Possibly the highest quality speaker in its' price range. Detailed sound, wide soundstage, incredible imaging. Dramatic appearance and high end build quality.

Long break-in period. Careful placement is required for optimum sound quality.

The Nautilus 805s offer an excellent combination of high end sound, build quality, and dramatic cosmetics. Their resolving power make careful system matching a must. It's important to be very careful with system matching as the 805s are capable of showing any weaknesses in the system. When auditioning these speakers, it's important to make sure that careful attention has been paid to set-up and that the speakers have had a break-in period or you will not be hearing their stunning capabilities.

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm Active/20, Revel M20

Soundstage, clarity

Picky, picky

I won't get into the morass about how good these sound compared to all others; I haven't heard all others.
I can add these points:
The 805s are incredibly sensitive to placement. I first angled them slightly toward the listening position -- as I've had to do with every other speaker I have owned -- and felt they were too bright. Straight ahead not only "partially" solved that problem but snapped the soundstage into focus.
I said "partially", because more break-in helped, too. So did retubing everything. Finally, and here's where I'm heading straight into the "looney" category, I surrounded those pointy tweeter extensions with thin, dense foam. Now, I can't say exactly how much that helped in making them the incredibly smooth speakers they are now, because I did several of the steps above in a short period of time. I'm no real scientist about this stuff.
Just for reference, the Celestions, which I owned for several years, had the most voluptuous mids and highs I've ever heard -- even though they were probably not true to the source. They were maybe a little grainy and slow compared to 805s. The Magnapans were very smooth and easy to listen to and not very detailed, but I had a completely different system then, so any real comparison would be silly.
My rating, 4, because the only speakers that ever changed by life were some 8" ARs 35 years ago that got me into this whole thing. My 2 cents.

Similar Products Used:

Totem Mani-2, Celestion 100, Magnapan MG1

Clean crisp sound for music and movies. Very solid bass for a bookshelf. Great allround speaker.

Needs good electronics.

If you skimp on your amp and preamp don't bother with these speakers. If the wife factor demands bookshelves you should check these out. They will require break-in. Mine took about three months of casual use. Once broken in you will not be sorry about your purchase. You will also need a good subwoofer if you like movies and for 5.1 surround.
Equipment
B&K REF 20
B&K 7520 Amp
Sony 7700 DVD
Legacy Subwoofer
B&W HTM center channel

True to the music, with excellent detail.

Unfortunately, they make me want to replace the rest of my components.

What can I say. I went into my local shop looking for the DM 601 S2's and came home with these babies at almost 5 times the price. It was love. So much high end detail, such smooth, punchy bass. Like so many other reviewers have mentioned, I'm getting a real kick out of pulling some of my seldom heard CD's off the rack and giving them a new listen. What a difference! My old favorites really shine too. Some of the bright recordings are painful, but I've heard those CD's sound bright on most other high-end setups too.

Unfortunately, I'm resigned to apartment living for the next few years, so I don't have what I would call a "listening space". These speakers really make crappy room acoustics stand out. I have a peak in the high midrange that I'm trying to tweak, but it may require more heavy duty damping.

Oh, and about my gear....I've heard the potential these speakers have on really good gear, so I'm inclined to upgrade some of my other components now. I think I could use more power for better dynamics, and a CD update, but nothing in the near future.

Overall, I am very impressed and satisfied with these speakers. They were run in well at the shop, but continue to sound better here at home with continued workouts. Oh, and about the bass, I find it ample for my listening tastes and musical selection. Turned up fairly loud, these speakers move a lot of air, and never get harsh (unless my amp runs out of steam, of course).

That's my 2 cents on my proud investment. Hope everyone else enjoys them as much as I do.

Marantz CD 63 SE
Bryston .4 NRB pre-amp
Rotel RB 960BX power amp
Kimber Kable interconnects
Soundstream Sl-1 interconnects
Ultralink BW-431 biwire cable

For the last couple of months I've been auditioning several speakers (NHT 1.5, 2.5i, 2.9, Martin Logan Aerius Speakers, Klipsch, Vienna Acoustics) just to name a few but of all these speakers I like to 805N's the best. After all my research I can truly say that know of these speakers are bad, they are all good but as always it comes down to what you want out of a speaker and as a jazz listener I felt that the 805's did the best job.

