I am shopping for new speakers and have almost decided on B&W 604's when I realized that the Nautilus 805 where just a little more expensive but within reach of the 604's. So I am considering listening to a pair. Before I listen to them I was wondering if anyone knows if the 1050 has enough power to support these speakers. They are rated for 50-150watts as opposed to the 603's which are rated for 25-120watts. Will I be risking pushing the 1050 to the point of clipping with the 805 ? I would most likely be matching then 805 with an HTM2.

Getting expensive I know but might be worth it

Any opinions on these speakers would of course also be appreciated.

These speakers are fairly inefficient they have a sensitivity of 88db. I know the 1050 has more power than it's 65 watt rating but I would like to hear from someone with experience with the 1050 if it can handle these speakers ?

I expect to upgrade to the 950/770 some day but since I just got the 1050 I hope the 1050 can handle these speakers for a while.

B&W's certainyl are nice speakers. I don't have any experience with the B&W's (aside from briefly listening to a set of what I believe are older CDM bookshelves that my mother-in-law has in her living room), but several people have driven fairly big speakers with 1050's. Mine was used to drive Paradigm Reference Studio/60's (90dB room / 87 dB anechoic) quite comfortably (although they are "officially" rated for 15-150W, not 50-150W). Don't know if that helps you any or not.

Since you already have the 1050 at hand, you might want to ask your B&W dealer about demoing the 805's at home for a short time. I would expect a B&W dealer to be willing to allow something like that.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

Thanks Gonk, I have read that the Paradigms work well and that makes me think the 805's will be OK except their specs seem to be more forgiving to lighter equipment. I read one post by abacus over a year ago using the 805's so I think I am OK.

If anyone has more current experience with the 805's or if abacus is still listening and wants to give an update that would be great.

The 1050 has plenty of power! I used the 1050 to drive my B&W Matrix 3s for the front, and the B&W Nautilus HTM2 for the center. The 1050 was also driving a B&W CC6 for the rear center and Paradigm Atoms for the rear surrounds. It performed very well. I think you would be very happy with a 1050/Nautilus combo.

bakkahead, thanks for the info. I am very happy to hear this, I really liked the sound of the Nautilus speakers.

I plan to order the 805's and an HTM2 and I'll post my results for future outlaws.

The results are in. The Nautilus 805's and the Nautilus HTM2 are easily driven by the 1050 and they sound great!

If anyone has any concerns about the power of the 1050 and these speakers I can tell you that this is absolutly no problem.