What am I giving up going from CDM9 NT>805s

[jonnyz]

Hi all

I am moving to a new condo this weekend with a great room type layout. The center wall is a fireplace with built ins on either side. as a result of this, I will not have room for the floor towers anymore and have decided to get a pair of 805's. I know they are a step up in lines but I will obviously be losing some punch.

I will hang my TV above the fireplace and get a B&W flat panel series(fpm6?) for the center. I listen to mostly 2 channel and really want to stay with b&w.

Anything else I will lose? any suggestions?

[DM3000 Owner]

Hi all

I am moving to a new condo this weekend with a great room type layout. The center wall is a fireplace with built ins on either side. as a result of this, I will not have room for the floor towers anymore and have decided to get a pair of 805's. I know they are a step up in lines but I will obviously be losing some punch.

I will hang my TV above the fireplace and get a B&W flat panel series(fpm6?) for the center. I listen to mostly 2 channel and really want to stay with b&w.

Anything else I will lose? any suggestions?

I have never heard the CDM's, but I have heard the 805's. If I had to give up my 801's, I could live hapily ever after with the 805's (I listen at relatively low levels). Add a JL Audio F113 sub, tight bass and a really small footprint.

[Jeffk]

only some bass, but everything else is better

I have 9NT's in my HT setup, but have never been happy with them for music. Have a sunfire sub, and with or without, just doesn't come close to my main system with old 803series2's. Tried a pair of N805's last year for a few days and was much happier with these than 9NT's for music, almost pulled trigger, but decided I will wait and actually get used N803 or 803s someday soon to front the HT system (liked them even better than 805, no kidding$$$). Short answer: MUCH preferred 805, even without sub, as I'm not a basshound. Much more involving, engaging and real sounding. Found myelf tapping my feet with 805's, not so with 9's. Heard 805s recently, as was equally impressed. Do it!

Regards...Jeff

[DM3000 Owner]

I have 9NT's in my HT setup, but have never been happy with them for music. Have a sunfire sub, and with or without, just doesn't come close to my main system with old 803series2's. Tried a pair of N805's last year for a few days and was much happier with these than 9NT's for music, almost pulled trigger, but decided I will wait and actually get used N803 or 803s someday soon to front the HT system (liked them even better than 805, no kidding$$$). Short answer: MUCH preferred 805, even without sub, as I'm not a basshound. Much more involving, engaging and real sounding. Found myelf tapping my feet with 805's, not so with 9's. Heard 805s recently, as was equally impressed. Do it!

Regards...Jeff

I agree, but I still say get a sub. I never understood until I bought the F113. It was so easy to adjust to blend smoothly into the system and the bass is so tight and solid, but adjusted so that it sounds natural.

[jonnyz]

I am going to give the 805s a listen Saturday

I will report back what I find. I am excited to see the difference. I wish I had space for the 803's but I just can't do it without messing up the flow of the living area....


I liked the 9nt's but am surprised to read so many people saying they are not musical...

thanks for your comments :P

[DM3000 Owner]

I will report back what I find. I am excited to see the difference. I wish I had space for the 803's but I just can't do it without messing up the flow of the living area....


I liked the 9nt's but am surprised to read so many people saying they are not musical...

thanks for your comments :P

What electronics are you using with them?

[jonnyz]

Rotel rmb 1095 + rsx 1055

are what I have now. I am going to sell my 1055 and buy a 1069 sometime in the near future.

[DM3000 Owner]

are what I have now. I am going to sell my 1055 and buy a 1069 sometime in the near future.

I heard the 805s's with Arcam FMJ, very nice. Have never heard the Rotel but it has a great reputation. I am partial to Musical Fidelity, I use it for the CD and preamp in two systems that I have.

