B&W Introduces Nautilus 800

New Model Functionally Identical to Landmark Signature 800 at Significant Savings

Hard on the heels of the debut of its Signature 800, Britain's leading audio firm, B&W Loudspeakers, has unveiled a more economically finished version of the same design. The new Nautilus 800 loudspeaker is electrically and acoustically identical to its more richly appointed predecessor, and thus achieves the same new standard for reproduced sound. But the Nautilus 800 forgoes the Signature version's elegant and unabashedly expensive finishes of tiger's-eye veneer and full-height Connolly Leathers (retaining this rich upholstery on its upper surfaces only) for simpler, more economical-but no less carefully crafted-materials.

The new Nautilus 800 is available in the three existing Nautilus exteriors-black ash, natural cherry, and red cherry-all featuring the exactingly hand-selected, meticulously matched wood veneers that have hallmarked the Nautilus Series from the beginning. In every other way, the Nautilus 800 is identical to the Signature model. It employs the same twin 10-inch bass units featuring improved bass dynamics for even more natural, lifelike attack as well as a significantly narrower, more "interior-friendly" form. The new model includes the same improved version of the Nautilus trademark 6-inch FST KevlarT midrange driver. And the Nautilus 800 enjoys the latest iteration of the acclaimed Nautilus tweeter, which now boasts a useful top-end limit of an unprecedented 50 kHz-very much in play, with the arrival of ultra-wideband SACD and DVD-Audio recordings.

Despite its simpler finish options, the Nautilus 800 retains the Signature 800's massive, non-resonant aluminum base. This incorporates an improved crossover, housed where it is entirely free of possible electro-magnetic influences by nearby drivers, with refined circuitry and exclusively custom-engineered components including re-designed WBT type 0702 palladium-plated terminals for unexcelled signal transfer and reliability. Of course, with the importance of multichannel playback in today's music and home-theater systems, the Nautilus 800 makes a perfect tonal and spatial match to its supporting cast, B&W's Nautilus HTM1 center and SCM1 surround-channel designs, each of which also exploits the enhanced performance of the newest midrange and high-frequency drivers.

The B&W Nautilus 800 is available immediately, at a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $16,000/pair.

Signature 800 Series Marks B&W Loudspeakers' 35th Anniversary

Improved Flagship Redefines "State of the Art"

N. Reading, MA (June 27, 2001): Some three years after the introduction of its Nautilus Series loudspeakers set new standards of performance for audio reproduction, Britain's B&W Loudspeakers has chosen its thirty-fifth anniversary to unveil an important advancement further along the same path. Just as the original Nautilus 801 flagship model brought the dynamic realism, timbral accuracy, and clarity of detail of reproduced sound to new heights, the Signature 800, kingpin of B&W's latest Signature Series delivers further gains in these key areas and more. At the same time, the Signature 800 and its supporting cast of Signature HTM center and Signature SCM surround models, commemorate the 35th anniversary of the firm's founding with stunningly refined design and unexcelled quality of woodworking, and finish.

"Somewhere 'up there,' [company founder] John Bowers is smiling," says B&W Loudspeakers Executive Vice President Chris Browder, "because the Signature 800 is far from just a change in form-factor or a cosmetic upgrade, or the most lavishly formed and finished speaker ever: -over- It incorporates everything we've learned, over more than a third of a century, about superior acoustic design." Continues Browder, "The Signature 800 is also a wonderful illustration of a classic B&W scenario: once a development project begins, its ultimate form and outcome is a bit unpredictable. Mike Gough, our Senior Product Manager at the Steyning [U.K.] Research Center, probably said it best when he observed that even though he had originally expected only incremental improvements from the Signature 800, the end result was far different. Mike said, '.time after time, I was struck by the Signature's improvements in dynamism and detail-retrieval-improvements that were anything but subtle.'"

The Signature 800, accompanied by the upgraded Signature HTM and Signature SCM center- and surround-channel models, includes both improved components and all-new elements. In place of the original Nautilus 801's single 15-inch bass driver, the Signature 800 employs twin 10-inch units-but each one is driven by the identical "motor" structure from the earlier design's single woofer. This doubling of drive capacity, with the same effective piston-area, yields improved bass dynamics for even more natural, lifelike attack, and also delivers more forgiving in-room acoustical interaction. Equally important, the new bass system also promotes a significantly narrower, more elegantly formed cabinet that proves a good deal more livable cabinet for real-world interiors.

