25 replies to this topic

[Dave Williamson]

G'day

There is a bloke I know that is selling a pair of B&W Nautilus 805's on dedicated B&W stands for $2500 and I wondered if you guys thought that a fair price. They are about 5 yrs old I think but unmarked.

I'd love to purchase these bad boys but do not have a clue on their second hand value.

If I did buy them then my Acoustic Enery AE1's with dedicated stands would be up for sale, any ideas what these may be worth? They are unmarked, pristine, and come with all boxes and packaging.

Thanks for any and all input guys

Dave

[jliang70]

Dave Williamson, on Dec 23 2011, 10:39 AM, said:

G'day

There is a bloke I know that is selling a pair of B&W Nautilus 805's on dedicated B&W stands for $2500 and I wondered if you guys thought that a fair price. They are about 5 yrs old I think but unmarked.

I'd love to purchase these bad boys but do not have a clue on their second hand value.

If I did buy them then my Acoustic Enery AE1's with dedicated stands would be up for sale, any ideas what these may be worth? They are unmarked, pristine, and come with all boxes and packaging.

Thanks for any and all input guys

Dave

I think it is a bit on the high side.  For $2500 I would go for a pair of lenehan ML1 like the one below

http://www.stereo.ne...-speaker-cables

[:)]

Dave Williamson, on Dec 23 2011, 10:39 AM, said:

G'day

There is a bloke I know that is selling a pair of B&W Nautilus 805's on dedicated B&W stands for $2500 and I wondered if you guys thought that a fair price. They are about 5 yrs old I think but unmarked.

I'd love to purchase these bad boys but do not have a clue on their second hand value.

If I did buy them then my Acoustic Enery AE1's with dedicated stands would be up for sale, any ideas what these may be worth? They are unmarked, pristine, and come with all boxes and packaging.

Thanks for any and all input guys

Dave

2-2.5k given age and condition is fair. New price on these were $5k rrp

[matt9999]

I sold a pair of mint 805's (nautilus) with stands (not the proper B&W stands, but reasonable imitations) for $2500 about 11 months ago.  They didn't take long to sell.

[Dave Williamson]

Ok cool, well the wife has just given me permission to go ahead and grab these, I think a grown man sobbing like a baby was too much for her to handle.

I'll let you know how I get on, thanks for the input lads, much appreciated.

Dave

[:)]

Dave Williamson, on Dec 23 2011, 06:16 PM, said:

Ok cool, well the wife has just given me permission to go ahead and grab these, I think a grown man sobbing like a baby was too much for her to handle.

I'll let you know how I get on, thanks for the input lads, much appreciated.

Dave

Dave I hadnt seen they included the B&W stands as well. so really for the money I think theyre a very good buy. Good to hear you got the go ahead. look forward to reading how you find them

[Dave Williamson]

:), on Dec 23 2011, 06:38 PM, said:

Dave I hadnt seen they included the B&W stands as well. so really for the money I think theyre a very good buy. Good to hear you got the go ahead. look forward to reading how you find them

Thanks Al, that makes me feel even better.

I have just demo'd some 705's from my local HiFi shop, had them for nearly a week and threw all sorts at them, they sounded really nice but if anything they made me respect my AE1's even more, I always knew that they sounded impressive, just that they lacked the bass that I wanted, I was pleased to find that I'd be hard pushed to tell the midrange and highs apart between the 705's and AE1's in an A/B blind listening test. I did however suddenly pop one eye open every now and then and look at the speaker as I suddenly heard something new through the 705's that I hadn't heard through the AE1's but that could be down to the fact that I had my critical listening ears on.

However, the bass was obvious, I could tell instantly that the 705's were giving me more of what I was looking for, straight away instead of my usual fair of female vocals Diana Krall, Nora Jones etc and or acoustic type stuff, Eric Clapton Unplugged etc all of which sound epic through the Acoustic Energy's, I was throwing heavier stuff at the 705's, Dire Straits, Queen, Led Zepp and dare I even admit it... Michael Jackson and where I always felt something was missing with the heavier material and my AE1's forcing me to increase levels to a point that the music would become muddled which meant that I listened to it less and less and leaned more towards that which made my speaker sing (literally) I was delighted with the heavy crisp beat and reduced need for higher volumes to attain the same result made me want them, like a crack whore wanting a fix.

Those particular speakers had though been given a thumbs down by my good lady as they came in beech with silver stands while everything else in the room is black, as an audiophile I couldn't of cared less on the look and more what they were giving me but when the missus uttered the words "Those are the ugliest speakers I've ever seen" I instantly knew two things, one is that she is obviously insane, they are beautiful looking speakers but also that they were never going to adorn my music/HT room, However!! god must of been smiling on me as all of a sudden a pair of 'black' 805's no less are in my future  

So, I'm hoping that these 805's equal if not surpass that which the 705's brought to the table and retire my AE1's to someone with a smaller room or a taste in vocals, jazz, classical and acoustic type stuff which the AE1's are superlative at.

Cheers
Dave

[adwaski]

Dave Williamson, on Dec 23 2011, 07:52 PM, said:

Thanks Al, that makes me feel even better.

I have just demo'd some 705's from my local HiFi shop, had them for nearly a week and threw all sorts at them, they sounded really nice but if anything they made me respect my AE1's even more, I always knew that they sounded impressive, just that they lacked the bass that I wanted, I was pleased to find that I'd be hard pushed to tell the midrange and highs apart between the 705's and AE1's in an A/B blind listening test. I did however suddenly pop one eye open every now and then and look at the speaker as I suddenly heard something new through the 705's that I hadn't heard through the AE1's but that could be down to the fact that I had my critical listening ears on.

However, the bass was obvious, I could tell instantly that the 705's were giving me more of what I was looking for, straight away instead of my usual fair of female vocals Diana Krall, Nora Jones etc and or acoustic type stuff, Eric Clapton Unplugged etc all of which sound epic through the Acoustic Energy's, I was throwing heavier stuff at the 705's, Dire Straits, Queen, Led Zepp and dare I even admit it... Michael Jackson and where I always felt something was missing with the heavier material and my AE1's forcing me to increase levels to a point that the music would become muddled which meant that I listened to it less and less and leaned more towards that which made my speaker sing (literally) I was delighted with the heavy crisp beat and reduced need for higher volumes to attain the same result made me want them, like a crack whore wanting a fix.

Those particular speakers had though been given a thumbs down by my good lady as they came in beech with silver stands while everything else in the room is black, as an audiophile I couldn't of cared less on the look and more what they were giving me but when the missus uttered the words "Those are the ugliest speakers I've ever seen" I instantly knew two things, one is that she is obviously insane, they are beautiful looking speakers but also that they were never going to adorn my music/HT room, However!! god must of been smiling on me as all of a sudden a pair of 'black' 805's no less are in my future  

So, I'm hoping that these 805's equal if not surpass that which the 705's brought to the table and retire my AE1's to someone with a smaller room or a taste in vocals, jazz, classical and acoustic type stuff which the AE1's are superlative at.

Cheers
Dave

Don't worry Dave, the 805 will be more smoother through the frequencies and image better. I'm pretty sure the 705 does not have the same matrix cabinet that the 805 comes in which would make a big difference. I just auditioned my 805 next to a pair of usher mini dancer2 with the dmd tweeter and although you cannot compare the depth of low frequencies, the mid range and highs from the 805 walked all over the ushers. They were extracting so much more detail and space around instruments it left me gob smacked how a fairly old speaker could pump a new gen award winning speaker. Hope you enjoy your N805's  

[petetherock]

Are these the older Nautilus series or the recently discontinued 805s?

I recently nabbed a BNIB HTM4s centre... lucky find ...

[Dave Williamson]

Ok, a follow up and a question fella's please

This guy with the 805's is messing me about and wants to sell me the speakers without a home demo, I'm really not keen on doing that as I have no idea how they will sound in my system and room.

However my local HiFi dealer has some B&W CM9's which he will let me have for $3200 which I think is a wicked price, they are brand new with warranty 'and' I get to try them out.

But! as this will be a one time speaker upgrade for a looong time (my wife is already about to divorce me if I tell her I want to change/add anything else) that I don't want to make the wrong decision, so wondered if you had any thoughts on which way I should go.

