803D vs. 802D vs. 804S - a subjective comparison

[Hannu]

I had an in-depth private demo at a scandinavian dealer last week. I compared 802D's to 803D's and finally listened to a pair of 804S's just to keep the things in scale. I've lived with a pair of the first generation N804's for 4 years now.

The electronics consisted of a stack of the new Delta line of Classé Audio. Power amplifier was only 2x100W but with impedances of these models (803D 2,7ohms and 802D 3,5ohms) being so low the reality should be somewhere between 200 and 300 watts/channel. Premium Tara-Labs cables were used. The room was a small one, about 4,5m x 6m with some resonance in the upper bass region. The speakers were tilted-in as they should be. I varied the volume constantly in order to get rid of the influences of subtle sensitivity differences between the models. The music consisted of studio and live recordings with lots of female vocals and one very demanding drum-set recording with a Calrec Soundfield 2-ch microphone.

Here are my findings:
803D (burn-in period about 100h)
- precise bass, not very deep, but slam-at-your-face factor very high
- midrange was a clear disappointment to me: problems with focusing, female voices and drums
- soundstage more 2 dimensional than 3-dimensional
- treble was amazing, very polite, true, and just right in every aspect I can tell
802D (burn-in 200h)
- bass was very deep, precise, strong, but not too heavy
- the 3 dimensions of the soundstage were carried out exceptionally
- focusing and midrange neutrality was superior to 803D's
- overall coherence of the sound was just extraordinary
804S (burn-in period unknown, estimated 50h)
- overall sound was a bit too nasal, boxy, and incoherent
- bass was thin compared to the big brothers
- midrange was almost in par with 803D's, but had more problems in focusing and neutrality (short burn-in time!)
- treble was aggressive, too prominent, too grainy, and a little bit unnatural in female voices and cymbals

My advice is not to go for the 803D's. I went to this demo only the 803D's in my mind. In fact, I already had made a decision to buy a pair prior to the demo. But after having heard the 802D's I was totally surprised and impressed. The difference was just too big to live with. So I ordered the 802D's. If you only have the money for 803D's, you should immediately sell something or put your mother-in-law back to work in order to get the real thing, the 802D's. If you decide to waste the earnings for something else, you should never, and I really mean never, audition to the 802D's with proper electronics. As far as I can recall, exactly the same situation was with the previous Nautilus generation. The N803 wasn't particularly price worthy compared to N802 or N804. In 804S's you get what you pay for: excellent speakers with some minor drawbacks, nothing really serious for the money.

The diamond treble driver of the new line is a real pearl and definitely something to open your wallet for (they should nominate a Grammy for it, he-he). Advances in the midrange and bass region seem to be more subtle to my ears.

Regards,
Hannu

[js24]

nice review
:T
Yet, I wanna give the 803D a little excuse since the burn-in time was still relatively low..
My 703s took more than 200hrs. I believe.
Anyways, congratulations on your new purchase.. they are my dream speakers!

[jlee]

>you should never, and I really mean never, audition to the 802D's with proper electronics. As far as I can recall, exactly the same situation was with the previous Nautilus generation. The N803 wasn't particularly price worthy compared to N802 or N804. In 804S's you get what you pay for: excellent speakers with some minor drawbacks, nothing really serious for the money.

Awesome review, but I just have 1 minor quip. The 803D is a new speaker and can't be compared to the old N803. At first, I too thought that the N803 was an orphan and that you either went N804 or N802... however, if you look at just the distortion specs for the bass, you will see the N803 is a substantial jump over the N804. A lot of people said the N803 only went a few Hz deeper, and that is true, but that is not the reason to get the N803. You get it for the improved midrange over the N804 (due to the larger midrange portion of the cabinet which was closer in volume to the N802 head), the 1dB higher sensitivity (yes, every 1 dB helps ... since it means you don't need to turn your amp up as much for the same volume... and USUALLY, distortion is higher at higher volumes so with a more efficient speaker, you can achieve higher quality sound if you're currently pressing your amp near it's limits where distortion is higher), and the higher quality bass (not more or deeper, just more ACCURATELY produced). If for one started with the 804 so I could explore it and really get to know it before moving to the 803... that way I would appreciate it more... that is probably the case for most people, especially if it's a HT setup where the differences would be less obvious... however, for somebody that was heavily into 2 channel and knew their stuff, they would be able to appreciate the N803 as the best overall value ($3500 for N804, $5000 for N803, and $8000 for N802) in the whole Nautilus range. I for one hope to upgrade to the N803S after a demo.

Cheers.