Excellent bass reproduction for its size although a slight emphasis is to be noted aroud 25 Hz.
The medium is just about perfect.
The overall impression is one of density of sound. Very physical, but you can listen for hours without any trace of ear strain.

Aboslutely requires its optional stainless steel feet. The original wheels with which it is sold here in Europe are just hopeless and really kill the sound, beside making the speakers very unstable...and ruining your wooden floors !!

An excellent speaker, which can handle almost every kind of music - with perhaps the exception of large choirs ?-
Excellent subjective impression / size ratio.

It it were avaiolable, I would rate 4,5 stars both in valu and overall ratings.

Similar Products Used:

Prior to the BW, I was using a pair of Apogee Centaur major. Good sound but lack of bass and extremely sensitive to placement in the room.

clean sound, beautifully balanced soundstage

bass a bit tubby, but with subwoofer and lots of tweaking all is well

after a relatively long break-in, the soundstage opened up wonderfully. they really have to be properly matched to all the other parts of the system-- cables serve as your "tone control" more so than on other speakers, and i believe most people who don't like them are probably using the wrong amp and cable combination. they were every bit as good as the wilson puppies in the showroom; kharma was vastly different but not necessarily better or worse. these speakers reveal the good and the bad all the way along- they sure are ugly, but loudspeakers are meant to be heard, not admired as art or fine furniture. crummy recordings sound crummier, good recordings sound worlds better, so be careful what you buy at the cd store if you have nautilus 802's in your system.

these speakers do not match well with tube electronics, and with spectral power amps the martin logans did sound much better, albeit at twice the price. krell FPB amps are well matched, though i think rowland amps are more musical, and don't compromise the home cinema strengths that krell has to offer.

during the year i have had these speakers, my system has been:

krell AV standard/krell hts preamp/processors
krell kav-500 amp, bi-amping the 802's using custom made tmc golden reference balanced Y-configured interconnects.
nautilus htm-1 center and scm-8 surrounds
monarchy audio se-100 monoblocks
runco ljr-II laserdisc/cd transport
fanfare ft-1a fm tuner
apex hack-menu dvd player
cardas hexlink golden 5c, twinlink, & MIT T2 speaker cables
circuit city's $299 jvc tv, because i haven't yet decided what my reference video display will be.
B&W sw-2500 powered subwoofer.

Similar Products Used:

wilson puppies/slamm, auditioned kharma & martin logan

Hard listen; bloated mid-bass

I had them for two long years. In a first time i was surprised by clarity and detailed sound. BUT, BUT...
Day afetr day the sunds became annoying and using old or no perfect recordings too mach harsh. I try to change CD, cables, amplification, but the only things wrong in my house was Nautilus 802. I haven't borne their scream-sound.

After this incidentally period of time Now with my new
system i'm very happy to listen everythings for many houres without disappoint.

No more trouble with my new system (ProAc future one), in each situation them to "whisper" music whit delicacy,soundstage, coherence, extension (real tight bass) and soft highs exactly the contrary of 802's sounds. The level of my amplifiers increase and "NOW" I enjoy of this.

My system:
CD : Linn Karik/Numerik
PRE: Audio Research LS-22
AMP: Classe' Audio DR-15

Similar Products Used:

Infinity RS8K (15 years) / ProAc Future one (2 Months)

unusuall design, great finish, remarkable sound.

size, and weight. also, very placement sensitive.

like good red wine ,the 802s just get better with time.... during the first 2 monthes , while the intenal organs needed to break in , the speakers didn't perform great ,and needed constant palcement modifications.

but within time ,these speakers just shine! the mid range ,and the high notes are the most noticeble assets of these speakers.
the bass is a bit meak, but a good subwoofer(b&w 2500). or two, should make up the lost low soundage.
great speakers for the money!

Similar Products Used:

jmlabmezzo utopia, b&w 801

Soundstage, detailed, build quality.

Not dynamic, no bass, ugly.

Well despite what everybody says I am not impressed with these speakers. I had them in my house for one week and I did not like them.

For classical music however they were very good because of the good soundstaging. But for R&B, pop music they were just not dynamic. The speaker did not realy do things wrong but I just missed the bass and the dynamics.

I had them in my home because I wanted to buy them but then I found the puppy used for US$ 7000,- which was even cheaper than the N802, so an easy choise for me.

If you want to buy this speaker please use Krell amplifiers. Krell makes this speaker come alive.
I used it on Mark Levinson and it was a disaster. With Krell it was good. Or use another fast power amp with a lot of power.

