The N803 was on my short list of four differant speakers
when I was shopping for new speakers. The others were the 2.5's Totem Mani II, and Sonus Faber Grand Piano.
After listening to all of them numerous times it was still hard to decide. One thing that I came to realise is that
each dealor had a lot of experiance with their product and
learned what it took to get an optimum performance from it. Something that is not necessarily going to follow me
home with any of the four choices.
I could have been happy with any of them had I owned the same gear they were useing in the showroom, which was not the case. Not to mention the spacious, and tuned listening rooms at the dealorships as well.
Bringing them home for a trial is the key here I think for
you, other wise you may find buying new ProAcs a mistake.
Haveing said that, I preferred the ProAcs over the N803 as they are musical and involveing and very relaxing if you will. Simular to the differance between tubes and solid state gear. Not as much resolution, but with a very nice midrange, that is colder, and not as sweet with the N803.
For me it finally came down to the 2.5, and the Mani II, I
bought the ProAc's. They never sounded as good as at the
dealorship(who was useing Cary tube gear), but I never gave the Nautilus speakers another thought after my purchase.
One last note, the ProAcs absolutly need a break in when
brand spankin new, mine took quite a while to mature as I
am an infrequent listener.
Charlie