5 year old second hand B&W 805N's (Nautilus) or brand new B&W CM9's (still with the Nautilus tweeter)

I'm reading good stuff about the CM9, described as the flagship of the CM range and as far as looks are concerned, well that's a no brainer, they are drop dead gorgeous in their high gloss piano black finish which in actual fact matches the high gloss piano black of my Pioneer plasma, and my B&W FPM5's.

What I don't want to do however, is end up with something that would sound inferior, if the 805's were a leap above the CM9's in sound quality then they would be my choice, but! if they are deemed to be relatively close in quality than the newness, the warranty, the aesthetic value and even the fact that they are full range speakers (remember I'm after more bass than my AE1's can provide being bookshelf speakers) would make the CM9's an obvious choice.

Unfortunately back to back listening tests are not an option so your thoughts and opinions would be appreciated please lads.

Thanks once again for any help.

Best regards
Dave

Edited by Dave Williamson, 28 December 2011 - 11:40 AM.

[:)]

if the guy is like that before a sale, what is he going to be like afterwards if find something untoward with it.

theyre completely different speakers. the n805 a true nautilus tweeter. the woofer, does a very convincing mid range and bass. but aimed at 2ch in my opinion and for the smaller room unless running a sub.

the cm9 is more quantity over say just pure quality of n805. its probably more versatile in use for a combined ht/2ch system. and is going to do better in the bass department and in larger rooms. it however will also be more demanding in amp used.

at end of it. I would demo the cm9 if to your liking for the money get it. and forget about what is getting something difficult to evaluate yourself in the n805s

[Dave Williamson]

:), on Dec 28 2011, 01:08 PM, said:

if the guy is like that before a sale, what is he going to be like afterwards if find something untoward with it.

theyre completely different speakers. the n805 a true nautilus tweeter. the woofer, does a very convincing mid range and bass. but aimed at 2ch in my opinion and for the smaller room unless running a sub.

the cm9 is more quantity over say just pure quality of n805. its probably more versatile in use for a combined ht/2ch system. and is going to do better in the bass department and in larger rooms. it however will also be more demanding in amp used.

at end of it. I would demo the cm9 if to your liking for the money get it. and forget about what is getting something difficult to evaluate yourself in the n805s

I think you're right Al, and I have just returned from an in shop demo of the CM9's and have walked away very impressed, not at first though, at first I felt that although their mid range and highs were really impressive, I felt that they lacked bass which I found surprising as they have two bass drivers.

One of the first tracks I listened to was Phil Collins 'In the air tonight' and waited expectantly for the drums to kick in and when they finally did I was underwhelmed, I threw some more stuff at them and ended up thinking "nice but are they that much nicer than my own speakers

When the shop owner came back into the listening room and asked what I thought of them and I told him that I felt the bass lacking, I could see that he was perplexed, so once more we put on phil collins and sure enough he agreed that there was limited 'attack' but suggested that it was down to the CD and the track being compressed, I was very sceptical and at first thought I was being fed a little BS which is unusual as I have a very high regard for this guy, he has always been straight with me, even sending me away in the past and advising me to look and listen elsewhere before he wants me to spend money with him, I like this guy a lot and that is one of the reasons that I would prefer my hard earned to go in his till.... Anyway, I digress.

He leaves the room and comes back with some demonstration discs, full dynamic range audiophile tracks ranging through many and varied genres of music and oh my word!! the speakers shone and not only met but surpassed my expectations. I'm not a person with a range of buzz words used by many audiophile reviewers, all I can say is that they sounded awesome, massive sound stage, crystal clear mids and highs, punchy bass that could now be felt as well as heard, not only great attack of bass drums but they went deep, really deep when presented with the likes of double bass or obo's, voices were superb and in your room lifelike, everything was outstanding!! I immediately wanted them, I decided there and then that I don't even need to try this other blokes 805's, if I can recreate what I heard from the CM9's in my own listening room then I'll be ecstatic, which should be achievable as I'll be driving them with higher end equipment than that being used in the shop, plus bi-wired from a meridian power amp each.

I said to the boss "I'm sold, order me a pair" to which he replied, "Not yet, come take these Friday, have a play over the weekend and if you're still happy, THEN we'll order them" <- Class act.

