B&W Nautilus 803 & 804 Vs The World


How different does the 803 and 804 sound? And how do these compare to other comparablely priced dynamic speakers, such as a Revel F30, Dunlavy Aletha or even the more expensive Avalon Arcus?
tbonephile
I was suprised at sound of 804s. Something had to be wrong. They sounded like a blanket covered them in an a/b with 805s. I bought the 805s and would skip the 804 and go 803 or 802 with bigger room.
there's a lot of better speakers for the money. value is low when its B&W. cheaper & better are maggies & vandys. much better for similar money are merlins. from 50hz to 20k, nothing sounds better than merlins IMHO. (look at some of the frequency response charts. you'll be hard pressed to find flatter response than merlins.) rhyno
Can one judge a speaker's performance by its frequency response alone ? Does a flat response from 50 Hz to 20 KHz imply that it is a good speaker ?
I listened to the N803's and thought they sounded good. Then right after to the N802's and the difference was tremendously better in favor of the N802. The N802's are more revealing and have better bass extension plus the styling makes quite a visual statement.
yes, if it can stay flat throughout the freq range, you've likely (but not necessarily) got a fine speaker on your hand. speakers shoudl not distort. anything other than a linear response is distortion.