Non-Colored, truthfull, soundstage, accurate, effecient except for bass demands. This would be a good tube amp speaker if you don't mind the lack of deep bass. 3 Colors available: fits any decore, Weight: Not too heavy wife can move to clean

To really make these shine in the low bass area (like most speakers) you need a respectable amplifier.

For the money these are the best. I agree with most everyone, the sound stage, imaging, none colored sound is simular to the Nautilus 802's and for alot less money! (they share the same drivers) You do need some articulate hardware to drive these with plenty of current, otherwise the bass sounds suppresed. Put a Mark Levinson 331, 2 or 3 and you'll see what I mean. I listened to all type of music including Chuck Mangione:"Feels so good" Loreena McKennitt: Mummers Dance" from "Book of Secrets" Classical works like Pictures at an Exhibition, 1812 Overture ect..

Similar Products Used:

Studio 100's, Nautilus 802's, CDM-2SE's, Mirage OM5's.

GREAT BASS IN MY ROOM ANYWAY.GREAT MIDS TOO,AND HIGH' S TO DIE FOR..WHAT MORE CAN YOU ASK FOR.....803 YEAH. $5000 AND $2600.I'LL TAKE THE 9,S PLEASE!!!!

IF YOU FIND ONE. IT CAN'T BE THAT BAD.

GREAT SPEAKER; DIDN,T EVEN HAVE TO HEAR IT.HAD TWO PAIRS OF B&W,S CANT GO WRONG WITH THEM.ONLESS YOUR A HEADBANGER,THEM KLIPSCH WOULD DO...

Similar Products Used:

ALL

mid-upper bass clarity. Soundstage imaging. Bass extension and tightness is excellent for most music.

Sensitive to room positioning and associated electronics. Can sound very brash with some poorly recorded material Needs a very good subwoofer for room-shaking home theater effects

Replaced a vintage pair of Paradigm Studio Monitors(circa 1993) with the B&W CDM 9NT and Paradigm Servo-15 subwoofer. Cabinets are very nicely finished and the binding posts are high quality, but the provided spikes are cheezy(basically a pointed galvanized potmetal nut'n'bolt affair) and don't penetrate deep/heavy carpet very well at all. After a month of break-in, I set up the B&W's facing directly forward, with almost no toe-in, and at a 60 degree angle to the listening position. In this position, the soundstage and upper-midrange really bloomed, compared to various toe-in configurations. Overall, I'd say that the Studio Monitor provides somewhat better sound with a wider variety of material and at louder listening levels, while the CDM 9NT/Servo-15 combo has much better mid-upper bass clarity, and better soundstage imaging with high quality material. On some high quality selections I am very familiar with, the B&W's revealed inner detail and subtleties that I have never heard with the Paradigms. Rock and Roll Buffs will probably not be well-served by the CDM 9NT, since they tend to sound a bit brash with compressed material, but for classical and jazz listeners, this speaker has an almost perfect combination of virtues and few noticable flaws. Associated equipment: Denon AVR 3802 Receiver Adcom GFA 5800 Poweramp Marantz DV 6200 DVD player Panamax 1000 and Max8 DBS line conditioners. Paradigm Servo-15 Subwoofer

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm Studio Monitor

Very versatile with very smooth detail. Not to mention a beatiful piece of furniture.

Basically none

I agree with Mick. It's a great speaker that you can't go wrong with. I would prefer it over the 804's. The best sound for classic music. It's biggest competitor (which I tried) was Dynaudio, but nited that B&W was more versatile for the music I hear; salsa, latin jazz, jazz, classic and tropical music. Very happy with it.

Similar Products Used:

Dynaudio

Acoustic performance, work fine with a nice integrated amp instead of expensive power amps.

Develop their strenghts after a fairly long period of time.

Excellent speakers! I auditioned many B&W speakers prior to my final purchase. Now I'm quite sure about two things: forget the 800's, 801's and 802`s unless you can call yourself the proud owner of a gym-sized living room. They need plenty of space (needless to say they may bankrupt you). The 803's probably are the best of both worlds. Talking about the 804's, I don't think they are really better than the 9NT's! The latter do almost everything like the 804's and leave you some money for good cables and some fine records. Maybe their bass is not as tight as their big brothers´ bass.

Similar Products Used:

See above.

Amazing detail and imaging. If I could afford to purchase a speaker in the Nautilus line, they would be in my living room as I type this! B&W's are perfect for most classical and live jazz buffs. Fit and finish are top notch.