I understand that these tracks were very high resolution reference tracks and probably 95% of my current music collection won't even come close but what they did do is show me what these speakers are supremely capable of if fed properly, I'm in the process of re-purchasing a lot of my music in higher resolution, 24/96 downloads and SACD's DVD-A's etc, infact just today I recieved my SACD's of Floyds DSOTM and WYWH, also Dire Straits Brothers in Arms, can't wait for the weekend

So... in summary, after my usual long waffle, I'm pretty sure that I'm going to go for the CM9's, I'll update this thread next week and let you know how I get on.

Thanks for the input Al, much appreciated.

Dave

[adwaski]

Dave Williamson, on Dec 28 2011, 06:30 PM, said:

I think you're right Al, and I have just returned from an in shop demo of the CM9's and have walked away very impressed, not at first though, at first I felt that although their mid range and highs were really impressive, I felt that they lacked bass which I found surprising as they have two bass drivers.

One of the first tracks I listened to was Phil Collins 'In the air tonight' and waited expectantly for the drums to kick in and when they finally did I was underwhelmed, I threw some more stuff at them and ended up thinking "nice but are they that much nicer than my own speakers

When the shop owner came back into the listening room and asked what I thought of them and I told him that I felt the bass lacking, I could see that he was perplexed, so once more we put on phil collins and sure enough he agreed that there was limited 'attack' but suggested that it was down to the CD and the track being compressed, I was very sceptical and at first thought I was being fed a little BS which is unusual as I have a very high regard for this guy, he has always been straight with me, even sending me away in the past and advising me to look and listen elsewhere before he wants me to spend money with him, I like this guy a lot and that is one of the reasons that I would prefer my hard earned to go in his till.... Anyway, I digress.

He leaves the room and comes back with some demonstration discs, full dynamic range audiophile tracks ranging through many and varied genres of music and oh my word!! the speakers shone and not only met but surpassed my expectations. I'm not a person with a range of buzz words used by many audiophile reviewers, all I can say is that they sounded awesome, massive sound stage, crystal clear mids and highs, punchy bass that could now be felt as well as heard, not only great attack of bass drums but they went deep, really deep when presented with the likes of double bass or obo's, voices were superb and in your room lifelike, everything was outstanding!! I immediately wanted them, I decided there and then that I don't even need to try this other blokes 805's, if I can recreate what I heard from the CM9's in my own listening room then I'll be ecstatic, which should be achievable as I'll be driving them with higher end equipment than that being used in the shop, plus bi-wired from a meridian power amp each.

I said to the boss "I'm sold, order me a pair" to which he replied, "Not yet, come take these Friday, have a play over the weekend and if you're still happy, THEN we'll order them" <- Class act.

I understand that these tracks were very high resolution reference tracks and probably 95% of my current music collection won't even come close but what they did do is show me what these speakers are supremely capable of if fed properly, I'm in the process of re-purchasing a lot of my music in higher resolution, 24/96 downloads and SACD's DVD-A's etc, infact just today I recieved my SACD's of Floyds DSOTM and WYWH, also Dire Straits Brothers in Arms, can't wait for the weekend

So... in summary, after my usual long waffle, I'm pretty sure that I'm going to go for the CM9's, I'll update this thread next week and let you know how I get on.

Thanks for the input Al, much appreciated.

Dave

This is a no brainer provided your room isn't large. You can go for a bookshelf that was part of b&w's top of the line models the 800 series or you can go for an inferior lower model. Remember the 805 RRP was $5k. The equivalent in cm series in a bookshelf is cm5 RRP $1,700!! that to me says that this isn't even a high end series. An 804 which is what you want to compare with being a floorstander retailed for i think around the 8k to 10k mark compared to your cm9 $4200! i'll
leave you with these last words. Everytime you are looking at your cm9s, think about how you could of had the top series
of b&w speakers in your possession  

[Dave Williamson]

adwaski, on Dec 28 2011, 09:13 PM, said:

This is a no brainer provided your room isn't large. You can go for a bookshelf that was part of b&w's top of the line models the 800 series or you can go for an inferior lower model. Remember the 805 RRP was $5k. The equivalent in cm series in a bookshelf is cm5 RRP $1,700!! that to me says that this isn't even a high end series. An 804 which is what you want to compare with being a floorstander retailed for i think around the 8k to 10k mark compared to your cm9 $4200! i'll
leave you with these last words. Everytime you are looking at your cm9s, think about how you could of had the top series
of b&w speakers in your possession  

You Bastard!!!  

