Snail Nautilus -- Tube + SS combo

[fatcat]

It sounds like there are two of us here (hi Aldo) seriously pondering a Nautilus purchase. And we both already have McIntosh amps in our current system.

I listened to some tube Glass Master amps yesterday at the Dynamic Audio showroom in Tokyo (truly one of the most astounding audiophile showrooms in the world -- definitely pay a visit if you ever find yourself in Tokyo). They were a bit pricey at $80k/pair, but every technology has its strengths. It's commonly believed that the best tube amps have some advantages in the high end, although they are bested by solid state in the low end.

The Nautilus provide a rare opportunity to choose separate amps for each driver, and I wonder how the following combination would sound: two McIntosh MC501 solid state amps for the bass and low-mid, followed by two McIntosh MC2102s tube amps (bridged mono for 200 watts/channel) for the upper-mid and tweeter, for each speaker.

A cheaper option would be to run the MC2102s in regular stereo and buy only one for each speaker, followed by one MC402 for the lows for each speaker. This would cost roughly half for likely little loss in quality, but then again, if you go far enough to buy the Nautilus...

Thoughts, anyone? I know there are many Classe fans out there, but it's just not my cup of tea.

[Aldo]

Hi fatcat:
My question is:
The Nautilus manual said you must use exacly the same amps, with the same gain on every stage of the speaker but the B&W webpage said they recomend a 500 watts amp for the bass stage right!
So; If you use defferent gain amplifiers how will you compensate the volume difference of the amplifiers?
The crossover does not know the gain of the amps and it will send the exactly same volume signal to every amp, if you use a bigger amp for the bass I believe you will get a louder signal to that driver! :scratchhead:

[Aldo]

Post some pictures of your setup fatcat!!!!! :later:

[fatcat]

Hi Aldo,

I believe that as long as the sensitivity is the same on the amps, they can be combined for the Nautilus. Thus Classe + McIntosh will not work, but every current McIntosh amp has the same sensitivity (according to Ron at McIntosh), and thus should be able to be combined for the Nautilus. I will confirm this with B&W again before purchase of course.

I'm currently using a bunch of things -- five Genelecs w/ a McIntosh MX119 and a massive Genelec sub (truly earth rattling) for the office, McIntosh MX135 with MC207 and five 703s for home theater, a separate studio set-up again with Genelecs and Apogee converters, etc. It's a mix of studio and audiophile. No time for pics with new baby and work -- will have to work on that.

The 703s were temporary until the 802Ds came out, to which I was planning on upgrading. Then my wife balked at the great intrusion of yet more and bigger speakers, especially the hummer center channel (which I love). She much prefers the Nautilus look, and what can I say to that...

[Jesse111]

The 703s were temporary until the 802Ds came out, to which I was planning on upgrading. Then my wife balked at the great intrusion of yet more and bigger speakers, especially the hummer center channel (which I love). She much prefers the Nautilus look, and what can I say to that...

You can say; "Ok honey, I'll go ahead and the the snails. I just want you to be happy".

[dyazdani]

Yes, the amps will have to have the same gains or you'll have to add another link in the chain to be able to adjust the signal on each amp.

[dyazdani]

Then my wife balked at the great intrusion of yet more and bigger speakers, especially the hummer center channel (which I love). She much prefers the Nautilus look, and what can I say to that...

I think you can work around this problem :lol: