a while, was shocked. Bass of both were not as bad as I read before. Changing the interconnect between the component to MIT doesn't seems to change the sound. Since there was an Adcom CD player there, so we tried it. The sound became warmer (was warm before), bass became tighter on the N805, but it didn't help much for Aerius (still bright).

PMC TB1 vs B&W N805 (different demo unit)
-----------------------------------------
Bryston B60
Rotel CD player 951(?)
XLO i/c + Kimber speaker cable

First off, TB1 impressed me a lot. If you buy the "S" version, the list price is just $900(!) about 1/3 of N805 w/ stand. Listening to Eric Clapton's Unplugged made me almost sell my speakers. TB1 sounded balance (even, no emphasize in any particular range), high is very smooth, resolution is very good with multiple instruments. So, is N805 so bad that I should sell it? Not at all. With this combo, N805 is not performing as good as I've heard before. Not broken in maybe? Sound stage is ok, not as tall and deep as I heard before. It seems to emphasize the high, hence sounded a little bright.

Even though the numbers said that TB1 has good low end, but it's not as punchy as N805. On female vocal, mid range of TB1 sounded "thin", not as full and warm as N805.

Meadowlark Kestrel HOT-ROD vs B&W N805 (mine)
---------------------------------------------
Spectral CD transport + Spectral DAC + Spectral link
Krell KCT
Krell FPB 200
MIT XLR i/c (forgot model) + AudioTruth Forest

Seems to me, N805 (after about 6 months of regular usage) doesn't like Krell (or the system) at all. It sounded harsh and bright. We couldn't stand listening to it for too long. The room is big. N805 cannot produce any audible bass while Kestrel seems to feel right at home, and pump out very nice sounding bass. I found that N805 is very hard to place when we're trying to get a pin-point focus. Kestrel was easy, we put it there, and it just sing. Wide dispersion. It managed to project the sound stage well in front of the speakers. Comparing to N805, Kestrel just sounded a little boxy. That's where the expensive carpentry of N805 came into play.

Back Home
---------
Classe CAP-80 + Classe CDP-.3 + AudioTruth Lapis x3 XLR + Forest

I have a small room, so I can't have the speakers wide seperated (just 5-6 ft). Not much room behind and beside the speakers (1ft back, 1 ft left side, 4ft right due to door). With such near field listening (sit at the middle, ~4-5 ft away from the speakers), the image focus very nicely (but sometime i have to move my head a little to get it pin-point), soundstage is deep (vocal seems to come from quite far behind the speakers) but not as wide as I want it to be. During a quiet night, low volume (4~8/60 max on CAP-80) female vocal is so sweet and alluring. In the day, high volume (20/60) does produce very punchy, wall vibrating bass, while the high doesn't strain or harden (unless you go to 30/60, which is almost deafening).

Overall, I love this speaker, for sonic and cosmetic reasons. The stands are very expensive, but they look cool! I tried to use those little spikes on the top plate of the stand (where you put your speakers), which does improve the mid a little, but BE WARN! they will scratch the bottom plate of the speakers (which should be aluminum).

So, how about that, my first speaker review!

Value: 5 stars if you don't buy the stand)
4.5 stars if you did, I can understand ;)

Similar Products Used:

PMC TB1, Meadowlark Kestrel HOT-ROD, Martin Logan Aerius