Earlier in the year I was in the market for a new pair of speakers under $20,000. I auditioned as many systems as possible; Wilson 6, Avalon Eidilon, Thiel 7.2, & Revel Salons. Revel Salons got my vote for the overall highest performing system in most sonic departments. Then I accidentally stumbled upon Nautilus 801's. They are simply the most live, dynamic, tonally convincing system I have ever heard in dynamic speakers. I debated my speaker purchase for quite a while that is until I got a chance to hear the 801's... The store had a really crappy set-up as most stores do. I played with the speaker setup for hours... It took my ears simply this one audition on entry level Krell gear to learn that they were something special. I immediately arranged a 1 day long (second audition) at a different location bringing along some of my own gear... This time they were driven by my own Wadia 860, Nordost Quattro-fil xlr into a store demo Krell FPB600. Finishing it off were my Nordost SPM speaker cables, misc. tweaks etc... They also supplied plenty of tube traps to help me dial things in until I was satisfied. I left the store that night purchasing the Nautilus 801's in red cherry & the Krell FPB600c... My current system which is seriously tweaked to the hilt will send chills down your spine... The Revels are simply an awesome speaker system but after hours of critical placement & setup tweaks I feel they can not match the B&W's in most sonic departments. It just comes down to how close you want to get to the real event in your listening chair. Happy listening, Tony akob007@aol.com
