Everything, looks, sound, quality.

Clueless people buy them.

What can I say, these speakers Rock. Stevie Ray never sounded so good. The clarity is phenomenal. All my CD’s sound great. My brother and his wife came over, I loaded the Stevie Ray and they were floored. They thought I was crazy for buying these monsters, but now they understand. Fleetwood Mac, Rumors, excellent, I was never aware of all the background sounds that are going on in that CD. I haven’t gotten my Universal player yet, but I’m sure SACD and DVD-A will blow me away. Bill says his ears hurt, he’s probably listening to the music to loud. The problem with some people who are not familiar with High End equipment is that they don’t realize that you can keep turning up the volume and you will not get distortion, like they would with their old stuff. With the old equipment, you could turn it up until it stopped sounding good, that was your limit, with the N802’s there is no limit, so I think Bill needs to sell his N802’s because he’s going to go deaf waiting for distortion and muddiness to tell him to turn it down. The high end is smooth and accurate. Mid-range is rich creating an excellent soundstage image. Low-end is tight without boominess or muddy qualities. I recommend good clean power. I’m driving with the 55txi and the Classe 301. I tried them with and without the 301 and can definitely tell the difference. But don’t worry, you’ll have great listening even without the 301. But adding the power will pay off!!

Everything, looks, sound, quality.

Clueless people buy them.

What can I say, these speakers Rock. Stevie Ray never sounded so good. The clarity is phenomenal. All my CD’s sound great. My brother and his wife came over, I loaded the Stevie Ray and they were floored. They thought I was crazy for buying these monsters, but now they understand. Fleetwood Mac, Rumors, excellent, I was never aware of all the background sounds that are going on in that CD. I haven’t gotten my Universal player yet, but I’m sure SACD and DVD-A will blow me away. Bill says his ears hurt, he’s probably listening to the music to loud. The problem with some people who are not familiar with High End equipment is that they don’t realize that you can keep turning up the volume and you will not get distortion, like they would with their old stuff. With the old equipment, you could turn it up until it stopped sounding good, that was your limit, with the N802’s there is no limit, so I think Bill needs to sell his N802’s because he’s going to go deaf waiting for distortion and muddiness to tell him to turn it down. The high end is smooth and accurate. Mid-range is rich creating an excellent soundstage image. Low-end is tight without boominess or muddy qualities. I recommend good clean power. I’m driving with the 55txi and the Classe 301. I tried them with and without the 301 and can definitely tell the difference. But don’t worry, you’ll have great listening even without the 301. But adding the power will pay off!!

Well designed high quality loudspeaker

For its price, none

I purchased my pair approximately 6 months ago. Before I settled on the N802's, I purchased and/or auditioned at least 20 different brands of loudspeakers. Paradigm, Definitive Technology, Martin Logan, Vienna Acoustics , Sonus Faber, Revel, Thiel, Boston Acoustics, Vandersteen, Bose, JBL, Polk, etc. I did not audition everything out there, as it is difficult to find stores that sell every speaker manufactured. I wanted speakers that played loud and played well sonically. Few speakers could match this bill. The N802's were the best that I heard at this price range. B&W recommends that an amplifier of 500 wpc be used. That is what is needed to truely drive these speakers. On the other hand, an amp. with less power (200 wpc, for example) could drive these speakers very well, but it would have to be of high quality. B&W recommends that an amp. has a 2:1 ratio. Meaning, when looking at power output, an amp that, for example, provides 400 wpc @ 4 ohms, and 200 wpc @ 8 ohms. Thus, the 2:1 ratio is calculated using the 4 ohm rating, first, followed by the 8 ohm rating. The closer an amp. is to this 2:1 ratio, the better. However, if you look at amplifier specs., you will see that amps. with this 2:1 ratio are expensive. Examples are Mark Levinson, Krell, and Pass Labs, to name a few. I drive my N802's with a new Bryston 14B SST. It's power rating is not 2:1, but it is rated at 600 wpc @ 8 ohms and 900 wpc @ 4 ohms. However, the Bryston is significantly cheaper than a Mark Levinson amp, with similar current output. The Bryston does a fine job at driving the N802's, and I am completely happy with the N802's. Good, solid, clear highs. Lifelike midrange, and tight bass. Voices are superb with these loudspeakers. Treble is outstanding! No, there is no throbbing, boomy bass with these speakers. They are accurate and the two 8" woofers do an admirable job at the low end. Remember, the 802's do not play down to 20 hz (lowest frequency heard by human beings), and I found that a good subwoofer played at a medium to low level rounds out the bass. I have found that few loudspeakers can truely reproduce loud, deep and accurate bass at less than $10,000/pair. Either there is not enough or it is too boomy. In my opinion, superb bass is dificult to achieve with drivers smaller than 10 inches. Bass is also a function of cabinet size. Generally, the larger the cabinet, the deeper the bass. Even though the 802's are relatively large loudspeakers, they are not large enough, in my opinion, to reproduce deep, powerful, tight bass, with the 8" drivers. The key is "tight" bass. I have heard speakers costing $1500 emit powerful bass, but it is "boomy" bass. In addition, to reproduce the deep, tight, powerful bass, you are going to need a powerful amplifier, in excess of 150-200 wpc, if you want to play at reasonably loud levels without the amp. going into clipping. A "receiver" is not going to cut it when driving the N802's. In conclusion, the N802's are the finest loudspeakers that I have heard, given it s price. To achieve better sonic quality, you would have to spend in excess of $10,000/pair.

Similar Products Used:

JBL, Paradigm, Definitive Technology, Martin Logan, Vandersteen, Polk, Bose, Revel, Thiel, Sonus Faber, Vienna Acoustics, Boston Acoustics, Magnepan, and the junk not worth mentioning

If you can afford the price everything. However at this price one must consider that there is fair number of alternative choices from $3000 north. Be careful with your components.

