A Look And Listen to the B&W Nautilus...

[Archimago]

Hey guys. Had a listen and got a chance to photograph the Nautilus last
weekend... Good pair of speakers but the design is clearly showing its
age.

Don't know about you folks, but I'd never get my wife to accept such a
contraption in the home :-).

http://archimago.blogspot.ca/2014/02/musings-saturday-am-b-nautilus-listening.html

Check it out if you have a chance! Would love to hear of other
impressions on this iconic speaker.



Archimago's Musings: (archimago.blogspot.com) A 'more objective'
audiophile blog.
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[cliveb]

Post by Archimago
Hey guys. Had a listen and got a chance to photograph the Nautilus last
weekend... Good pair of speakers but the design is clearly showing its
age.
Don't know about you folks, but I'd never get my wife to accept such a
contraption in the home :-).
http://archimago.blogspot.ca/2014/02/musings-saturday-am-b-nautilus-listening.html
Check it out if you have a chance! Would love to hear of other
impressions on this iconic speaker.

Thanks for your impressions. The Nautilus is a legend, and deservedly
so. Being a 20 year old design is no barrier to good performance.
Remember that some people think that the best speaker in history *ever*
is the original Quad ESL - which came out in 1957.

Regarding your comment about those thin speaker cables - 16AWG is
perfectly adequate for audio signals. Audiophile fashions come and go.
While today's dogma is for massive think cables, I can recall back in
the 1980s when there was a faction who reckoned that speakers should be
connected with very thin single-core cables. (And I'm sure we all
remember that crazy period when Litz wire was de rigueur for hooking up
speakers).



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[Archimago]

Post by cliveb
Thanks for your impressions. The Nautilus is a legend, and deservedly
so. Being a 20 year old design is no barrier to good performance.
Remember that some people think that the best speaker in history *ever*
is the original Quad ESL - which came out in 1957.
Regarding your comment about those thin speaker cables - 16AWG is
perfectly adequate for audio signals. Audiophile fashions come and go.
While today's dogma is for massive think cables, I can recall back in
the 1980s when there was a faction who reckoned that speakers should be
connected with very thin single-core cables. (And I'm sure we all
remember that crazy period when Litz wire was de rigueur for hooking up
speakers).

Hmmm, I'll have to look for one of those Quad ESL's to have a listen
:-).

That's exactly why I took a picture of the speaker cable connection.
Extreme "bigger is better" cables are unnecessary other than the "bling"
factor. I noticed folks poking around afterwards surprised by how thin
those cables looked; I'm sure thinking if bigger gauge may have improved
the sound!



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[darrenyeats]

I wonder if the "dynamically compressed recordings" as a reason for the
fatigue was a bit of an excuse. IMO dynamic compression is not welcome
at the mastering stage, it's "different" to reality ... but that doesn't
mean it's -unpleasant- per se. Also, taking modern recordings as a
whole, Daft Punk's RAM isn't the harshest by any means?



Check it, add to it! http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/richpub/listmania/byauthor/A3H57URKQB8AQO/ref=cm_pdp_content_listmania/203-7606506-5721503.

SB Touch
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[cliveb]

Post by darrenyeats
I wonder if the "dynamically compressed recordings" as a reason for the
fatigue was a bit of an excuse.

IME extreme dynamic compression does indeed render some music
unlistenable on good quality systems. It seems to me that revealing
systems do exactly that: they *reveal* how bad the mastering is.

Examples: Some years ago I noticed that Coldplay's X&Y sounded pretty
ropey on our main system, but acceptable on an iPod. And recently my
wife bought Night Visions by Imagine Dragons - it sounds absolutely
*horrendous* on a decent system, but when I put it on my laptop to
investigate why, I noticed that it sounded much less objectionable via
cheap headphones through the laptop's on-board sound.



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[Mnyb]

Post by cliveb
IME extreme dynamic compression does indeed render some music
unlistenable on good quality systems. It seems to me that revealing
systems do exactly that: they *reveal* how bad the mastering is.
Examples: Some years ago I noticed that Coldplay's X&Y sounded pretty
ropey on our main system, but acceptable on an iPod. And recently my
wife bought Night Visions by Imagine Dragons - it sounds absolutely
*horrendous* on a decent system, but when I put it on my laptop to
investigate why, I noticed that it sounded much less objectionable via
cheap headphones through the laptop's on-board sound.

Yes you can't really fix those things if you try you get other
colorations instead and no chance of proper rendering if the recording
allows it .

cool speaker seems to function over form despite thier futuristic
appearance those straight transmission lines seems close to ideal for
the breed :)

And aluminium drivers migth not be a big problem in a narrow bandwith
active xover design, use the drivers in the range where they perform
well .

Speaker cables would be even less of a problem in an active design and
they could be compensated for in the filter and probably is.

I really would like to hear those speaker one day ! Nice article



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[Archimago]

Post by cliveb
IME extreme dynamic compression does indeed render some music
unlistenable on good quality systems. It seems to me that revealing
systems do exactly that: they *reveal* how bad the mastering is.
Examples: Some years ago I noticed that Coldplay's X&Y sounded pretty
ropey on our main system, but acceptable on an iPod. And recently my
wife bought Night Visions by Imagine Dragons - it sounds absolutely
*horrendous* on a decent system, but when I put it on my laptop to
investigate why, I noticed that it sounded much less objectionable via
cheap headphones through the laptop's on-board sound.

I loved the band 'They Might Be Giants' in university. One of the most
horrendous uses of compression I came across was back in 2001 when they
released the single to "Boss Of Me" (theme from Malcolm In The Middle).
I was horrified by how unlistenable that was with some decent Denon
headphones I had back then... Of course it was only years later that I
figured what was going on.



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[Archimago]

Post by darrenyeats
I wonder if the "dynamically compressed recordings" as a reason for the
fatigue was a bit of an excuse. IMO dynamic compression is not welcome
at the mastering stage, it's "different" to reality ... but that doesn't
mean it's -unpleasant- per se. A well sorted system should be
informative, yes, but part of informing is the listener taking an
interest - think infotainment! Also, taking modern recordings as a
whole, Daft Punk's RAM isn't the harshest by any means?

Yes, I do agree that dynamic compression itself doesn't necessarily lead
to fatigue, but my feeling is that it is in general something that
contributes to the sensation. My feeling has always been that a good
system be neutral tonally and transparent enough to convey the lowest
audible detail. I do believe the Nautilus system was able to do this.

However, the music is what it is! Tracks like the disco-tinged "Give
Life Back to Music" off RAM has a lot of high end energy and when mixed
with those synthetically sharpened auto-tuned vocals, adds to the
perception of fatigue for me in whatever system I listen to. While a DR9
isn't bad for the track (or for modern pop productions), I can't help
but feel that the squashing of dynamics just adds to the "treble
overload". Sure, those sizzling trebles sound great in my car and cheap
headphones, but on a superb system... Not so much IMO.

Don't get me wrong though... I love Daft Punk. I would not necessarily
change the production. Just that I find it more tolerable for longer
term listening when I roll off the highs with an EQ from about 10kHz in
the main system :-). And in the context of the Nautilus, I wonder if
those trebles excite ringing in the aluminium tweeters...



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