B&W Nautilus 803 & 804 Vs The World

there's a lot of better speakers for the money. value is low when its B&W. cheaper & better are maggies & vandys. much better for similar money are merlins. from 50hz to 20k, nothing sounds better than merlins IMHO. (look at some of the frequency response charts. you'll be hard pressed to find flatter response than merlins.) rhyno

Can one judge a speaker's performance by its frequency response alone ? Does a flat response from 50 Hz to 20 KHz imply that it is a good speaker ?

I listened to the N803's and thought they sounded good. Then right after to the N802's and the difference was tremendously better in favor of the N802. The N802's are more revealing and have better bass extension plus the styling makes quite a visual statement.

yes, if it can stay flat throughout the freq range, you've likely (but not necessarily) got a fine speaker on your hand. speakers shoudl not distort. anything other than a linear response is distortion.

I thought that the Joseph Audio rm25si's had a nicer sound than the 804's, and were less expensive too!