Price.

Bill, Audiophile and Bose, a very scary and impossible combination. Please have your hearing checked.

Similar Products Used:

Sonus Faber, Paradigm Reference, Monitor Audio, Martin Logan

Wood finish

Treble and midrange projection

I've been trying to live with these speakers for almost a year now. They just plain hurt my ears. I like dynamics and sound stage. The pink noise is too exagerated. I toed in the speaker and turned my chair sideways, but the soundstage did not improve. My receiver worked well with my Bose speakers. There seem to be a problem with the bass. It sounds fuzzy with weak harmonics.

I auditioned those speakers at a local dealer. I do not own them. They were hooked up to a $4k McIntosh preamp and a $4k McIntosh amp. I had the opportunity to audition the 803s in that and some other stores as well. I was quite disappointed. I went to the store with the intention to buy B&W, I just was not sure which model. After what I heard, I still cannot believe the hype about those speakers. First, there is something wrong with the bass. I do not know what it is, some find it weak, some find it adequate but whatever it is, the bass is not right. The midbass is not right either: acoustic guitar did not show enough dynamics. Next, those speakers completely fail to create a good soundstage, considering the price and size. They sounded somewhat compressed, at high volume they were clearly overloaded. There are much better speakers at this price (McIntosh LS340 or LS350, for example). To their defense, the B&Ws are not the worst heavily advertised speakers for the price, I found the Dynaudio’s to be even more unlistenable. Not everything is bad with those speakers, with not so complex or dynamical music and at moderate volume levels, they can sound good. Among the reviews of the B&Ws and you will read too often something like: “those speakers will make your bad records sound even worse”. Well, this is another way of saying that they fail too often when your old speakers, costing 5 times less did not such a poor job. Sorry for the linguistic errors above; as you have guessed it by now, English is not my first language.

Workmanship

Sound

I’ve owned these speakers for 2 years now. I was hoping to keep these speakers for the rest of my life, but I’ve decided that I can’t live with these anymore. They just don’t have the clarity and detail that I’m looking for. I like a nice smooth midrange, but these speakers don’t deliver the goods. My old Polk speakers sound better on my receiver. The bass is very week and so is the soundstage. I tried turning the bass and treble knobs, plus I pushed the speakers up against the wall. But the bass is still weak.

Similar Products Used:

Polk, Sony, Pioneer

Sound stage, quality of construction (this stuff is built like high end furniture with a fit and finish that is second to none)

None, well maybe that they are very heavy and are hard to move long distances. Get a special dolly to mitigate this weakness. Oh, don't forget to cover your dolly with you finest terry cloth so you won't scratch these babies.

I have listened to a long list of loudspeakers including Revel, Definitive and more. All or these speakers have there good and bad qualities. Obviously it is all in what the individual listener prefers. Under no circumstances would I rate any of these high-end products a “1”. If anyone listens to a speaker system in this price range and thinks it sounds bad enough to rate it that low, check your ears for excessive wax or take a decongestant and listen again. My evaluation is that the N802 are as close to the perfect sound that I could find. Some of the most difficult recordings I could challenge them with were reproduced without effort. The high end is smooth and accurate without any sharp metallic like qualities. Mid-range is rich creating an excellent soundstage image. Low-end is tight without boominess or muddy qualities. I will say that I believe all speaker systems should have a subwoofer to assist in the very low-end, but with the N802’s, this purchase can wait. I used this forum to get opinions from others about equipment and found it very helpful on the electronics side of purchasing. Speakers are a sensitive purchase. I want to thank the many reviewers who truly criticized the N802’s and found that they would worth the effort of a private audition. Those of you that rated these speakers poorly, you should be ashamed of yourselves, unless you just wanted to keep this quality a secret. If you are looking for speakers in this price range, you must audition the N802’s. However, I will warn you; these units will help you locate the weak link in your system. You should be running the best amplification you can afford. In addition, I would recommend a minimum of 200 watts/channel.

Similar Products Used:

B&W Nautilus HTM1 (Center) B&W Nautilus SCM1 (Rear) Martin Logan Descent Subwoofer Denon DVD-2900 McIntosh MX134 A/V Control Center McIntosh MC206 6-Channel Power Amplifier McIntosh MC402 2-Chan

Construction, Erganomics, Big time Lookers. Heavy speakers period.

Long break in period and they will expose any equiptment flaws.

Well it has been almost a year since I made my purchase and the sound only gets better. I recently repositioned them further apart and turned them in a tad towards the center of the room and wow what a deference it made. I am using a Sim Audio W-5 Amp and Integra Research Preamp RDC-7. I am in heaven with the Nautilus BMW 802's, HTM1 Center and 805 rears. Pure beatifull, crisp, dynamic, full, radiant sound. They require alot of time to break in, and proper gear is a must. Otherwise you will here cheap equiptment or good equiptment. I am curretly using JPS FX biwire cables and balanced interconects.

Similar Products Used:

Dynaudio, PSB, and Martin Logan.

No match for the price. Almost dissapear.

Well I don´t think it is a weaknesses.But here we go: Will show you how bad your gear is. Needs power even in low volume.

Well..... many people below sad bad things about this beauties. After a long time with them and a lot of tries with eletronics I just can say one thing: You can´t find a match for the price. The main thing you have to worry with is power, they play bad with amps with low power, distorsion is what you get. Don´t think in less than 200w/ch. So if you think they can´t play, you wrong, you get fair sound from them with almost any amp (92db), but you will only get volume not magic. For them to do magic you need power. I actually listen in low volume, but they started to dissapear when I double my amp.

Similar Products Used:

B&W 803, Dynaudio, Martin Logan aerus.