Nautilus owners upgrade to what?

Montana Kas..I would recommend you..a terrifying speaker..forget the B&W..

Herb4, that is a bit of a loaded question, as a lot speaker questions can be. IMO speakers make the most dramatic difference in your system and we all have our personal tastes, EX. the thunder boomers driving down the road, they love it, others hate it.

If you prefered the JM Lab, by all means go that route, that may not mean it is "better" than the B&W's, just different.

I do believe that it can be a no brainer at times that one speaker is better than another. But as we move up the price chain, you start getting into personal preferences.

And don't let me forget synergy, it may be that one speaker works better with tubes than another...again, doesn't mean it is a better speaker per se.

On one of the Sterophile's test CD's, a guy reads the column by J. Gordon Holt, "Why Audiophiles Disagree", this sums it up much better than I am.

Like some of the others in this thread I have a pair of 805's with a REL strata III driven by an MF A 3CR -120wpc.

I am interested in the post about using over 200wpc for them. In stereophiles's review of the MF they also mentioned biamping.

Has anyone here tried biamping the 805's?? how much power is enough?

I have the upgrade itch - but I really like the nautilus sound and I have a fairly small room. beating the focus and detail of the 805 is not a small task.

Hi, I heard the Revel F20 and Aerius 6's.
I agree, the Aerials are smoother, "warmer" than B&W. They lacked detail and dynamics for my tastes.
The Revels were much clearer than B&W. Their lit. says their drivers reduce 2nd and 3rd order harmonics. This made sense to me because they had a similar clarity I heard in ATC active 100's. REF 3A DeCappos were also clearer than B&W - this again left me with a long face :(.
Not to get overly bowled over by Revels, their bass was very unmusical compared to N804. Drums sounded like the driver was bottoming out but that can't be at 85-90 dB. Sometimes violins sounded separated from the rest of the orchestra. So there was a coherence issue.
Finally they must not have the wide dispersion of N804 because the image would noticeably switch to speakers moving my head from left to right.
I think the new Thiel 1.6 was similar in style to the Revel. But Thiel bass was better quality and no image flipping between speakers. It seemed better to trade some bass extension than throw it away like the Revels - my opinion from what I heard.
I was told both B&W and Revel have a rising response curve in the mids and in the highs. This "flat" curve is good for studio monitoring and rock music but not for classical. I don't agree but I guess that's the design technology.

If you've got upwards of $5k to spend I'd highly recommend finding a Silverline dealer(not always easy) and trying the Sonatina II or Sonata II. Incredible speakers that will work well with a variety of electronics. I also thought the Thiel CS1.6 was outstanding, but, like B&W, will require some careful system matching to make them really shine. Definitely go hear the Silverlines though. Best of luck.

Tim