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Re: B&W Nautilus 804 - review posted

Posted by John Ashman (D) on October 31, 2004 at 11:23:34

In Reply to: Re: B&W Nautilus 804 - review posted posted by chocolate_lover9999@yahoo.com on October 31, 2004 at 11:01:46:

Well, I'll keep it to stuff I don't sell and have heard:

1. PSB Stratus Goldis - A little dated, but smooth, powerful, dynamic. Lacking mainly in resolution and have more soundstage than precision imaging, but are an exceptional pure R&R speaker.

2. Paradigm Studio 100s (V1/V2) - Dynamic and detailed sounding. A little bright, but good construction and good integration. A good alternative to B&Ws as they're a better value, but have a similar sound, but not as pronounced and far more accurate.

3. Thiel CS2.3 - These have probably topped $3K by now, but I believe they came out under $3K originally and seem to rise in price every year. Or is that the 2.4 now? Anyway, groovy if not terribly deep bass, excellent soundstage and imaging. A little thin in the lower midrange, but they do have some superb characteristics not found in some other high-end speakers. Not good for high volume listening though as they get shrill at high volumes as the limitations of the 1st order crossover becomes apparent.

That's all I can think of off hand. I'm sure I'm missing something obvious, but it's not coming to me. To be honest, I'm out in BF SouthWest where there's not much good competition to listen to. One of the things that I see that is screwed up is the trend towards smaller, peakier, more midbassy drivers instead of good single large woofers that do well at low frequencies. It just doesn't make sense to use a 6" driver for a midrange and then 2 or 3 6" drivers for bass. 2.5-way designs also don't make sense. 8" is the bare minimum size for a woofer in a 3-way design, but 10" or 12" typically is better. The incredible shrinking woofer(s) has more to do with making a speaker easier to sell than actually sounding better. Women like small, narrow cabinets. The woofers on the B&W N804/N803 are too small and compromised. The woofer on the N801 is too big and was marketing driven. The N802/N800 actually make sense for the midrange.

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