Mixing Nautilus with Diamond? Advice?

[Rob72]

Hi All,

As posted earlier I may be purchasing a fairly new (about a year old) pair of N802's for a good price.

I want to build a HT setup and am looking for a center channel. What are your thoughts about mixing the N802 with the new HTM2D or HTM3S? I know finding a used Nautilus HTM1 would be preferable but if I can't find one immediately is it worth purchasing one of the new centers?

I know the sound is not exact but has anyone tried mixing their setups? If so what do you think of the results? I wonder how much it matters for a HT application and if you would notice the difference? I have the impression it is fine and I may not notice the difference but I would like to hear the groups impressions and thoughts on the matter.

[Race Car Driver]

I was just on the BW site no more then 10 mins ago wondering the exact same thing myself.

[caleb]

You are lucky to have the choice - mixing a regular main with a diamond centre should pose no problems as most of the voice information comes from the centre and you will ge that benefit.

[jaakan]

Timber matching will be a problem, not sure how big of a problem it will be for you. See if a dealer will setup that kind of demo for you. Find out if dealers near you has a store "Demo" or unboxed older HTM2 or can get you one.

Hi All,

As posted earlier I may be purchasing a fairly new (about a year old) pair of N802's for a good price.

I want to build a HT setup and am looking for a center channel. What are your thoughts about mixing the N802 with the new HTM2D or HTM3S? I know finding a used Nautilus HTM1 would be preferable but if I can't find one immediately is it worth purchasing one of the new centers?

I know the sound is not exact but has anyone tried mixing their setups? If so what do you think of the results? I wonder how much it matters for a HT application and if you would notice the difference? I have the impression it is fine and I may not notice the difference but I would like to hear the groups impressions and thoughts on the matter.

[JKalman]

Hi All,

As posted earlier I may be purchasing a fairly new (about a year old) pair of N802's for a good price.

I want to build a HT setup and am looking for a center channel. What are your thoughts about mixing the N802 with the new HTM2D or HTM3S? I know finding a used Nautilus HTM1 would be preferable but if I can't find one immediately is it worth purchasing one of the new centers?

I know the sound is not exact but has anyone tried mixing their setups? If so what do you think of the results? I wonder how much it matters for a HT application and if you would notice the difference? I have the impression it is fine and I may not notice the difference but I would like to hear the groups impressions and thoughts on the matter.

If you are the only person watching movies, and you can sit centered between the speakers, you don't need a center channel if you have a preamp that can turn off the center channel (most do allow this). Then you can wait till you find exactly what you are looking for instead of settling for anything else. If you will have others watching movies with you then anyone who sits more than 8 inches or so off center will have problems.

Considering the pricing, and considering you bought N802s, I would try out the HTM3S first, but ultimately your best choice is to find the HTM2 like Jaakan said. Buying the diamond centers would be a waste of money IMO since the N802s don't have diamond tweeters. I think it would be worth while waiting for a HTM2 or calling all the dealers on the B&W local dealer listings. Also, try Audiogon daily and see if anyone has decided to sell one as well.

[Rob72]

Thanks for the input Jkalman. You must mean the older HTM1 not the HTM2. The HTM2 is the smaller center better matched with the 805/804 etc.

I agree that the diamond center may be a waste in this application. The new HTM3S must be pretty close to the old HTM1. I will have to check them out.

[JKalman]

Thanks for the input Jkalman. You must mean the older HTM1 not the HTM2. The HTM2 is the smaller center better matched with the 805/804 etc.

I agree that the diamond center may be a waste in this application. The new HTM3S must be pretty close to the old HTM1. I will have to check them out.

Yeah, sorry about that.

Buying into the Diamond series raises the price significantly, so it would be a waste of money, unless you were matching it with other Diamonds.

[JKalman]

On the other hand, since you were considering the 803Ds, you could always get the HTM2D and the 803Ds. That would be a perfect pairing. I would do that over buying used speakers from the previous line since there seems to be a huge difference between the previous B&W high end lines and the Diamonds. For instance, if I were given a choice between the previous 800 speaker and the 802D, reviews have stated that the 802D sounds better and measures better than the pevious 800 speaker, which to me, makes the choice easy. If this is a consistent change among all the diamonds compared to the previous line, then I would reconsider getting the N802 and buy the 803D. The lack of sibilance in the treble alone makes it worth the extra money. Every article I have read seems to make it clear that the differences between the old 800-803s and the new 800D-803Ds is significant. Besides which, you know how I feel about used speakers from my post on your other thread. Why risk buying someone's used equipment when you can own new ones and make sure they were never abused.