Other products used:
Wilson Puppy 5.1
Meridian 508-24
Mark Levinson No. 380
Mark Levinson No. 333
Krell KSA200S
MIT cables

Similar Products Used:

Wilson Puppy 5.1

Midrange clarity, detail; bass depth, tightness,detail, tune-playing; imaging, spaciousness; revealing nature; dynamics,"snap"; good with all types of music; near perfect finish.

price; heavy weight (don't buy them if you are nomadic); price

These speakers are the best I have had in my system. They are full range, efficient, detailed and can play all genres of music enjoyably. I do not have the best source and amp right now - a Denon DCD 3000 CD player (6 yrs)and a Musical Concepts modified Hafler DH-220 amp (19 yrs!)- even so, the tremendous qualities of these speakers were clearly evident on first listening. They were originally hooked up single wired, then bi-wired and then spiked, with noticeable improvements at each step, indicating a highly revealing speaker.

At first I was bothered by the revealing nature of these speakers. Now it doesn't matter, if the music is good I can enjoy it despite the recording quality.

When I was auditioning speakers, other dealers advised that the Nautilus series speakers were "hard to drive" and even related "horror" stories of some customers who had problems driving unspecified Nautilus models. Although probably not optimal, the 100 watts per side from my Hafler works - these speakers do not appear to be hard to drive with a properly designed power amp. My listening room is effectively 15' x 15'.

Similar Products Used:

B&W 802F; B&W DM7MKII; B&W DM-12; B&W DM-100i; Rogers Studio Ones; Rogers LS35A

SEE PREVIOUS REPORT FEB 2000.

It has been alomost two (2) years since I did my first (and last) review of the 802N speaker. I have spent all that time with the same system other than to add two more Bryston 7B STs to the front end to bi-amp the 802Ns. Have things changed????

Yes they have!

These speakers just keep getting better!!! I am so happy with their performance that I do not even waste time auditioning others. They have really warmed up and the bass has developed significantly. I must say that these babies really improve with age, something like a fine red wine. The overall improvement has been remarkable. The huge dynamics, soundstage, and warmth which include crystal clean mids and highs is incredible. If you have a set of 802Ns keep breaking them in...it is worth it! If you don't...RUSH OUT AND BUY A PAIR!!!

Build quality, look, sound

none so far

These speakers have very good resolution without getting annoying on non-audiophile recordings. They don't have the impact of some other speakers in and below this price-range, but you don't have problems in smaller rooms (4x5m in my case). So if you are a fan of impressive effects, these may be not your speakers, but if you want to listen to music, they belong to the best speakers you can buy. In my opinion it's not true that you need a lot of power. I use a pair of Octave MRE120 Tubes and together with the N802 and an ASW 4000 Sub you get a nearly unbeatable combination.
BTW: I have listened to many speakers in different priceranges, but none of them deserves a 1-star rating. They all have their strength and their weekness, but all products of the big companies (and a lot of the small companies) are very professional products today. So if you can't afford to buy them you should not give them a bad rating, especially if the product has the best ratings in professional test-magazines.

Similar Products Used:

Martin Logan, Isophon

Dialog

I auditioned a pair at a local audiophile store and was very disappointed. Most of my test discs were ok but the dialogue in "Ronin" particularly Dieadra(check spelling) was awful. Her voice had a hollow barrel sound. The store had them hooked up to good amps and preamp. The salesman said the hollow sound was intentional since the scene was in a warehouse but when I got back home and played the scene on my home system the hollow sound was extremely slight and I confirmed this by listening with my headphones. I'm beginning to think that listening to dialogue is a more objective test than music because almost every listener is accustomed to listening to every nuance of the sounds of spoken words. After my test discs the salesman insisted on playing a dvd with lots of action and loud sounds which he felt demonstrated the speakers better. Maybe that is what they are for. However I need speakers that will sound good on dialogue and and music and action. Would someone please reply and recommend speakers to me? I have a slight hearing loss and dialogue is the area of sound that I must be able to hear well. I have heard dialogue over Martin Logan Cinema center channel speaker and at this time that is my choice but I do not understand why there are no ML speakers listed in "Recommended Components" by Stereophile Magazine.

Musical, sound stage, focused image, appearance

Poor dealer service

happily lived with this pair for 1.5 years. Found the pair to be very revealing and sensitive to upstream components (every single components in the signal path counts). Every time I changed cables, pre-amp, etc... the differences were very obvious. This may be the reasons for poor review of some. Those of you who has not get the 802N spiked, please try. I did not expected to have big different. I was dead wrong. The sound stage and image has improved. It has tilted up the timbre quite a bit too. I need to find now spot for my speakers as it has changed the way the speakers interact with my rooms. Now it is a bit lean, I plan to move it a bit closer to the rear wall. Would appreciate any advice for speaker placement tips.

Assoc equipments:
CD BAT VK-5D
Pre BAT VK-50se
Power BAT VK60 monoblock -- 1 pair
Interconnect: CD-Pre Alphacore saphire
Pre-Power Taralab
Speakers cable : Alphacore MI (7AWG copper) bi-wired

Similar Products Used:

JM Lab Mezzo Utopia, Revel, Krell