B&W Nautilus 803 & 804 Vs The World

tburk,if you love the 804's stay with them. in audio as in life bigger is not better. balance rules. if your room is large go bigger, if not use your money on cables. i have a simple style. if you can achieve the sound you love with as few components as possible then do it! i found heaven with the mark levinson #383 intergrated giving the n804's and my ears all they can handle. my next venture is to find a one box cd player without a preamp or volume control. any opinions would be greatly appreciated. i am thinking electrocompaniet emc-1. peace and good listening.

Interesting concept. I have only a No. 39 directly into the 334. It's wonderful, and your idea of simplicity is a good one. Thanks for the ideas. I do have pretty good cables too - Synergy Research - though I have only compared them with one other set. I am considering adding a pre-amp to give me the flexibility of having a tuner and tape.

Tburk,

Synergy is very good. I wouldn't go further. Sounds like you have it together. Unless you want a turn table, there are plenty of great line level pre-amps out there. Trust your ears. I don't know what your budget is, but as your cables state, Synergy is important. Find a good Levinson on audiogon. Peace and good listening. psjulian

I have decided against a turntable, as I have very little vinyl, and with the no. 39, I believe, at least to my ears, the "digital problem" has been largely solved. For the first time, when I first heard the No. 39/No. 334/N804 together, I did not hear "digital" on my cd's. I completely agree with reviewers who say they hear all their old cd's in a new way. I hear the same things on my favorites especially. For now, the decision is between a pre-amp or upgrading speakers to 802. As far a budget goes, I blew that away when I heard Levinson/B&W combination for the first time! The sound was that good (to my ears).

I would also like to add that when I first auditioned Nautilus speakers, I could not detect the difference between the 803 and 804.