Review: B & W Loudspeakers Nautilus 805 Monitor


Category: Speakers

I listen to all facets of music from classical SACD's to jazz and country and popular CD's. Accurate sound production is important with booming bass and screechy highs a real turn off. These little jewels blew me away, having tried so many highly rated esteemed monitors. The B&W's brought reality to my system. Soundstage, accurates sound reproduction, dynamics are their strong points with no discernible weakness's. If I could own any monitor, these would still be on the top of my list. I wish Stereophile would have left them in Class A, limited bass response. But then B&W would have a harder time selling the more expensive siblings. Guess that didn't go over to good. Enjoy the best bang for the buck in audiophile speakerdom. And feel free to experiment with biwiring, tube amps, analog records, and whatever fulfills your interests. These baby's are very accomodating. And they are drop dead gorgeous in the new Signature finishes. Happy listening.

Associated gear
Mark Levinson 38 pre-amp, Mark Levinson 39 C.D. player, Sony 90ES amp.

Similar products
Monitor Audio Studio 6, ATC 10's, Paradigm Studio 20's, Pro-Ac 1S.
haroldkane
Can you expand anymore? How do the signatures compair to the regular 805's? May I ask what you payed for them?
You really like that tweeter?
I just stole a used pair of Spendor 3/1P and find the difference in musicality and overall "ease" pretty convincing...and for half the price!
I understand the bass-shy smaller 3/5 are even MORE neutral!
I have just returned from a month in Scotland, where I visited about a dozen shoppes. No matter how many B&W, Epos, KEF, Mission, etc. monitors we listened to, EVERY dealer eventually suggested the Spendors as their personal musically-satisfying choice. Sure the 600 series are serious "bang-for-the-pound", so the Spendors seem a bit pricey, but they ALL preferred the 'lil 3/5 to the Nautilus
805, especially at 1/3 the price!
So I bought the next larger S3/1P used for $800 and am profoundly impressed! I'd seriously suggest that anyone needing great small monitors check out these two Spendors.
I understand their new floorstanding line is even higher value: look at the new 2-way for only $1500 list! Nice to see a small Brit classic name flourishing against the big B&W.