Not the best at handling lower frequencies. Some will say that the 'microphone' tweeter sitting there on top of the speaker is very unattractive, but it is effective in providing an important part of the speakers soundstage.

The CDM9's are an excellent speaker, especially for live jazz and classical music. I auditioned many speakers before making my final purchase, and in the end the CDM9's and Paradigm Studio 100's were the contenders for my hard-earned money. In the end I went with the Paradigms. Though I don't own the CDM9's, I have spent countless hours in two differenct hi-fi stores listening to them. I feel this makes me a qualified reviewer for these speakers. I was very thorough in my auditioning phase, and again, really like the CDM9's. Once I had narrowed down my search to the Paradigms and B&W's, I really began to critically listen to both using a huge variety of source material. The B&W's outperformed the Paradigms with a few of my Chesky-label Jazz cd's, and with a couple of my Classical cd's, including Rutter's Requiem. That was a huge plus for the B&W's. However, all of those cd's also sounded very good on the Paradigms. Also, some classical with organ-heavy passages sounded better on the Paradigms due to their bass handling capability. This could, however, be remedied on the B&W's with the use of a musical subwoofer. I also auditioned both speakers using music my wife listens to, as my purchase is her purchase! I took her with me on more than one occasion to get her opinion, and she prefered the Paradigms over the B&W's for every one of her cds. One particular song on Madonna's Ray of Light CD stands out. For those of you still auditioning speakers, go purchase that cd and play track 10 on the Paradigms at a high volume! Holy cow, it is amazing. (My brother-in-law and the Paradigm dealer who hates 'digital music' could not believe their ears.) The B&W's have a very impressive sound stage, and they have a great fit and finish about them. I would recommend them to anyone looking to spend around $2500 on speakers. I could not say that B&W speakers are better than the Paradigms, nor vice versa. The way one hears music is a very personal thing, vastly differing from one person to the next, and the speakers which provide an individual the greatest level of emotion and enjoyment are the ones he or she should purchase!

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm, KEF, Sonus Faber, M&K, Boston's, Klipsch, JMlab, Revel

Mid & Hi clarity. Looks - good piece of furniture.

Needs careful equipment and cabling selection. Sensitive to positioning.

Having only owned these speakers for a short period of time, and still running in I can only say the music is stunning! Music takes on new life, spaciousness and involvement. I have found myself listening to my entire collection and discovering new detail. I won''t go on about it as many of the reviewers here have already stated. Having deliberated for about 6 months before parting with the cash, once installed and setup correctly I found my audio heaven. Swtich to DVDs and again these units did not fail to impress. Feed them a DTS signal and WOW!! I have found no lack of tight controlled bass from this setup, very capable in rocking the furniture! The detail retreival is excellent as you might expect with outstanding clarity in the mid and hi ranges. Although I''m extremely pleased with this setup, I do intend to add a power amp for the front and centre speakers. The CDM 9s can make large current demands I''m told. I look forward to testing this out in the near future. My system is comprised of the following: Denon AVC 11SR Arcam FMJ DV27 Arcam FMJ CD23 B&W CDM 9NT B&W CDM CNT B&W CDM SNT QED Profile 12 - all round QED Silver Spiral interconnects I would recommend that anybody looking at this price bracket should audition these speakers - awesome!

Similar Products Used:

Nautilus 804,803 and 802. I must confess I would have bought the 802s if I could have strectched my budget!!

great sound

hate those floor spikes

I just bought these speakers 3 months ago and think they are great. A friend who is a real Audiophile suggested them he has had BW''s for 18 years and recently upgraded to the Nautlis. I could not afford such speakers but these sound just as good to me and are in my price range. When I went to one of the mass electronic stores that sells Boston Accoustics and the such and mentioned to the sales person who surprisingly new a lot that I was looking at BW''s he said nothing in the store compared and he would buy them in a second. He said dollar for dollar they were better speakers

High WAF ,beautiful,clarity,build quallity,sound stage,etc.