[Jeffk]

Rotel & B&W nice combo

Have heard Rotel demo's with various B&W speakers and have to say they sound exceptionally musical together. For various reasons I don't have Rotel in any of my systems but wouldn't hesitate. I have old Acurus DIA100 powering old B&W 803s2 in living room (LOVE THIS SYSTEM), and Pioneer VSX 49sx (or some combo of numbers and letters like that) HT receiver powering the 9NT's. It was on this system that I compared the N805 to the 9NT's. Now I've got Sonos and have picked up several Apogee Mini-DAC's trying to improve that sound to audiophile quality (compared favorably to benchmark DAC for almost $300 less).

Jonnyz: How did the 805 audition go?

[jonnyz]

The audition went well...the 805s did indeed sing and

they surprised me. I was not expecting them to sound as good as they did for stand-mounts. Shows you what I know. Classe amps and musical fidelity source.

Great imaging and soundstage. We demoed the new Kraus/Plant CD and some Diana Krall(I forgot my cd's at home) I really enjoyed the setup and may very well go with them. This dealer is about to become a Mcintosh dealer this week so I wanted to demo them with the Mac stuff and see what I think.

He plugged in a set of Anthony Gallo Reference 3.1 which were stunning. If I go floorstanders I will seriously consider them.

I will report back in a few days as I listen some more!

He also had a set of 804,803s,803D,802 and I decided to NOT listen to any of them cause I know me too well. I go in to spend 2800 and walk out light north of 10K :B

[dknightd]

When I bought my speakers (703) I also listened to 805 and 804 (and 802 which did not fit my wallet) and other brands.

I might be wrong, but I think cdm9 is about the same as 703.
To my ears the 805 gave up bass and midrange.
They had advantage in trebble.
804 was marginally better than both, but not enough for me to have to borrow money for.
YMMV. Buy what you like (i'd keep your current speakers and buy nothing - by the time you put the 805's on a stand you gain no floor space - of course you could mount the 805 from the wall I suppose). Some people may prefer the 805 to the 703 (cdm9), but not me . . .

[Jeffk]

McIntosh??

I am really interested in what you think of the Mac stuff with the 805s. All I can say is that about 6-9 mths ago I went into Harvey Sound on Long Island to listen to the ERA 4's for my bedroom, and while there, listened to some other floorstander (Sonus Faber maybe?). Anyway, listened first via NAD M3 integrated, and sound was fine. Then he switched to Mac's 6500 integrated and WOW!!!! I was blown away. Musical and ALIVE! In fact, he played the little ERA's via the mac and they sounded incredible too. Couldn't believe what the mac could make them do. Of course, bought the ERAs, brought them home to an old NAD integrated, and...oh well...good, but not the mac (of course not the $4-5000 for the 6500 or 6900 mac either).

Let me know what you think of the mac when you hear it.

[DM3000 Owner]

I am really interested in what you think of the Mac stuff with the 805s. All I can say is that about 6-9 mths ago I went into Harvey Sound on Long Island to listen to the ERA 4's for my bedroom, and while there, listened to some other floorstander (Sonus Faber maybe?). Anyway, listened first via NAD M3 integrated, and sound was fine. Then he switched to Mac's 6500 integrated and WOW!!!! I was blown away. Musical and ALIVE! In fact, he played the little ERA's via the mac and they sounded incredible too. Couldn't believe what the mac could make them do. Of course, bought the ERAs, brought them home to an old NAD integrated, and...oh well...good, but not the mac (of course not the $4-5000 for the 6500 or 6900 mac either).

Let me know what you think of the mac when you hear it.

I don't want to derail this thread, but I was looking at N805's for my office and bought ERA Design 5's. The B&W's were just too big to put on my desk and the ERA's are a really good size for this. Someone on this forumrecommended these to me.

I listened to the ERA's with a Panasonic SAXR55 receiver for about 6 months and just recently upgraded to a Musical Fidelity CD PRE 24 and QSC 200 WPC amp (I had the amp in storage). Wow. The performance jump is amazing. These are definately in the audiophile league.

FYI - there is a CD PRE 24 for sale on Audiogon right now. Great preamp/cd player/DAC in one box and Musical Fidelity makes great gear.