Sonus Faber & Nautilus Set Up. It's tough to synchronize gain control on B&W, but after a few weeks of tweaking, it has become a marvelous speaker. I found Stradivari to be a better speaker in many dimensions. A bit dissapointed at B&W's depth of bass, but still beautiful to look. Great WAF!
WOW-your set up costs more than my home. You should address the room acoustics-I am assuming that is a real wood floor and that you have sheet rock and windows as well-all of which will create massive reverb/reflections. The biggest sonic improvement I ever got was rehabbing my room from top to bottom.
I heard the Nautilus properly set up w/ 8 monoblock amps and it was the finest sounding speaker system I heard, better than AvantGarde Trio.
I have also heard a pair of B&W Nautilus loudspeakers, in my case driven by a pair of Rowland Model 304 4-channel amplifiers, a custom valve preamp and the full dCS Scarlatti digital front end in a very large dedicated custom built audio room. The speakers, which totally disappeared, were a looong way from the wall behind them and setup in a semi nearfield arrangement. Interconnects were Audioquest WEL Signature between source and preamp and between preamp and active line level crossovers. Short lenghts of Tara Labs The Zero connected each channel of the active line level crossover with its repsective amplifier channel in the Rowland 304. Shunyata and NBS power cables were used throughout. It was a very fine sounding system indeed. Extremely transparent and pure due to the lack of non-linear distortion
I should point out that the owner is a very experienced audiophile and he spent lots of time and money optimising these speakers. The results speak for themselves.
Would love to hear the Nautilus' someday...have not come across a set, but good to read your own thoughts on them.
as for Strads, i totally agree with you. The Strads sound great with medium power because of the "character" of SF. However, the Strads respond extremely well to high quality power...more in the bass than in the mid. But even the mid soundstage, "strength of presentation" will improve with high current.
I have truly enjoyed Krell with all of the various Sonus Fabers...but i have found i preferred other amps with the Homage Series. Martin Colloms and i believe Franco Serblin himself were supposedly using FBX700 when it was still being made. However, imho, i preferred the slightly warmer sound of Class A SS...hence why i went with Gryphon Antileon. I have heard (as suggested above) that Soulution is a magical combination. If you wish to go with highpowered tubes, Downunder has his system up here...and uses CJ Premier 8s which were totally overhauled by CJ (Teflon capacitors, etc)...275watts/channel. Good luck and please keep posting! Great system!
Nautilus uses 8 amps, yes... Most of the forum discussions are filled with positive remarks, but let me jot a few weaknesses of my system (I have been upgrading as we speak)
1. Nautilus is extremely difficult speakers to set up. Your room has to be in tuned or else you won't get the full benefit. I found 800D to have a much better resoluton. Mac is not a good match.. It's more of a sculpture than speakers if you ask me... nice to look at.
2. Stradi requires a lot of power. I am amazed at how much this baby eats up the power. i need to change it to VAC to BAT. Krell Evolution is another set I am trying this week. The current version is the anniversary version (Palladio) a bit lower base, but not much of difference and about 10K more... Ouch!
I heard the Nautilus properly set up w/ 8 monoblock amps and it was the finest sounding speaker system I heard, better than AvantGarde Trio. As I understand it B&W uses Classe to voice their speakers. Have you contact B&W and ask for their recommnedations?
You should run the nautilus on its own without a another set of speakers next to them. Nautilus has an extremely flat frequency response that could be cocked up by placing them next to some other drivers. Bass extension is not an issue as these babies are flat to 10 hz. The upper mid dome has a ruler flat response. I have listened to them for many hours whilst they were in development at B&W.
fantastic system! I have seen but never heard the B&Ws...they were not hooked up when i saw them.
i own the strads. regarding your question on amps, I have a super-long post in Audiogon seeking amp advice for Strads going back almost a year...it is still getting new posts, so feel free to check it out..."Powerful tube amp for Strads". i started out looking at super-powerful tubes (Wavac, CJ, Lamm, ARC Ref 210, Berning Quad Z), and am pretty close to choosing Class A SS instead. I am pretty sure Gryphon Antileon is my choice.
I use Zanden as my source and CJ Act 2 as my pre. I think the Antileon should add endless, conrolled dynamics with a very, very pure tonality...thru the tube source and pre, i think it will be a good long term combination (for me anyway).
Hope that is interesting and helpful as one opinion. You have a fantastic setup. Enjoy!
You have one very impressive system. The SF's are wonderful for classical and jazz. The B&W's are everything that model is reputed to be so you must be in heaven! I'll put another vote in for the Esoteric G-0s (run in Rb mode) or G-0Rb clock. With my P-03U and D-03, the different is very audible and you'll never want to do without one again!
A bit dissapointed at B&W's depth of bass, but still beautiful to look. Great WAF!
How long have you had them both? The true test of great bass is not how impressive it is but how articulate it is. An articulate speaker will allow you to hear everything that is going on with the bass player and drummer but won't sound overwhelming or impressive in the low frequencies.... just a thought (although I lived in Italy for many years and I love Zuchero, my deepest respect is for British speakers....)
IMO you definetly need some acoustic isulation panels, ect. this also might be a big difference makers in your sound quality at low cost.
Many people over look proper speaker placement (golden cubiod)& proper room acoustics.
these to items have been used for centuies to improve sound quality. gearheads tend to throw money at components, ect, trying to achieve better sound. & never give the golden cubiod or acoustic treatment a second thought. Probably because it is not flashy or expensive.
I can not believe your running another set of speakers next to those B&W's!
Try emotiva amps . I think their a hidden gem. The price point are so low compared w/their specs. they blow away amps costing three/four times as much.
kodg
p.s Check out info. on the golden cubiod its a mathmatical equation used before they built the pyramids & should help with proper speaker placement. proper speaker placement might be all you need.
Great set up. I have the Mc 1.2kw's. I love the Sonus Fabers as well. I auditioned the B.Ws and found them weak in the bass and to much in the treble. Very impressive set up. Enjoy
I would suggest you post a thread in the Audiophile Forums section under "Amps Preamps" asking this specific question to see what others suggest.
I'm sure you will get a variety of answers, I am currently looking at amps for my MBL 101E's. I had CAT JL3 Sig. MK2 mono blocks but do to reliability issues I decided not to keep them.
One amp that interest me and you may want to look at is, "Karan 1200's"
I use to own Avalon Isis speakers in my other set-up and one of my issues was finding the right amplification to get the bass working properly, well I have heard lately from others that the Karan's are a great fit. There isn't allot of info. regarding these amps but you can do a search including this forum, "Big Karan amps"
Westside_music (Gary) is the North American distributor, nice guy. I have talked to him a couple of times and will be making arrangements to hear Karan product in my system in the near future.
That's what I heard about master clock. I am thinking about it. I live in Korea so I have to import this from Japan.
Any recommendation on Amp? I have used Classe before but I didn't like them too much (no particular reason, other than well... just no sound personality, it's honest, but colorless). I am looking into either Goldmund or Tenor.
Any suggestions?
I just replaced C2200 with the new C1000T preamp from Mac. I have noticed a slight difference in the color blightness, a bit more crystal, but not by much. (hmm... ROI on $25K? Oh, well)
Hi Syaudio, you really have some nice pieces. Have you tried the clock with your Esoteric pcs, I heard a set-up where we where adding and removing the clock and the difference was very noticeable, my preference was having it with in the chain.
Regarding your B&W speakers, they are absolutely pces of art. Have you tried any other amps with these besides the Mac., I like the Mac and have owned but do to there design it might just be possible that the depth bass situation your are having is do to this and not the speaker because I had a similar issue but with another speaker and this was what I found.
