Best Small Speaker NOT B&W's 805N?


We auditioned B&W's Nautilus 805's in our living room and they sounded great. Unfortunately, my wife doesn't like the aesthetic styling of the B&W's and would prefer a more tradional looking box. We'd like to listen to some alternatives before making our final choice and would appreciate some help. Our living room is sonically awkward, because it is large and very bright. The windows and the furniture are situated to take advantage of some lovely views; but this makes speaker placement difficult. Still, we can create a quite nice near-field listening environment so long as the speakers we use are roughly the size of the B&W 805N's. We listen mostly to jazz, particularly piano and vocal. We would appreciate suggestions for 'best' speakers that are similar in size to the B&W's but with a more traditional look to them. Thanks in advance for your help! Kurt ield . look of the tweeter sitting on top of the box We have a living room in which the furniture layout prohibits anythin auditioned the B&W 805 Nautilus y wife and I
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I just saw a photo of the new JM Lab Micro Utopia on enjoythemusic.com Go to CES 2000 advance report.
This is one of my favorite bookshelf speakers. The Chario Academy 2 speakers from 1992. They use a 6 1/2 midbase and the Tweeter. I saw someone selling them for 2000 dollars on Audiogon. These speakers look and sound great. My friend has these speakers. The person selling them, his email address is lulubell@strato.net Here's a pic of them. http://www.strato.net/~lulubell/chr1.jpg
If you are still looking for a more conventional speaker that sounds like the B&W Nautilus 805, try the speaker that it relaced in the B&W line, the Matrix 805. The sound is very similar, if slightly less efficient. The Matrix 805 looks like a conventional bookshelf speaker with a tweeter on top. You can still find some old dealer demos around, and you may find used ones for about $800 a pair. The appearance of the Nautilus is much more exotic, but the sound is very close. You can find information on the Matrix 805 on the B&W website at: http://www.bwspeakers.com/800/805.html
I have owned a pair of B&W 805 matrix speaker for quite a while. If you are still searching for your speakers, I have not heard anything that reproduces the voice as well as these do for the price. I run these speakers with a Proceed Amp 2 directly from my cd player. I have tried a number of tube preamps and solid state preamps with this combo. I you are still interested, look for a pair of used 805 matrix. They'll be a good deal. The B&W CDM1 sound very similiar for even less money. I'd also recommend listening to a pair of Proacs, but these are more money and I would recommend listing to a pair of Meadowlark Kestrels. The Kestrels are great speaker for the money.
Before you buy...Soliliquy 5.0's. Gorgeous! Sound incredible...blows B&W 805's, Aerial 5's away!! I've auditioned all 3...check out Soliliquy!