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Moving from B&W 802 Nautilus to 800 Nautilus ??

I currently own B&W 802 Nautilus speakers and have the opportunity to move up to the 800N. I assume this is a no brainer but have not had the opportunity to hear the 800's in person.
My main concern is that some have described the 800 Nautilus as a lean sounding and bright speaker. I DO NOT hear that from my 802's and would assume the 800 is fuller and deeper in the bottom end, not lighter> Anyone had the opportunity to do a side-by side?
I have BAT 51 pre, Esoteric X03 cd and ML 436 monos on the front end of the 802's.
Please help !!
Thanks,
Bill
billandsol

Showing 1 response by audioquest4life

audioquest4life
778 posts
 
I have both speakers, the older N800's and the 802's. Driven by a variety of electronics. I have never thought these speakers, 800's or 802's to sound bright and lean. I know electronics play a big part of speaker matching. I have been successfull with German electronics from Octave, a pair of 140 watt tube mono amps on the 800's sounds incredible. I use the 802's with a Sunfire home theater receiver and they sound great as well. I used to drive the 800's with a pair of Bryston 4BSST's and that was a great experience as well. Before that, I had two sets of Soundcraftsman A5001 amplifiers, 20 plus years old, driving the 800's with no problems. One of the Soundcraftsman ended up with a German collector of vintage hifi. Anyway, if you get the electronics right, you will hear great music with these speakers. I believe many others who have had bad listening experiences did not have matched electronics with these speakers. Try them on your system and validate it yourself.

Good luck,
Ciao,
Audioquest4life
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