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Jolida and B&W Nautilus 805

Has any one had any experience with Jolida tube amps driving B&W Nautilus 805s? I've tried to read up on this in the forums and find two facts:

1. The Nautilus series likes high-powered solid-state amps.
2. Using a single-ended design is not recommended.

Jolida amps are not single-ended, but push-pull designs. My question is, would one of these amps (e.g. JD 202A w/ 40W output) be enough to drive this speaker pair nicely? Or do I need a higher powered model? How much power would be enough? Finally, do you recommend any other tube integrated amplifiers (or solid state) for this speaker pair instead? My budget for amplification (including pre) is $2000.

Thanks for any help!
lennychen

Showing 2 responses by gthirteen

gthirteen
358 posts
 
I have had great luck with The Electro-Harmonix tubes.
I own a set of their el-34s that I stick in my Rogue from time to time. It is Auto Bias, and set up for the bigger bottles, and I know that the little 34s are being run hard, but it's a nice change, from time to time.

Good luck!- and try a nice aftermarket PC for a little more oomph.
gthirteen
358 posts
 
Hey Joe!

I have to disagree with Trelja, but with a Caveat:

I owned the 805 for quite a while, and drove them well with 30 push-pull triode watts from a Rogue Tempest, and a Cary SLI-80 sig, I had great results, but with 6550 or kt-88 tubes.

The el-34, while having a beautiful midrange, just wimps out on the bass.

I'd rather have a fuller bottom end, and use line-level tubes to get the midrange sound (or as close as you can).

I know Trelja loves the el34, and perhaps the reportedly excellent bass response of most all totems is probably a good match.

IF you are going to try to drive the 805s with el-34s, you're probably not going to get the bass that you want.

IF you try some 6550/kt88 tubes, at the expense of some of the midrange magic, you might get a fuller sound, plus a little more juice.
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