B & W 805 Nautilus with SET........

It was Wavac 300B, not Wavelength 300B. Sorry!

I'm using Cary 300SE Signature to drive a pair of B&W N805 now. I auditioned a pair of Merlin VSM-M with B-BAM driven by Wavelength 300B one year ago and don't remember any dynamic compression or loss of definition of low-frequency instruments. I think it depends on output transformers. I did find using 8-Ohm tap will lose the definition of low-frequency instruments but earn more detail of mid and high frequency. I also tried Forte 4A and found it did make N805 sound more alive and excellent dynamic. However, I still want to live with SET. I know a tweak to make N805 easier to drive- adjusting the position of the foams behind the woofer so that both of the foams do not block the back wave of the woofer that much. I just ordered a pair of Signature 805s which are supposed to be easier to drive as woofer crossovers are first-order.

Check out deHavilland amps.... set using 845 and put out 36 watts into 4 ohms... they test their amps with B&W's.... wonderful sound using octal tubes.... email them and see what they have to say... I love mine powering Sonus... which are higher efficiency but this might be what you're looking for and much cheaper on the tube end of it.....
Chuck

Tried teh Bel Canto SET40 that puts out realistic ~35w/ch with N805. The sound was thin and compressed. I have had better luck with Merlin TSM-M with the same amp although both N805 and TSM-M have similar sensitivity rating.

The N805s, for that matter all the Nautilus series speaker, needs lots of juice... to shine.

Ki

As long as you really don't need loud, they may be ok. But you definitely will not get loud. And the impedance is not ideal for a SET, because it drops down to 4.6 ohms, even though it is rated at 8 ohms.

So I would say that it would not be on my short list, for speakers that would go with a SET amp.