Dedicated for the 805 range with different finishes. Without the stands now the speakers are difficult to listen to

I auditioned the 805's and eventually bought a pair of Signatures. Having searched for better stands I came across review references to hne products and purchased a dedicated pair of beautiful polished black granite and leather stands. Wow, what a match they are - not just the looks and quality but the shear overall improvement and increased bass range. I bought mine direct from www.hne.co.uk and they shipped them here OK.

Excellent imaging, 3-D soundstage, tight bass, and midrange.

Need a subwoofer if you want to hear anything lower than 40Hz

The is the best monitor speakers under 3K range, in my opinion. Imaging, soundstage, and midrange are unbelievable. If you listen to various type of music and looking for a pair monitor speakers, put the N 805 on top of your list.

1.- no coloration from box 2.- Good tonality 3.- excellent dispersion

1.- hard to place, an inch makes a difference 2.- Needs top notch electronics 3.- Needs good stands, I use B&W Nstands

Where to start ..... 1.- Sound larger than its size )good thing) 2.- Hard to place to achieve the best tonality (not a good thing for some) 3.- Need to drive them with top-notch electronics, at least two times of price paid for amp only. This speaker represents the next generation of speaker design, box sound is extint, dispersion is almost life like and tonal balance is adequate for its size. No need of sub for small-medium sized rooms, just need to practice A LOT with placement. Thats it.

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Monitor Audio, Totem, Mission, Gallo, JM Lab

Mid thru upper mids...very good voicing

Can be a bit shrill...you need some tubes somewhere in the chain to achieve a sound you can tolerate for extended listening.

I have owned my Nautilus 805s for about 18 months and have been reasonably satisfied with their performance. I originally purchased them for a 2nd "listening room" of small dimensions. I enjoyed them but the highs can sometimes be "shrill" while the mid range is quite good. I decided to upgrade though and demoed 803's & 802's and just did not feel moved to part with my hard earned cash. I began a quest to find some awesome monitors and, while looking for Triangle here on Audioreview, I happened upon the Tyler Acoustics speakers. But if you are shopping, you owe it to yourself to examine your alternatives and decide what sounds right for you. You won't find Tyler Acoustics in stores, only their web site at: www.tyleracoustics.com, check it out. Products run the gamut from budget to $10k. I have my 805's on ebay for 1 more week with no reserve if you would like to pick them up for less than retail as I have purchased a pair of Tyler Acoustics "Taylo Reference Monitors", the single best audio dollars I have ever spent! This is not meant to flame the 805's, only to say there are other alternatives out there of which I was not aware when I made my purchase. A side by side test wasn't even close...in every area I viewed as my 805's strength, they were soundly trounced by the Taylo's. Best regards to all. My Small room system: Unison Research Unico Integrated w/vintage '59 input tubes by Cifte Cary CD-308 CD Player Tyler Acoustics "Taylo Reference Monitors" Bettercables.com bi-wire & silver serpent inter-connects

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Tyler Acoustics "Taylo Reference Monitors"-INCREDIBLE!! Paradigm Reference Studio 60v2

Clarity, soundstage/imaging, neutral, smooth "like buttah."

