Scored on some speakers today, a question

[TastesLikeChicken]

Checked out the garage sales in the area today and one of the last ones was in a ritzy area of town. Ended up picking up these:

• Nautilus HTM2 center channel
• a pair of Nautilus 805 speakers

Price? He was asking $100 each and I talked him down to $175.00 for all 3. I don't know if he had no idea of their value or just had more money than brains. Either way, I wasn't asking any questions. The cabinets have a few rub marks on them from whatever they used to rest on but are otherwise perfect.

I have one question on these. It seems they can be bi-amped. Do they have to be bi-amped? If not, do the terminals have to be jumpered or do I just wire to a specific set of terminals?

 

[fralexandr]

Typically speakers don't need to be biamped, and you would just wire to 1 of the terminals. Biamping may improve audio quality when using an underpowered amp though.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

I currently have my Klipsch mains biamped but when using them in non-biamped mode there is a set of metal pieces that must be placed between the terminals. With these B&Ws there are no jumpers or a way, that I can see, to put such jumpers between the terminals. I'm just wondering if terminal jumpers are necessary with the B&Ws like they are with the Klipsches?

 

[Phanuel]

Some ground rules;

1. Bi-wiring is a scam. Anyone who says otherwise is being intellectually dishonest with you (salesperson, audiophool)

2. Bi-amp'ing is pretty much pointless for 99.999999% of the population out there. Highs don't take anywhere near enough power to run to merit needing an additional amp vs just buying a better amp in the first place.

3. You will need to jumper them if they have 4 posts on the back. Usually speakers come with a flat copper plate to link the 2 negative to each other and the 2 positive posts to each other. If you're missing these, just run a piece of 12-14awg wire between them. Or use the existing wire to your amp and just strip off an additional amount of the covering so that you can run it through both posts at once. Accomplishes the same thing.

 

[IamDavid]

Some ground rules;

1. Bi-wiring is a scam. Anyone who says otherwise is being intellectually dishonest with you (salesperson, audiophool)

2. Bi-amp'ing is pretty much pointless for 99.999999% of the population out there. Highs don't take anywhere near enough power to run to merit needing an additional amp vs just buying a better amp in the first place.

3. You will need to jumper them if they have 4 posts on the back. Usually speakers come with a flat copper plate to link the 2 negative to each other and the 2 positive posts to each other. If you're missing these, just run a piece of 12-14awg wire between them. Or use the existing wire to your amp and just strip off an additional amount of the covering so that you can run it through both posts at once. Accomplishes the same thing.

Thanks!!!! This helped my with the same question.

 

[JackBurton]

Nice score man.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Some ground rules;

1. Bi-wiring is a scam. Anyone who says otherwise is being intellectually dishonest with you (salesperson, audiophool)

2. Bi-amp'ing is pretty much pointless for 99.999999% of the population out there. Highs don't take anywhere near enough power to run to merit needing an additional amp vs just buying a better amp in the first place.

3. You will need to jumper them if they have 4 posts on the back. Usually speakers come with a flat copper plate to link the 2 negative to each other and the 2 positive posts to each other. If you're missing these, just run a piece of 12-14awg wire between them. Or use the existing wire to your amp and just strip off an additional amount of the covering so that you can run it through both posts at once. Accomplishes the same thing.

Thanks for the info.

Nobody ever sold me on biamping. My Klipsch mains were capable of biamping and so was the receiver so I tried it purely out of curiosity. I left it set up that way because, even though it made absolutely no difference to my ears, I was too lazy to pull everything apart again and return it to the standard configuration. That was 7 or 8 years ago.

 

[Phanuel]

Thanks for the info.

Nobody ever sold me on biamping. My Klipsch mains were capable of biamping and so was the receiver so I tried it purely out of curiosity. I left it set up that way because, even though it made absolutely no difference to my ears, I was too lazy to pull everything apart again and return it to the standard configuration. That was 7 or 8 years ago.

Yeah, sorry, I can come off crass a lot of the time. I'm not blaming you directly. And I understand completely. I want to clean up the mess behind my system, but it keeps being one of those "Ok, tomorrow I'll do this!" kinds of things.

 

[Scotteq]

Great Deal!! The current iteration of B&W's 805 are $5,000.00 a Pair, and are among the kings of their price/type. With good stands and careful setup, they'll sound great

Congratulations on a KILLER deal! I ar Jelly...



LInk to a current review: http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/bw-805-diamond-loudspeaker-tas-210/



With regards to BiWiring - don't bother.

 

[Number1]

Great Deal!! The current iteration of B&W's 805 are $5,000.00 a Pair, and are among the kings of their price/type. With good stands and careful setup, they'll sound great

Congratulations on a KILLER deal! I ar Jelly...