Imaging and Soundstage

Bass extension

I've had these for about 6 months now. Wanted to make sure they were fully broken in before posting a review. First off, these do take a bit of time to break in. Be patient. I think this is probably the biggest reason why some people give this speaker an unfavorable review. It is a world of a difference once fully broken in. Was amazed by the difference.

These speakers are extremely detailed! The soundstage, imaging and detail are very impressive. On good eletronics, with a good recording, they never fail to give me goosebumps. I love these speakers!

Drawbacks: Obviously the bass extension is not spectacular due to their small size, but what bass there is, it is very tight and controlled. I do believe that you need a sub to go with these though. Also, the matching stands are a bit expensive. They are however, a must. I tried them with my old stands (which were a bit crappy) and then broke down and bought the B&W stands. A world of a difference! Would strongly recommend getting these stands.

Sure there may be other speakers out there that are better, but for the combination of price, performance and pure beauty (IMO they are gorgeous!) I would choose no other.

Highly recommended!

Great performance at this price. Every field is achieved excellently while still not the best.

In absolute metre, shading, resolution, cleanness, coherence, continuousness, & musicality are not the best I have heard from different speakers.

In order to maxmize the performance of your B&W N805, you need to do 3 things.
1. filling your B&W stands with lead shot.
2. Taking off the tweeter grill as described at http://audiogo5.iserver.net/cgi-bin/fr.pl?cspkr&995239424&read&keyw&zz805 . By doing this. N805 gets more musicality,cleanness, shading, resolution, & continuousness.
3. Bi-wire or Bi-amp only.
Another is connecting from the rear rathan than the side if your are using banana-terminated cables.
Although it's easy to get good soundstage, I encourage to try more to get the best combination of flat down to midbass(80-160Hz) & good soundstage. N805 only needs toe-in a little bit with nearfield listening distance(6 feet from me to either of them). These are the speakers demanding careful setup & top notch equipments.
The sound I currently enjoy is excellent. On excellent piano concerto or RR HDCD recording, some of the internal structure of piano, like chord, holes, & some sticks, are audiable. The sound hole of guitar & the hitting of the Yepes's hand on guittar are also presented with ease & rhythm.
Comparison:
N804 has worse texture & not neutral balance- leanness.
Reference 3A MM De Capo: More smearing high frequency. A bump around 700Hz. However, the most musical speakers.
Eminent LFT-11: more continuous and airness, as well as better shading. But doesn't layer well as N805.
Stax Lambda Signature: Better resolution & airness but less musical.
Infinity Prelude MTS: less body, less bright.
Wilson CUB 2: sharper image but narrower soundstage. But too expensive, comparing to N805. More neutral than CUB 1.
TDL the Studio Monitor: flatter frequency response but a little too warm. Great bass from 16Hz.
Verity Parisfal Encore: Better coherence, shading, continuousness, & airness, as well as resolute as good as STAX Lambda signature. But weak low-bass, doesn't sound as giant as N805.
Alon Lotus Signature: Better shading but a little bit too warm & not so airness as N805.

Besides, N805 took me almost 1 year to burn in maybe because I'm using tiny SET. Once broken in, the tweeter is no longer harsh.


My equipments:
Spectral SDR-3000
SpectraLink for communication between SDR-3000 & SDR-2000 Pro
Spectral SDR-2000 Professional
Cardas Golden Reference
EVS Nude Ultimate Attenuators
Cary Audio 300SE Signature with WE 300B & Sylvania 6SN7GT/VT-231 JAN/CHS tall bottle
Kimber BiFocal-XL
B&W Nautilus 805
Hsu Research TN1220HO with 150W amp
Nordost flatline for subwoofer
RPG ProFoam level 2
RPG Classic Plus Abffusor
PS Audio Power Plant 600

Similar Products Used:

Duntech Sovereign, Swan, Eminent tech LFT-11, Stax Lambda Signature, Apogee minor Centaus, Reference 3A MM De Capo, B&W Nautilus 804, Infinity IRS V, Infinity Prelude MTS, TDL The Studio Monitor, Verity Parisfal Encore, ProAc Studio 100, JMlabs, Wilson CUB, Wilson CUB 2, Martin Logan, Alon Lotus Signature.

