B W Nautilus 805

The 805s are more adept at revealing the quality of the electronics and source material than most speakers. They have excellent build quality and an examination of the internal components of the tweeter assembly and woofer enclosure reveal excellent quality and value. The crossover is concealed in the heat dissipation plate on the bottom. The sound quality is exceptional. They do not prodiuce much bass below 50-60hZ.

Nice midrange. Nice imaging. Could do better.

For me, although good, the B&Ws sound kind of dry and analytical, lack bass, and are very picky in terms of amplification. I A/Bd them with the Soliloquy 5.0s that cost half as much and I thought they embarassed the 805s, even without considering the price differential. Speakers are, more than any other component, an individual preference affair, but I think B&W's hype far outweighs its performance in terms of pure musicality. Best of luck.

Tim

Thanks to everyone!

The Nautilus are as neutral as any speaker on this planet. What that means is that what you hear out of them is the character of your source and your amplification. I have heard all the Nautilus speakers and they sound completely different with different source/amplification combos. The 805's are not good value unless you have world beating (in terms of absolute performance, not value) source/amplification, in which case it is a must audition in the bookshelf category. Do not buy these for your Rotel CD/amplifier combo; do get them for your Wadia/Mark Levinson.