none

This is an update from last years review.Since I originally bought these speakers I have changed my system totally & the speakers have come to life.I bought a Rotel RMB 5x 200 watt amp,removed all of my older Perreaux amp & pre-amp,& now am using just my Denon AVR 3300 as a pre-amp with my Denon DVM 3700 as my DVD/CD player.It actually sounds great!! My rear speakers, which I plan to upgrade to CDM 9''s ,have literally come to life as I had never heard such incredible surruond,true to what you are supposed to hear at the theater. These speakers are getting better every day.The treble is not bright,but right on target,the midrange is spectacular, and while somewhat lacking in boomy bass,is now quite spectacular for 2 channel stereo.Right after I got the Rotel my sub quit & had to go into the shop.My wife swears we don''t need it now.I still want it for movies,but it is not needed for music only. I was considering a pair of 803''s for the front & went over to my friends house whom I bought most of my system from,as he had a pr he was considering selling.I think he has played them a little to loud to long (1000 watt Krells) per side & they don''t sound as good as my 9''s. After much researching I am just going to get another pair of CDM9s and look for a better processor for all the new technology. If you own this speaker or are considering it, please be aware you will have to have enough high-current / high-power equipment to get out what the B&W''s are capable of producing. For the money I haven''t found another pair of speakers that can sound so good. My system: Rotel RMB-1095 Power amp Denon AVR 3300 Reciever/pre-amp Denon DVM 3700 CD/DVD player XBR 35" Sony TV Rear speakers Definitive bi-polar surrounds/Bose 601''s Rear speakers soon to be gone.

Similar Products Used:

Original CDM 1''s

Clarity, Analytical, extension, soundstage, can be put against a wall

*VERY* bright, revealing of mediocre cd's, very unforgiving of bright sources or equipment

Well, I finally purchased the 9's after spending the past 3 months reviewing literally dozens of speakers in the $1500-$5000 dollar range. My favorite speakers in this range, the B&W 803 and the Logan SL3, each had specific weaknesses ruling them out for me - the 803 required a LOT of breathing room behind it, and the SL3 had a VERY small 'sweet spot' and was VERY hard to position correctly. I also liked these better than the 804's, even though they have practically identical drivers. The 804's seemed to be more tempermental to placement, and perhaps had better 'damping' in the bass. The 7nt's were VERY close, but the bass was better in the 9's.

So, after taking notes for months, I bought the 9's.

I have the following components :

Classe ssp30 Pre-Amp
Rega Planet 2000 CD
Adcom GFA 7500
Nordost SPM Reference speaker cable
NBS RCA interconnects

After first installing them, I was VERY alarmed - they sounded tinny, thin, and crappy. I decided to put 5 cd's into my old denon carousel changer, and let the speakers burn in for a few days. I have now been playing them for several hours a day for almost a week, and I am still waiting for them to finish burning in, though the sound has much improved. The speakers are very very revealing: they *WILL* show up problems with your components, cabling, or recordings. On high quality cd's, especially classical, the sound is simply stunning. The midrange is so so sweet, I have purchased over 2 dozen violin pieces . Harps and flutes also sound fantastic.
However, if your cd source is not so good, the speakers are very grainy sounding. Also, if there is ANY brightness on the cd, or in your components, the treble can become overbearing. In fact, I have a very bright room, and with almost any rock cd played at more than modest volume, I need to drape a thin sock over the nautilus tweeter. Believe it or not, this really helps tame the tweeter, which in my mind is overpowered. I am purchasing the perpetual technology P1/p3 DACs this weekend, which hopefully will make everything sound better.

My advice? If you have quality recordings, or love classical music, get these speakers. However, if you listen to a lot of rock and roll/heavy metal, I would avoid these, since these sources, being bright already, may become unlistenable. For instance, when listening to my remastered Led Zeppelin recordings, the treble was just too overpowering for me. My friend brought over his Classe Cav 75 Amp, which helped tame the treble somewhat, but it was still too bright with music with heavy cymbals . Perhaps further burn in will help. When you audition them, I HIGHLY recommend you purchase the Billy Mclaughlin CD 'FINGERDANCE.' If you like the way the speakers sound with that cd, then you will like them in your house. If you dont, you should probably not get them, since this cd seems to bring out the speakers best qualities.

One further note - these speakers *LOVE* a warm sounding amp. I listened to them with a VTL tube amp, and they sounded very warm, much less 'treble' insistent, though they did not have nearly the same punchiness or transient response as the solid state. I would say a quality amp like a Mcintosh or Conrad Johnson would be an ideal match for these.

Similar Products Used:

B&W cdm 7nt, Kef Mod 2-3, Monitor Audio silver 9i's, Martin Logans, Aerial 6, Aerial 7, Revel Salon, Sonus Faber Pianos