Appearance, build quality, soundstage, high frequency neutrality

Will not play loudly when used full-range; small drop in mid-treble causes slight sweetening of sound

I bought these after deciding that my Von Schweikert VR-4's were too big for my #2 listening room. I bought them because of their size, previous positive experience with B&W 801 Series 2's, and the striking appearance of speaker and stand.

It took several hours of hard driving to get these things to loosen up - at first the sound was dry and somewhat opaque.

My smaller room is about 2000 ft/3 and I don't listen at levels above 90 dB or so, but I found that the 805's could be overwhelmed with dynamic, full-range material. I am very sensitive to IM distortion, and spoiled by the Waveform Mach 17's in my big rig. This was true even when I bi-amped with two Parasound HCA-1000a's.

Things got sublime when I mated the 805's to a Velodyne HGS-10 via a Paradigm crossover set at 80 Hz, hi/lo pass with 18dB/octave Butterworth filters. Freed from having to make the excursions necessary for 50 Hz bass, the 805's became clearer, dynamic, and free from the glare I found driving them hard full-range.

Other than the slight mid treble dip, these are impressively flat speakers, with excellent delineation of pitch in the mid and upper bass, and a neutrol, extended treble that didn't sparkle but reproduced brushed cymbals with a natural timbre.

Image presentation of the free mounted tweeter and voluptuously shaped cabinet yielded predictably fine image specificity and stage size.

The stands were very pricey at $600, but integrate beautifully with the speaker, and look striking in the dark cherry I chose.

In side by side comparison with the Waveform M17's, the 805 held its own but ultimately dropped back a notch in transparency. Compared to other in its class (Joseph Audio, Sequerra, etc.) it is at the top in my book.

Nice job.

Mids and High, Fantastic design.

Some CD sounded good on my old speakers, but the 805's have showed me that some CD recordings are really bad(especially in mid and high frequency range. But that's the price you pay for having such quality speakers.

I use the 805's with the bw cdm1 stand, I did't like the looks and price of original N805-stand.

I went twice to the Versnel Hifi shop, first I hadn't brought my own CD's with me second time I did.
The setup at the Versnel shop:
accuphase P450 Amplifier.
audio research preamplifier.
wadia CD player.
some very expensive cables??
the Martin logan SL3 or Nautilus 805

I must say I was impressed with the mid and high section of the N805, compared to the ML's. In my perception the ML didn't sound any better with the exception of the low frequency range. I was amazed because after all the ML is about twice the price of the 805's (here in Holland), of course I purchased them.

At my house I don't have a P450 (same for the rest of the equipment maybe in 2 years from now), I only have a denon PMA700V and a sony ES XA20 CD player, Onkyo Tuner 4087, SL1200 turntable. The 805's deserve better equipment but I wasn't too dissapointed with the sound quality, it's getting better every day (long break in period). I'm still very suprised about the sound level and quality such small speakers can produce that's true craftmanship by B&W. Maybe I'll buy a accupase integrated amp or I'm thinking to upgrade the Denon (bypass a inputselector IC's and replacing it with a PCB with relays and gold plated cinch connectors.

I think these speakers are the best $2100 I ever invested

Similar Products Used:

None

Just an update and a reply to earlier reviews of this speaker. Most complained of the lack of "air", a feeling of thinness, and lack bass extention for these speakers. First, this speaker will tell of any qualities down the line with amps, preamps, and transports. This is why the 805's sound soooo sweet and warm, and lovely, with high quality components. And in my book makes them welcome in a very eliet group of speakers. This is also why it can sound as it has been above, because your amps or other components lack the reproduction fidelity you think. Other speakers may sound better but only because they cover-up (add to) the sound of your second-rate components. Audiophiles call this "sonic signature". The speakers (805's) sound like they do with an adcom amp because the adcom amp is dry, and lacks fine resolving power, and not because of the speakers. If your Adcom amps sounds good it is only because the speakers are contributiong much of themselves to the sound. Overall, this is not deseriable.
Hopefully, this will resolve some of the issues others have with these fine speakers. And also help those comming to this forum to find helpful advice only to be discouraged by reviewers who do not (fully) understand the way in which audio components interact. Beware of anyone telling you these speakers have their own sound. What they are hearing are the componets down the line. Match these speakers with good quality components and cables and you will be rewarded with true, hi-end, audiophile sound.
Thank You and have good listing experience.
David.