Nautilus owners upgrade to what?

I own the 805's and LM1's, have heard the n804, 803,802,801 and the 800's.The 800's are one of the elite group of great speakers. That said, if I went shopping with a big budget, I'd pop for the Avalon Eidelon's. Both brands convey the emotion of the performers. The main difference to me is that B&W focuses on maintaining the most solid center image possible, while Avalon gives a much wider soundstage. The 800's might have the edge in the bass region, but then I haven't heard the Eidelon Diamonds yet, so that may not be a factor. Sometimes people just want a change, kind of like getting a Jaguar after 8 years of driving Mercedes. The Audio Physic Avanti III is impressive also.

I don't know the figure now, but, a few years ago 80% of all classical music was mastered on B&W speakers. Therefore, all else being somewhat equal, the B&W's will generally sound closer to what the engineer heard than with other speakers.
Of course, this is only important if you are REALLY trying to reproduce live music in your sound room. Many audiophiles are more interested in other aspects of stereo, whether they admit it or not.
Like many of us, I have been involved in the pursuit of perfection for many (~40) years. B&W is my choice. The only other system that I have heard that got it right was the big Cello system with the $25K equilizer. Since the Cello system cost about $200K, it was out of my price range.

Richard

I own 805's and I love them, but that said I might go Pro ac with my next upgrade. Or even Joseph Audio. I've heard good sound from all three. It really depends. The only thing that has ever bothered me about B&W is the power requirments of the speakers. My room is not that large and I've found a minium of 250 watts to wake them up.
Good Luck,

I owned a pair of N803's and recently sold them to go back to a speaker that I owned a few years ago and wound up missing more than I thought I would, the ProAc 3.8's. The B&W's were more detailed than the ProAc's, but the ProAc's are much more pleasant to listen to. The B&W's were more dynamic in that they had greater high frequency extension, but after a while that became more annoying than enjoyable to me.

Another point is that the Nautilus line has great resale value. The network of dealers are policed by B&W in regard to pricing and internet selling. This creates a strong secondary market because it not flooded with low prices due to great deals someone got from a gray dealer. I give B&W great credit for sticking by its dealers and not letting their products get into the wrong hands.

That is one reason why dealers will point you to their B&W speaker lines. They know that you will not get a much better price than what they offer because they are limited in what they can offer you. It is a safe recommendation in that regard. As far as sound quality is concerned, B&W makes an excellent product, but there are many speaker manufacturers that do the same. It all depends on your personal taste. I have found that ProAc more meets my needs.

I agree with DrrDiamond. I listen to a lot of live classical and perform quite a bit as well. The B&W's do come close to what I hear in the concert hall. I also agree that many audiophiles are looking for something other than accuracy, whether they realize it or not. I have a friend who is neutral towards B&W. He probably has not been to a live concert in 30 years. But since he is happy with his choice, so who am I to differ. I like his choice as well, though not as live sounding to me. There are lots of great speaker brands out there. B&W are a safe bet because of the great resell value.

I actually prefer the 1990-98 B&W's over the current generation. (Original CDM-1, Preference 4,5 &6; and all the last generation Matrix 800 series.) I like the first-order crossovers. The newer crossovers work good with home theater setups, but sound a little shut in to me with classical two-channel.