LInk to a current review: http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/bw-805-diamond-loudspeaker-tas-210/



With regards to BiWiring - don't bother.

Sounds too good to be true. Most likely the speakers were stolen. The real owner would have an idea how much they are worth. Pure speculation on my part of course but hey, I am entitled to my opinion.

As a mater of fact I just missed on a deal for a 5.1 Klipsch speaker system on sale for $350. Up here in Canada this is an exceptional price.
Here are the components:
Center RC35 black
Sides RB35 black
Rears. RS35 black
Sub RW12 black

We bickered back and forth over the price and he sold it to somebody else but the more I think of it and the more I think it was hot. He did not even have a receiver to hook it up so I could test it.

 

[JackBurton]

Sounds too good to be true. Most likely the speakers were stolen. The real owner would have an idea how much they are worth. Pure speculation on my part of course but hey, I am entitled to my opinion.

Those aren't the same as the current 805 Diamonds sold today. They are 805 S speakers that sold for ~$2500 back in 2007. Still great speakers and a great deal for what the OP paid.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Sounds too good to be true. Most likely the speakers were stolen. The real owner would have an idea how much they are worth. Pure speculation on my part of course but hey, I am entitled to my opinion.

It's pure speculation indeed. Like I said previously, I bought these from a ritzy neighborhoood, and when I say "ritzy" I mean multi-million dollar homes in one of the most desireable neighborhoods in the area. My wife's theory, since she did some research on the place we bought them from is that the younger couple who were having the garage sale inherited the place from rich parents who had passed away and were trying to move the contents asap because they had their eye on the bigger prize...selling the house for a couple million. There was a For Sale sign up at the house. To them the value of the contents was chump change in comparison.

 

[Soccerman06]

How the hell do people find these deals, all I ever see on cl is crappy htib.

 

[wirednuts]

yea no shit i always find the cassette decks for $0.25 cents

 

[Howard]

2. Bi-amp'ing is pretty much pointless for 99.999999% of the population out there. Highs don't take anywhere near enough power to run to merit needing an additional amp vs just buying a better amp in the first place.

That's not why people bi-amp, but yeah, OP doesn't need to.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

How the hell do people find these deals, all I ever see on cl is crappy htib.

I can tell you exactly how to do it:

1. Every Friday evening map out the garage sales/estate sales in your area that are listed in the local paper and on CL.

2. By 6:30am on Saturday morning start hitting those garage sales one after another.

3. Do it for 10+ years.

Rest assured that you will run into some great bargains over that time.

 

[Billb2]

Garage/house sales:

Had a neighbor lady that owned a resale shop. She taught me how to do it. TastesLikeChicken is absolutely correct!

Aside...
Wife had a yard sale. I put out a Dell computer and monitor, plugged in and working, $25
Friday, lotsa lookers, no sale.
Saturday, lotsa lookers, no sale
Sunday, changed price to $200 and the first person that looked at it bought it??????

 

[NutBucket]

People assume that if its too cheap it must not be worth their time. Its all a game.

 

[yhelothar]

Wow... must find some ritzy garage sales... what a goldmine.
These speakers still go for near $2k on ebay.
http://www.ebay.com/ctg/B-W-Nautilus-805-Main-Stereo-Speakers-/96874285

 

[vshah]

holy crap, that's an INSANE deal! congrats!

 

[Phanuel]

That's not why people bi-amp, but yeah, OP doesn't need to.

The speakers have a passive crossover. How is bi-amping going to do anything? Please give me an example of bi-amping, in the home theater realm, where it matters and should even be considered?

 

[Howard]

The speakers have a passive crossover. How is bi-amping going to do anything? Please give me an example of bi-amping, in the home theater realm, where it matters and should even be considered?

Are you asking questions to be better informed, or to win a fight? Jesus Christ. If it's the latter you can go hose off your dirty panties right quick, thanks.

 

[Phanuel]

Are you asking questions to be better informed, or to win a fight? Jesus Christ. If it's the latter you can go hose off your dirty panties right quick, thanks.

At this point, yes, I am in this to win a fight now that you've made it one with the personal attack.

So again, provide me with some evidence or a reason why a consumer would bi-amp.

 

[Howard]

At this point, yes, I am in this to win a fight now that you've made it one with the personal attack.

So again, provide me with some evidence or a reason why a consumer would bi-amp.

No, no, no. If you want someone to teach you something, you need to modify your approach. Come out with your guns blazing and I've got the business end of something else to show you.

 

[Phanuel]

So you don't care to actually provide evidence to the contrary? Fantastic. I'd still love to see some since I've yet to see any actual empirical evidence that bi-amping does a single positive thing.

I don't feel like I need to change my approach. The burden of proof is on you to provide evidence than adding an additional amp to a traditional home theater set of speakers with PASSIVE cross overs makes a difference in any way, shape, or form.