Just when I thought I had it nailed you go and put doubt in my head    

[:)]

Dave Williamson, on Dec 28 2011, 10:32 PM, said:

You Bastard!!!  

Just when I thought I had it nailed you go and put doubt in my head    

hehe thats the thing is dave, there is never just one right answer, one right way. have to just work out what is right for your self. your needs , preferences..

good luck !  

[petetherock]

805s are too expensive in Australia... and the asking price for the older 805Naut, is too high, but the CM 9 is indeed a grade lower IMO...

Look for a more recent version of the 805s. Good for music and HT. Plus you can add a HTM4 as well.

[ttn]

Dave Williamson, on Dec 28 2011, 10:32 PM, said:

Just when I thought I had it nailed you go and put doubt in my head    

Dave
I just borrowed my friend's 805s & ProAc for listening & testing and yes, i can confirm that there are quite differences to all the speakers that i have listened to.

just try to demo if you can. Good luck

http://www.dtvforum....showtopic=96751

cheers
ttn

[adwaski]

Dave Williamson, on Dec 28 2011, 10:32 PM, said:

You Bastard!!!  

Just when I thought I had it nailed you go and put doubt in my head    

He He, sorry Dave, just looking out for you mate. Don't want you to make a mistake since you wont be upgrading anytime soon    Good luck

[Dave Williamson]

Well I'm glad you stepped in and changed my mind fella, I'm now the proud owner of a pair of B&W 805's and couldn't be happier  

I convinced the guy to let me take them for a few days as long as he had my $2500 in his sweaty mitts and so I was about to get the opportunity to have a back to back test weekend with a pair of 805's and a pair of CM9's. I picked the 805's up yesterday morning. Not as pristine as I'd hoped, a little indentation on the wood 'behind' the front cover of one speaker and a tiny scratch on the tweeter but I'm being picky, eagle eyed Dave here noticed them but I was investigating with a fine tooth comb, no one else will ever see the marks...

Anyway I brought them home and the intention was to get them wired up and warming up with a few tunes while I shot off to my local (and absolutely brilliant) hifi shop 'West Coast HiFi, Joondalup' the owner Kim was going to lend me the CM9's to compare over the weekend and depending on how things went I was either ordering a pair of shiney new CM's or keeping the 805's

Well, I plugged in the 805's and fired up a 24/96 album of Doug Macleods 'Brand New Eyes' and was stunned, I just sat there with my jaw open... Now these speakers have hardly ever been used according to the guy and were sitting on top of a sideboard collecting dust when I went to his house ( a second redundant pair just taking up space in this blokes house) so I expected to have to let them warm up, have a bit of a running in period but jeesus!! they were amazing from the first note....

LOL Well the truth is, I'm STILL waiting to go to West Coast HiFi 2 days later, I haven't moved, I'm just throwing everything I have at these things and just soaking it all up, the reality is that I'm not going to now, I don't need too, these speakers connected to my set-up have blown me away, the quality of the sound, the unbelievable imaging, the near surround sound staging of the instruments or the singers has me amazed, I keep looking over my shoulder at my surrounds and back surrounds trying to work out if sound is coming from them such is the width of what I'm hearing.

My room is 5m wide and 3m high, my speakers are 3m apart thanks to a very wide low level AV unit, I'm sitting just less than 3m from them and I'm getting a sound stage (depending on the track) that reaches from one wall to the other and feels like its reaching from floor to ceiling, I can't stop grinning, everytime i hear something new, or something that now makes sense as it is in its correct place in the sound stage I giggle like a schoolgirl, the realism of everything from voices to strings to percussion have reached a whole new level for me, and please believe me when I tell you that I have always felt that my AE1's were top drawer, I realise now that the 800 series B&W's are in another league entirely.

