Upgrading front 3 speakers to GoldenEar Triton Reference or B&W Nautilus 800?




I am an avid home theater guy and am looking to upgrade from my Triton Ones. Love movies and concert Blu-rays.

I have the XXL center channel and find it to be not as clean as I would like.

I have 2 choices, one to go from the Ones to the Reference

or

found some used B&W so wish to

Upgrade Mains from Golden Ear Triton One to B&W Nautilus 800

Upgrade Centre from Golden Ear Supercenter XXL to B&W HTM1D


The challenge, in my eyes, with the 2nd choice is that I am using the Classé 5300 and would bi-amp my front L & R but only have 1 channel left to bi-amp the centre, so would have to get another 3-channel amp to run my lower part of the centre + my 2 rears, as I did not bi-amp the GE Ones, but feel that I should do for the Reference.


The B&W may be a little large for my room (14.5' x 23'x8') but I will have front speakers that will be much more clean than the Ones that I have now.


Hope to hear from a few GE or B&W fans very soon so I can make a decision


Steve


128x128eternalcamper

Showing 4 responses by soix

Full disclosure, I’m not a big fan of B&W speakers for 2-channel music as there are others I prefer. BUT, that said, if I were building a system mainly for HT B&W would be near the top of my list. Why? Their center channel speakers are fantastic! Especially since you’re less than thrilled with your current center speaker, to me this is a no-brainer choice if it’s just between these two manufacturers.

Many years ago a friend of mine had the B&W Matrix series speakers in a HT setup, and even that relatively lower-end center speaker in that system sounded awesome. Completely uncolored, not boxy, and with excellent dispersion and uniformity across the room. I think one of the most important reasons for this is that they mount the tweeter above the mids (or midwoof) instead of between them as most models do. Personally, I’d never buy a center channel unless the tweeter is mounted above the mids.

If I’m you, I’d buy the best B&W L/R/C you can afford that are of the same series so there’s a seamless match across the front. As for the amp situation, given your amp’s power I’m not sure you need to biamp at all, especially if you’re using a subwoofer (or hopefully 2).  I’d just buy the speakers and try driving them all with a single channel each and see what you think (or perhaps even try bi-wiring your front speakers instead of biamping them to see what that does if anything). My hunch is you’ll be perfectly happy given the power reserves of your amp, but if not you can add a supplemental amp later. Anyway, hope this helps and best of luck!

You wouldn't need another amp to bi-wire the B&Ws.  Just get internally bi-wired cables that have one connection on the amp side and two on the speaker end, or attach two cables to the same output on the amp if you're running a full shotgun pair. 

And yes, I absolutely do think that highly of B&W center speakers.  I have a feeling it'll sound much better than a ribbon tweeter sandwiched between midrange drivers as with your XXL center. 
ONLY 300 Watts???  That's a ton of power that should drive almost any speaker available.  Just as an example, back in 2009 Kal Rubinson ran the 802Ds with the lower powered CA-5200 just fine (https://www.stereophile.com/musicintheround/music_in_the_round_36/index.html), so I'd be shocked if your 5300 didn't have plenty of juice to fully drive 800s without biamping.  The 800s are 90dB efficient but do drop below 4 Ohms through a good part of the midrange, which does make them more difficult to drive.  But here's a quote from the Classe website regarding your amp:

"* Specifications for output into 4 ohms are omitted because the AC Mains/power supply cannot support all channels driven simultaneously at this level, which would require over 5,000W and only occur under a special test condition. The amplifier easily drives lower impedance loads."

Translation -- your house will run out of juice before your amp does.  Suffice it to say I think you're worrying needlessly over the power issue.  You have a beast of an amp. 
Is this mainly a HT system or is 2-channel important as well?  What speakers/subs and electronics do you have currently?