In the midrange, the Signature 800 retains the familiar, spherical head enclosure crafted of B&W's proprietary, acoustically optimized MarlanT man-made material, housing an improved version of its trademark 6-inch FST KevlarT driver. -continued- However, the Signature's evolution now exploits a more powerful Neodymium-Iron-Boron magnet structure; combined with a thicker top-plate, this high-tech magnet's smaller diameter both lowers harmonic distortion and reduces time-domain "smearing" distortions, for still clearer, more defined vocal and instrumental timbres. The acclaimed Nautilus high-frequency driver also came in for incremental development, raising its useful top-end limit to an unprecedented 50 kHz. This achievement is very much in step with the new generation of ultra-wideband SACD and DVD-Audio recordings, for which the original Nautilus 800 has already been widely accepted as the production-monitoring reference standard.

Recognizing that multichannel music playback as well as home-theater reproduction are important features of the current audio landscape, B&W has simultaneously introduced Signature Series editions of its top-line center- and surround-channel models, the Signature HTM and SCM. Each enjoys the enhanced performance of the newly refined midrange and tweeter transducers, for elevated timbral accuracy and detail retrieval, maintaining a cohesive surround-reproduction whole with the Signature 800.

Entirely in the tradition of earlier B&W Signature Series, the Signature 800, HTM, and SCM feature remarkable craftsmanship and finish. The 800's enclosure's elegantly curved back-and-sides paneling, of hand-selected Tiger's Eye veneers, is luxuriously finished in piano-gloss lacquer while the speaker's top and front surfaces are upholstered with the finest, unblemished black Connolly leathers-the same found in Rolls-Royce, -over- Bentley, and Aston-Martin motorcars. The Signature HTM and SCM are produced in matching Tiger's Eye veneers, with matching piano-gloss finish.

The Signature 800's cabinet redesign provided an opportunity for more than just an aesthetic makeover. Supporting the new model both physically and electro-acoustically is a massive, non-resonant aluminum "plinth"-base. This also houses improved crossover circuitry where it is entirely free from the signal-modulating influences of large ferrous-metal masses and moving magnetic fields. The Signature 800's crossover exploits prodigious, custom-engineered polypropylene capacitors and air-core inductors throughout, and makes its connections via all-new, WBT type 0702 palladium-plated terminals for ultimate signal transfer and longevity.

The B&W Signature 800, HTM, and SCM will be available in July, 2001.

Manufacturers suggested retail prices:

Signature 800: $20,000/pair Signature HTM $3,000/ea. Signature SCM $3,000/pair

B&W Bows Arrestingly Different Small Loudspeaker, Matching Compact Subwoofer

Britain's B&W Loudspeakers has introduced the VM1, the latest addition to its Leisure Monitor family of highly adaptable loudspeakers. Combining a radical new shape with genuinely "high-end" sonic performance, the VM1 brings unprecedented versatility to stereo, and home-theater and audio systems, complementing the Leisure Monitor range's existing LM1 and expanding the options for compact, affordable, appealingly designed multichannel systems. Extending the family further still is the new AS1, an ultra-compact active subwoofer engineered to offer either Leisure Monitor design the support of powerful, accurate low-bass response.

The VM1 is dramatically slim, a profile that enables it to serve any of the five positions of a surround system to great effect whether it is oriented vertically on its cleverly integrated stand/mounting bracket, or horizontally, as at the center-channel position, on its supplied, removable "foot." No wider than your hand, the VM1 nonetheless incorporates key B&W technologies: a surprisingly powerful, long-throw 5-inch B&W cone bass/mid driver; a vented enclosure using the firm's proprietary FlowportT dimpled, turbulence-controlling port; -over- a high-performance 1-inch dome tweeter for accurate, extended playback and the kind of smooth off-axis response and excellent in-room balance expected of any B&W design. The result is vocal realism, musical life, and dynamic impact that far exceed conventional notions of what a compact, "lifestyle" loudspeaker can deliver.

While the VM1 works wonderfully in identical, five-piece surround arrays, it's design also encompassed careful matching to its sibling, B&W's compact and colorful LM1. The most commonly seen arrangement will very likely be three VM1s across a system's "front-stage," with the space-saving LM1s serving up the surround channels. Nevertheless, careful timbral matching of the two models makes it eminently possible to mix and match at will.

AS1 Subwoofer Also Debuts

The AS1 is a very compact powered sub that combines a 6.5-inch driver with sophisticated electronics, including selectable Movie and Music modes to optimize its performance. Its vented enclosure, featuring B&W's unique Flowport system for noise-free sound even at very high levels, closes the deal for astonishing bass extension: as deep as 27 Hz in the AS1's "Movie" mode. The new sub's on-board power of 75 watts continuous ensures ample dynamic ability, even in comparatively large spaces, while its provision of signal inputs in both speaker-level and line-level formats makes integrating the AS1 into most any system flexible and easy.

The B&W VM1 and AS1 will be available immediately, at manufacturers suggested retail prices of $400.00 and $250.00 respectively.