Overpriced stands. Not the best for rock, but more than adequate. A sub

There has been accolade upon accolade written in the reviews on these monitors, so I will not rehash all the positive things that have been said. For the most part, I agree with everything that as been said. What I’d like to do is address the issue of power needed to drive the units. I was in the market to upgrade my current “listening” rig (basic two-channel stereo... straight forward, no muss, no fuss). The listening room is about 20’x 22’ with no real acoustic anomalies. I have always been a B&W advocate, and after reading all the reviews about the 805’s, wanted to hear them for myself. I went over to the dealer with music in hand (Miles’ “Kind Of Blue,” Traffic’s “John Barleycorn,” Bob Marley’s “Exodus” and Foo Fighter’s “One By One”) and gave ‘em a run. They were running them through McIntosh, Sony ES and StraightWire equipment, so the system was more than capable of driving the units. I was actually surprised at what I heard – very flat and lifeless. The clarity and imaging were there, but they were lacking the “umph” that I was expecting to hear. I had them run the 804’s then the 803’s off of the same system – and while it did improve things, it was only very slight. I really wanted to love these speakers, but it just wasn’t happening. Considering the three models I just listened to all left me feeling a little disappointed, I thought it could be the listening environment or the system, or a combination of everything. I gave the dealer my thoughts and suggested that I take them home and run them on my system. Now, my system is modest (2x50W in 8ohms two-channel tube integrated amp) and I had some concerns about power to drive the 805’s, and the dealer assured me there should be no problems. I took them home, hooked them up, and it was like someone had just turned on a light in a dark room. They absolutely sang! I heard subtleties in Wes Montgomery’s playing that I’d never heard before. I was transported into the studio with John Scofield for the Uberjam sessions. Any concerns I had about the power needed to drive the 805’s were relieved, and any doubts I had about the 805’s reputation were laid to rest. Now, many reviews have stated that you need some pretty hefty equipment to drive these speakers. I wanted to go on record for anyone that may be in my situation and say that you don’t necessarily need huge amounts of power to realize the potential of the 805’s. As for the negative reviews… sure, there may be other options available at an equal or lower price point. They may provide equal quality and performance… on paper; but technical specs on two different products can often be identical. One product may even one outperform the other in terms of frequency response & range, harmonic distortion, dispersion, etc. (especially in the digital realm), but this doesn’t necessarily equate to a superior product. Sound, as we all know, is a subjective. Each person hears different things. What sounds good to me may not sound as appealing to my wife. Once you begin to factor in different components – tubes vs. solid state, separate DACs vs. integrated, power conditioners vs. power inverters, interconnects, speaker wires, blah, blah, blah… the final output becomes even more colored. I guess what I’m trying to say is “Trust Your Ears.” Also, I will agree that the bass is a little thin. Very acurate, but under represented. Then again, these are bookshelf monitors. A smaller, punchy, musical sub will complement the 805 perfectly! I BTW, if anyone knows of an economical alternative to the 805 stands, please email me. I’m having a hard time justifying the $600 for the B&W pair. Current setup: JoLida JD302B (Svetlana EL34’s & Brimar 12AT7’s) DUAL CS505-3 Sumiko Blue Point Special Rotel RQ-970BX Nakamichi ZX670 Adcom GDA-600 NAD C521i Tascam MK-20mkII B&W N805 Sunfire TrueSub Jr. Straight Wire Octave Cables Monster M850i Interconnects Audio Prism Powerline Foundation I

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B&W, Definitive Technology, Canton, Polk, Paradigm, Genesis

They're a dynamic speaker done right.

None, really.

As far as I’m concerned, if you have a smallish to medium room and the money to buy a comparable sub, these are THE speakers to own on Planet Earth in 2002. (An old audio guru of mine once said that the best speakers in a company’s line are the smallest ones. Well, unless you have a big room you need to fill with sound, I wholeheartedly agree.) IMO, there are only two brands of speaker worth bothering with: B&W for dynamic, Martin Logan for planar. Really, why fuss with anyone else? I want a company that’s been in business for at least 20 years, that knows how to make speakers, with a proven track record, and whose products are readily available, well-known and plentiful in the marketplace. If I lived in NYC, and had ten high-end dealers within a half-hour subway ride, I might hunt and peck. It would be fun. But I’d still probably end up with B&W or ML. Stands: Unable to afford the dedicated stands which, I’m sure, are worth every penny, I went to the local lumber yard and for about $60 in materials was able to build a pair of stands (small tables, really) that work fine. Two 4x6x25 in. lengths of fir screwed tightly into a 16x16x1 particle board base and a 10x10x¾ particle board top. 3x ¼ machine screws for leveling spikes. Time to build: About 4 hours. Savings: 90% over the B&W stands. And they look OK too, bathed in flat black paint. Retro, industrial, garage. NOTE: Due to the design of the speaker, with the Nautilus tweeter mounted on top, it would be very difficult to place weights of any kind on the speaker. Longstanding audiophiles will know that this is the cheapest way to make any speaker sound significantly better. I suppose one could rig a couple of sand bags tied together with a ribbon, but even obsession does have limits. Break in: Probably 3 months to a year. I bought the dealer’s demos so these are already somewhat broken in. Don’t even think about judging them until they are broken in. Amplification: The speakers should have four $5,000 monoblocks attached to them--10:1 would be about the right ratio of amp/speaker cost. But on my limited ($5000 for the whole system) budget, a Musical Fidelity A3 integrated amp works great, matches the speaker very well. Sweet, warm, tubey. Bass: For the kind of music I create/listen to, that lower ½ octave of bass is crucial. I bought a Velodyne SPL-800 with the speakers, as a matter of course. Unfort

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B&W CDM-1

Really, everything.

None, obviously they don't go down to 20 cycles, that would be asking the impossible.

