BW Nautilus 802, blow away Nautilus 803


I got to tell you, I heard the BW Nautilus 802 speakers and the BW Nautilus 803 speakers last week. The Nautilus 802 speakers are light years better then the Nautilus 803 speakers. On the 803 speakers, the bass is terrible. It did not blend in at all, with the Yellow Kelvar midrange driver. Also, I felt the 803 speakers were to laid back. Then at the Stereophile show, I heard the Nautilus 802 speakers. The Nautilus 802 speakerssounded incredible. The midrange was amazing. It sounded so sweet and articulate. The bass was fast and tight. I also notice, the Nautilus 802 and Nautilus 803 speakers use a different crossover. On the 802 speakers, the 2 8 inch woofers basically act as subs and send the bass to the yellow midrange driver. You will notice, if you put your ears to the 802 speakers, all the sound basically comes out of the Yellow midrange driver. No sound comes out of the 2 8 inch woofers on the Nautilus 802 speakers. On the 803 speakers, the 2 6 1/2 woofers do not act as subs. They crossed it over, where you hear the midrange come out of the yellow midrange driver and you will hear bass come out of one of the 6 1/2 drivers. So it sounded like bass coming out of one of the 6 1/2 drivers and all the mids coming out of the Yellow midrange driver. I didn't like this type of crossover. The speaker sounded awkward. I like it on the the 802 speakers, where the bass and midrange come out of the Yellow midrange driver. It sounded much better like that. See i dont like it, where speakers use a woofer, where you just hear bass out of it. When i say, you hear just bass out of it. Lets say you play a song with singing and you put your ears to the woofers, you will just hear bass. You wont hear any singing or the midrange. Only bass comes out of the woofer. I like it, when the woofer acts as a sub, or sometimes, where you willhear bass and midrange come out of the woofer. I used to have these Canton Ergo 81 speakers. They used 2 8 inch woofers in a MTM design. You would basically hear bass and the mids coming out of each 8 inch woofer.This speaker sounded nice. Now if the woofer was bigger then 8 inches, like a 10 or 12 inch woofer. I wouldn't want the mids to come out of it. Another speaker that uses the same type of crossover as the BW Nautilus 803 speakers is the Legacy Focus. The Focus speakers uses 3 12 inch woofers at the bottom of the speakers, with 2 midranges and 2 tweeters at the top of the speakers. They basically had it, where the 12 inch woofers just have bass come out of them. No mids or singing come out of it, while all the midrange comes out of the midrange drivers at the top. As I was listening to the Focus, it was so obvious, the bass didn't blend it at all, with the midrange drivers at the top. I just think, when you have the woofers, just have bass come out of it, while all the mids come out of the midrange drivers, the speakers don't sound coherent. The bass doesn't blend in with the midrange drivers at the top. Legacy should have had it, where the 12 inch woofers act as subs, and send the bass to the midrange drivers at the top. That way, the bass would have blended in so much better, then the way the Legacy did it. Another speaker who does this type of crossover, like the BW Nautilus 803 and the Legacy Focus, is the Energy Veritas 2.8. I just don't like this type of crossover, where they have the woofers, just act as bass.
doug99
Come over to my place and I'll let you listen to what a pair of 6 1/2 inch woofers can do. I have Matrix 802 S3's and they put out PLENTY of great deep bass. When I first pulled the grills off I was surprised as hell that they were not 8 inchers. The problem with a bigger woofer is that you have to increase the width of the enclosure. This can wreck havoc with imaging by having a wide baffle. I think my crossover points are very similar to the Nautilus series and believe me there is alot of sound coming from those woofers.
The smaller drivers are quicker to respond. Two 6 1/2 drivers give you more surface area than one 10 inh. There are a lot of real good designs around this concept. Bigger is definately not allways better ( in this case ) unless you are still in high school crankin out the loud stuff with no regard for fidelity. Maybe you should write to B&W and tell them where they whent wrong with the design.
Maybe off topic a little, but I have owned N804's and 802S3's and would like to add the following. I have never really like the depth of bass on any B&W I have owned. I do however like their bass punchiness and taughtness. That is what you gain with the additional smaller bass drivers. The N802 and N801, at least to me, are huge physically, financially, and just plain overwhelming in every aspect.

Probably the best B&W sound attainable is by getting N805 or Matrix 805 and a decent subwoofer. This way placement is not hindered by them being in the same cabinet (Bass I mean) and the bass is fully countourable to the listeners taste by the volume switch. There are inherent advantages and disadvantages in every design but B&W does very well.

Then other negative about N802 and N803 is their need for serious power in the amplifier. This gets costly, and does seem to make a big difference.
I owned the N804 for a year the N803 for another year and just got my N802 two days ago I never felt that any of them were lacking in bass I powered them all with a aragon 8008bb. I would say that each time that I spent the cash I hoped it would be worth the upgrade and it has the 803 just improved on the 804s but the 802's they arent even broken in yet and they are so far ahead of the 803's I cant believe it they are just so much more!! more depth, clarity ,bass, detail , warmth . It really amazes me how they can be so much better.
Good luck with the 802's Devan. I hope to have a pair of my own, but need to find a bigger place to live first. My 805's will have to do for now. Have you ever heard the 802's as fronts, with the 805's in the rear? I have been wondering what that sounds like. Should be impressive considering how good my 805's with a REL Strata III sound.