AMP for 804 Nautilus

proceed hpa-2

Hi
I brought the Nautilus 804’s to local dealer and tried:
-Classe 201 and cav-150 = good
-Aragon 8008bb = good
-Bryston 5BST = good
-McIntosh mc7201 (?) = fair
(grade are in order) they carry Conrad Johnson but hadn’t try out.
Went home with Moon W5 ($3550 + Tax) list around $4600. Sound quality so amazing and everything is magical with Moon W3 or W5
Good Luck
Don

Is proceed amp kind of bright for the nautilus. I really like the warm tube sound.

Is the moon amp in the warm sound. I really like the classe 201 because of the warm and smooth but afraid does not have enough punch at the low bass end, that what the 804 is lacking.

Recently auditioned the 804 with Classe amp ... very nice to my ears. Try a tube front end with a good solid state amp? If you like it, buy it. If you don't like it go elsewhere. If you're really into the toob sound, the N804 will reveal the difference between eletronics in an almost ruthless fashion. Garbage in, garbage out. Take your time and trust your own ears.

Proceed's not known as bright, I think that's Krell (but that aint an invitation for a flame war, if its wrong just say so) Proceed is good clean but dry power. Pretty neutral--described as gray in color sometimes. No added jingle. But there is a lot of it, wide and deep.

Classe has the juicy warm musical sound from what I remember.

Cant go wrong with Bryston-they're solid. I ran McCormack for a long time, similar to Bryston. Less expensive than Bryston in the aftermarket too. Very nice amp.

If I didn't already have the Proceed, I'd probly be getting a Bryston cause their so manly, or try the moon cause of all the good I've heard about it. But if you really like tube sound, look at tube amps, not these solid state's.

I'll add a vote for the Proceed HPA2. Definately not bright, and lots of power.

Dbui1 Did you try the Bryston 4B ST, when you brought your speaker and try it on with the Bryston did it sound kind of bright for you. I liked Bryston amp also I think it is the best amp outhere for the price but afraid it is too bright for the Nautilus in the HF, really like the bass those. If you can let me know i really appreciate that.

I used to work for a high-end dealer who tried lots of amps that didn't work. Finally found that Primare(from Scandinavia) finally was able to open them up. Their stuff is relatively new to the U.S. so may be hard to find, but it's very attractive and built like a brick craphouse. I've since moved and have recently been to another well-resepected high-end store who also coincidentally found Primare to be a particularly good match for B&W. On a relative scale it's also priced attractively. Best of luck.
Tim

I have the 804's. I first had them paired with c-j. But something was missing. The sound was pretty but lacking. I auditioned them with a Mac solid state and also with the c-j. Not until I lived with them for awhile did this start to bother me. I am lucky to have friends in this hobby. After borrowing several amps and living with them did I find the right combo. The 804's love good solid state with resonable power. I went with the Mark Levinson #383. Boy does this combo sing. If your budget can handle it go for it. I also found a very good amp at a lower price, the Densen DM-10. Very good with the 804's. Peace and good listening.

Psjulian,

I heard a lot of good thing regarding ML with the nautilus,
Is ML sound neutral to the warm?
Thanks

Goone30; I don't know if I would call it warm, but it just get's it right. I'm in the process of up-grading my CD player and I have the luxury to borrow some good CDP's. With every combo I have tried the ML#383 and the N804's made all those who loaned me their players want to go out and up-grade their system. It always sounded right. Like music and not like HI-FI. So I guess you could call it neutral. The player I have now is a real sleeper. I have the Sony CDPXA20ES. It sound's great. The players I have auditioned were the AudioNote 2 (I do not know the exact number) tube output player, very nice but not worth the extra bucks over the Sony. Then I tried the Meridian 506.20, same thing again not worth the extra cash. The player I would like to hear on my system is the Electrocompaniet EMC-1. I am in no hurry to jump on the new hi-rez bandwagon because I believe they are going to push multi tracking down your throat and I am not going down that road. My system is simple and my room is totally tricked out for two channel and sounds wonderful. I don't want nor do I need the extra speakers and besides there is a recording outfit doing CD's right by recording direct with no compression or fancy EQ, just the music as is. With the range of human hearing and no monkey business by the engineers CD may just be coming on. Sorry for getting on my soap box. But any help on CD players only would help. Thanks. Peace and good listening.

Psjulian, I am using Rotel RCD991 I bought about 3 months ago and love it I compared with Classe and Krell and for the money it is very good buy.

Let's keep it simple...

The logical upgrade from the B&K 7250 is the Bryston: perhaps two of the new 6B-STs (3x250); with these, you can provide exceptional power to the fronts (2 mains & Center) and the rear 3: this also provides the opportunity to put the rear-speaker amp closer to the speakers: a longer digital cable, shorter analog cable. This arrangement provides much more power to the speakers.

I really like the Bryston and audition it right now but afraid it might be too bright for the B&W speaker I think they are the best amp for the price.