B&W Nuatilus

I had a longer post which seems to have disappeared. So my last post was too brief. To explain, I listened to Opera $10,000 speakers with a diamond tweeter, tubed amp. This was a fantastic speaker for a studio monitor. Extremely analytical and made mincemeat out of many of my favorite recordings. At the time I thought "this is great for use in a studio but not when listening to anything less than a perfect recording".
The dealer, of course, was enthusiastic about the speaker saying it was "tactile" meaning you could reach out and touch the singer, vocals were so realistic. Even better than Thiel and without the dispersion / integration problems of a ribbon tweeter so as Levinson's Rosebud of Proac Future speakers. Which was totally true IF the recording was perfect. For those of us who want to listen to their favorite music, not just "audiophile" recordings these speakers were not practical.
So forgive me for jumping the gun, I just saw diamond tweeter and assumed B&W is taking the studio monitor to the next level while leaving music lovers behind. Isn't this what diamond tweeters are famous for? B&W makes great speakers, as good as anyone. I was disappointed because, to my taste, B&W speakers are already bright and detailed enough; so I was really hoping they would choose a more realistic voicing for their speakers. It appears B&W thinks otherwise.
It was interesting to read Paul Bolin's (I think) review of the $8,200 McIntosh amps. He said something about making his head hurt trying to see how the Mac's lack of detail detracted anything from his listening enjoyment compared to Halcro's super detailed amp. So for music listening how much detail is necessary? Studio monitors are a different story, of course.

Well, first, just because the diamond tweeter was implemented in one way and resulted in a particular result, it is hard to predict that different tweeter implemented by another design team will give the same outcome. B&W did acknowledge that there had been an earlier diamond tweeter design. Frankly, I see no reason to make presumptions in advance of an audition.

Second, I do not necessarily equate detail with brightness although excessive brightness can unnaturally emphasize details. Personally, I want all the details but 'au natural' and not at the expense of accurate tonal balance.

Kal

Is there any reason why "THEATERMAX" is bashing B&W ,especially the natalius speaker line, saying that B&W is going to discontued them? I have not heard anything about "discontinued" only replacing their drivers. Can anyone else elaborate more ? There is a ad on audiogon from "theatermax" about this.

There are plenty of people that 'like' to bash B&W, for whatever reason. B&W is not discontinuing the Nautilus line but rather they revamped the whole line, more than just replacing drivers; available mid-January 2005.

Armandito
They are not discontinuing the Nautilus line.They are revamping the line up.This means that there are even more models in the line up than before.The current models are replaced however with D and s models.Not the same as the current Nautilus range.Old N805 not the same as the N805s-slight differences.Two 803's now the N803D and the N803s.
I do however feel that the price increases on certain models are excessive.For research ??
Friend of mine just bought old N802 speakers for a bargain.Good time for used buyers to watch out for bargains.
Even more so at the beginning of next year.
Good luck
Chris