I'll tell you how good the imaging is, I've recently been buying multichannel albums and loving them, well for the last two days I've been putting them on and thinking, nah! and quickly going back to the 2 channel version.... truthfully, not only do they sound amazing but they sound amazing in a version that I know and love.

To think I nearly passed on these babies is quite scary so a big thanks to you adwaski, if you're ever in Perth mate the beers are on me.

Edited by Dave Williamson, 01 January 2012 - 07:29 PM.

[adwaski]

Dave Williamson, on Jan 1 2012, 08:28 PM, said:

Well I'm glad you stepped in and changed my mind fella, I'm now the proud owner of a pair of B&W 805's and couldn't be happier  

I convinced the guy to let me take them for a few days as long as he had my $2500 in his sweaty mitts and so I was about to get the opportunity to have a back to back test weekend with a pair of 805's and a pair of CM9's. I picked the 805's up yesterday morning. Not as pristine as I'd hoped, a little indentation on the wood 'behind' the front cover of one speaker and a tiny scratch on the tweeter but I'm being picky, eagle eyed Dave here noticed them but I was investigating with a fine tooth comb, no one else will ever see the marks...

Anyway I brought them home and the intention was to get them wired up and warming up with a few tunes while I shot off to my local (and absolutely brilliant) hifi shop 'West Coast HiFi, Joondalup' the owner Kim was going to lend me the CM9's to compare over the weekend and depending on how things went I was either ordering a pair of shiney new CM's or keeping the 805's

Well, I plugged in the 805's and fired up a 24/96 album of Doug Macleods 'Brand New Eyes' and was stunned, I just sat there with my jaw open... Now these speakers have hardly ever been used according to the guy and were sitting on top of a sideboard collecting dust when I went to his house ( a second redundant pair just taking up space in this blokes house) so I expected to have to let them warm up, have a bit of a running in period but jeesus!! they were amazing from the first note....

LOL Well the truth is, I'm STILL waiting to go to West Coast HiFi 2 days later, I haven't moved, I'm just throwing everything I have at these things and just soaking it all up, the reality is that I'm not going to now, I don't need too, these speakers connected to my set-up have blown me away, the quality of the sound, the unbelievable imaging, the near surround sound staging of the instruments or the singers has me amazed, I keep looking over my shoulder at my surrounds and back surrounds trying to work out if sound is coming from them such is the width of what I'm hearing.

My room is 5m wide and 3m high, my speakers are 3m apart thanks to a very wide low level AV unit, I'm sitting just less than 3m from them and I'm getting a sound stage (depending on the track) that reaches from one wall to the other and feels like its reaching from floor to ceiling, I can't stop grinning, everytime i hear something new, or something that now makes sense as it is in its correct place in the sound stage I giggle like a schoolgirl, the realism of everything from voices to strings to percussion have reached a whole new level for me, and please believe me when I tell you that I have always felt that my AE1's were top drawer, I realise now that the 800 series B&W's are in another league entirely.

I'll tell you how good the imaging is, I've recently been buying multichannel albums and loving them, well for the last two days I've been putting them on and thinking, nah! and quickly going back to the 2 channel version.... truthfully, not only do they sound amazing but they sound amazing in a version that I know and love.

To think I nearly passed on these babies is quite scary so a big thanks to you adwaski, if you're ever in Perth mate the beers are on me.

Anytime David   . It was a no contest in the first place so a had to try and steer a fellow audiophile in the right direction  
Just kick back and enjoy the music which is what they do best!

Hopefully you have a concrete slab for foundation. Your room size is similar to mine. My speakers are 3mtr apart and almost 3mtr from the seated position. Our house is on stumps and I thought it was sounding fairly right until I took my gear down to audition the ushers. Their room was bigger and on a slab. The slab took my N805s to another level in terms of imaging and well just about every aspect you could think of. I knew the slab would make a significant difference because I've been on a slab before but boy did it sound good!! I also tried the N805s with full audiospace electronics. This consisted of an average cd player, valve pre, and valve mono blocks, 25watts!!. Sounded very sweet even if they were made in china and a little dodgy. So what I'm getting at is you don't need big watts with these speakers to fill a room your size with sound.