This is a review for the B&W Signature 805's not the Nautilus 805's. This speaker is incredible sounding, kills the regular 805's in every regard, end of story. I was so impressed with these speakers that I sold my N803's and bought the sig 805's. If you buy these please partner them with the best gear possible, they deserve state of the art components. C'mon people am I the only person that owns or has heard these speakers. they are better than the JM Labs Micro and Mini Utopias, truly state of the art monitor speakers.

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JM labs mini, micro upopia, Wilson cub, Dynaudio 1.3 SE, too many to list.

Excelent Clarity, Looks, a sound that defies the size of the speaker.

None Yet

I am by no means an Audiophile, and am maybe a bit under qualified to write this review. I recently visited my local hifi store with the intention of buying a pair or CDM 1 NT's (to replace my existing DM 602 s2's), after listening to a few CD's played through the CDM 1's I could tell they were not really what I was looking for, the clarity was there and vocal sounded good, but there was virtually no bass at all. I then tried CDM 7 NT's that seemed to improve the bass slightly but seemed to have a slightly blurred sound and lacked the clarity of the CDM 1's. So the next option was the Nautilus 805, I was under the impression that CDM 1 NT's were Nautilus 805's in different boxes. It was immediately apparent that this is not true. The 805's seem to have it all for a speaker of its size. Superb clarity, and a reasonable amount of bass. I listened to these with a Roksan Caspian Integrated Amp & Roksan Caspian CD Player and tested with a variety of CD's such as Moby's 18, Massive Attack's Mezzanine and Belinda Carlisle's A woman and a man, I was amazed by the sound that came out. The Moby track Harbour gave a truly stunning representation of Sinead O'Conner's Vocals. Needless to say I have now bought these speakers and am eagerly awaiting their delivery (the days just cant pass quick enough right now) BTW I have to point out the Purchase Price above is in Euro

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B&W DM 602 S2 B&W CDM 1 NT B&W CDM 7 NT

I am surprised at their ability to portray good deep bass, but excellent stands and a powerful, quality, amp is required to make them work at their best.

Needs a powerful amp and good stands to bring out all their strengths.

I auditioned loads of speakers for our dedicated home cinema/music room. The N805's beat every contender (although Dynaudios came very close, but needed to be too far from the wall), particularly with some excellent granite stands from hne.co.uk that are designed specifically for the N805's. These stands give the N805's deeper and more accurate bass and cost about the same as the B&W stands. The black granite stands, with black N805's, creates a combination that looks absolutely fabulous. I use N805's for fronts and centre and four M&K THX tripoles for the 7.1 rear configuration. Powered by Chord amps and a Meridian 568 processor, this system continually blows me away with its power, tremendous musicality, seemless integration and surround capabilities. I have only been to the cinema twice in the last year as there is no point anymore. I've also stopped reading HiFi and Home Cinema magazines and only came back to this site today out of curiosity to see how the 805's were being received. In summary, I guess that I am delighted with these speakers - my upgrade path has stopped here!

Great highs True midrange/vocals Tight Bass Wide soundstage Fantastic Design

Can be high-priced, especially with stands (did not get the B&W stands).

Let me start with thanking everyone that uses this forum correctly. I spent hours researching amps, speakers, cd players, cables, etc. on this site and a few others. These 805’s provide excellent sound for their size. These speakers provide a strong bass for their size, solid and true midrange and great highs without being harsh or tiring. I had no problems with placement in my loft (listening area), which opens to about 1400 square feet of downstairs space. The strong, tight bass came only with biwiring, which I highly recommend – previously the bass was there but not very strong. I listened to JBL, Klipsch, Polk, Infinity, NHT, and others including the B&W CDM. This drove the family nuts, but we listened together and my wife noticed the difference in these at the store. We got a good deal as they we trade-ins about six months old with a little. Read the rest of the reviews, these little speakers are tight, clear, true, and they disappear. They really responded to new Sonic Horizon Daybreak speaker wire (see separate review – you have to try these). Aside from the great sound, the design is great, sexy, and a good conversation piece. If you can find these listen to them. I liked them and the NHT’s but there was no local NHT dealer in the Vegas area and a trade up capability is important and shipping speakers can get expensive. Nautilus 805’s provide great sound, true vocals, tight bass (I strongly recommend the bi-wire setup) in a little package. Current setup: Krell KAV-300i integrated amp Kenwood KT-8007 tuner Yamaha CD-X5U CD player (soon to go, but what to buy Rega?) B&W Nautilus 805’s Sonic Horizon Daybreak Speaker Wires Junk interconnects (planned upgrade just need to purchase)

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Dynaco (old), B&W CDM, listened to others.