Enjoy

[:)]

that is fantastic to hear dave. look the 805 for standmount is pretty damn good. what they do they do so damn well. a lot of fans of this speaker so not surprised. the imaging you mention is such a strong point as well. their top mounted speaker almost in the air baffleless is a lot of the reason that is so I reckon. but yeah great to hear of your choice. am very glad you managed to get the guy to lend you the pair. here again another reason to try do your best to home demo never fails ! well done

[myrantz]

Dave Williamson, on Jan 1 2012, 05:28 PM, said:

and feels like its reaching from floor to ceiling

Never heard the 805Ns, but the "tallness" is my favourite B&W feature - somehow the front stage seems taller than typical. It's tall enough to almost do a "perfect" 360 vertical circle (instead of flat oval) at the front (forgot what track does that now).. And the width is pretty decent too...

Have you tried Amused to Death yet? The Qsound tracks should give the imaging a good test (Just $10 from JBHifi). Another good surround sound like track I like is from Nitin Sawheney (Beyond Skin). One track "The Pilgrim" has a good surround like panning effect, and some sort of sweeping bass notes (B&W usually pretty good with bass).. The other track have sound of rains IIRC (can't remember if it's high up or wide)...

Really gimmicky, but interesting nonetheless... If you like imaging, these two albums are good tests.

Congrats on the purchase..

[Dave Williamson]

Thanks fella's, well chuffed

Adwaski, yes mate I have the slab, fortunately! however I do believe that my room is in need of acoustic treatment, a 5m x 4m rectangle with nearly full glass at both ends and limited furniture isn't helping, I definitely feel that I'm suffering from standing waves and reflections which become apparant at higher volumes when there can sometimes be an underlying unpleasantness in the bass

The plan is to fit full length and heavily lined curtains at either end of the room, plus add a few acoustic panels to the rear wall, nothing too scientific as I wouldn't know how to anyway, but I also intend to get a guy round who has been highly recommended to me to come caibrate my system HT/Music and the environment it sits in, if my understanding is correct he arrives with SPL meters, laptop and a bucketful of experience, but I'll wait until all of the curtains are made and hung before I call him in to fine tune stuff.

I realised when I got these speakers home that the stands were without spikes, I have always used spikes but now wonder if I actually need them with them sitting on concrete, they certainly don't seem to be suffering in any way but if I should have the spikes then I'll either ask the guy if he has them or buy them new from a B&W dealer.

Edited by Dave Williamson, 03 January 2012 - 12:41 PM.

[chordchaos]

Dave Williamson, on Dec 23 2011, 10:39 AM, said:

G'day

There is a bloke I know that is selling a pair of B&W Nautilus 805's on dedicated B&W stands for $2500 and I wondered if you guys thought that a fair price. They are about 5 yrs old I think but unmarked.

I'd love to purchase these bad boys but do not have a clue on their second hand value.

If I did buy them then my Acoustic Enery AE1's with dedicated stands would be up for sale, any ideas what these may be worth? They are unmarked, pristine, and come with all boxes and packaging.

Thanks for any and all input guys

Dave

Just on a side note.. If you really like the look of the speaker stands you should take a look at the whatmough speaker stands which look extremely similar and can be bought for only a fraction of the price.

[jliang70]

adwaski, on Jan 3 2012, 12:32 PM, said:

Anytime David . It was a no contest in the first place so a had to try and steer a fellow audiophile in the right direction
Just kick back and enjoy the music which is what they do best!

Hopefully you have a concrete slab for foundation. Your room size is similar to mine. My speakers are 3mtr apart and almost 3mtr from the seated position. Our house is on stumps and I thought it was sounding fairly right until I took my gear down to audition the ushers. Their room was bigger and on a slab. The slab took my N805s to another level in terms of imaging and well just about every aspect you could think of. I knew the slab would make a significant difference because I've been on a slab before but boy did it sound good!! I also tried the N805s with full audiospace electronics. This consisted of an average cd player, valve pre, and valve mono blocks, 25watts!!. Sounded very sweet even if they were made in china and a little dodgy. So what I'm getting at is you don't need big watts with these speakers to fill a room your size with sound.

Enjoy

There is nothing doggy about Audiospace products as long as they are made for Australian market.  They are well built and certainly not your average 25 watts power amp.