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Worthing-based B&W is very much the 'market-maker' in the global hi-fi loudspeaker business. It's the biggest player in the serious hi-fi sector by a comfortable margin and has the resources--a large R&D team and new administration and production facilities--to keep itself ahead of the competition.

The effect of the 1997 Nautilus 800 Series launch was dramatic. Sales volumes doubled compared with the preceding Matrix 800 Series, while higher price points just about doubled the total value again. Indeed, in value terms the N800s actually overtook sales of the budget price 600 Series, which was unprecedented.

In Britain, the increase was even more marked, and was probably the key factor responsible for shifting the whole speaker sector away from beer budget products and towards more upmarket models.

Three supplementary models were added as an interim update in 2000--the new flagship N- and Signature 800s along with a luxury Signature 805 stand-mount--but the originals have soldiered on regardless, and have continued to chalk up healthy sales.

However, to anyone who heard a comparison between the earlier Nautilus 805 and the later Signature 805, it was obvious that B&W had already figured out a number of ways to refine and significantly improve on the sound quality of the original.

One claim for the new 800 Series is that it takes these improvements another substantial step forward and applies them to the whole range.

It would be most surprising if B&W didn't deliver the i performance and sound quality improvements it promises, and plenty of cogent technical reasons are promised in the accompanying white paper. The new models might look very similar to their predecessors, but apparently something like 90 per cent of the components have been changed.

Prices have increased significantly, which is only to be expected after seven years. The like-for-like increase seems to be around 20 per cent, though the top models in the range, all of which feature costly diamond diaphragm tweeters, are 50 per cent up on their predecessors

The technology headline grabber is the diamond diaphragm tweeter (used only in the D-suffixed models). Diamond theoretically has the best possible stiffness-to-density ratio, taking the break-up frequency up more than an octave from the aluminium dome's 29kHz to 74kHz for the diamond dome.

But B&W says the real reason for using the diamond diaphragm is simply that it sounds better. The downside is that synthetic diamond is also very difficult and costly to manufacture (using a vacuum vapour deposition technique), so its use is restricted to the more upmarket models

New suspension arrangements for both types of tweeter have lowered the fundamental resonance, allowing a simpler, less obstructive crossover network with just a single top quality capacitor in the feed.

For the three-ways, another major change concerns the bass driver cones. The new and much thicker diaphragms have a 'sandwich' construction, with 8mm-thick cores of Rohacell structural foam laminated between layers of woven carbon fibre, improving rigidity and reducing the transmission of unwanted sound from inside the enclosure.

The linearity of the magnetic motors driving the bass and midrange cones have also been improved, reducing distortion.

Familiar features from the N800 Series are still firmly in place, including: B&W's Matrix enclosure stiffening; the curved sides and back of the enclosures fabricated from a single piece of multi-layer plywood, and the external tube-loaded tweeters. The top models continue to use the large teardrop-shaped midrange enclosure.

SURROUND SOUND

Apart from the engineering changes, the whole range has been expanded. B&W found that around 60 per cent of its Nautilus 800 customers were opting for surround sound packages, so the home cinema side has been expanded. Two of three subwoofers now incorporate auto-set-up digital room correction.

And there are now no fewer than four different centre-front channel models, including a massive new HTM1D, nicknamed the Hummer.

Of seven stereo pairs, four--the 800D, 801D, 802D and 803D--carry the diamond tweeter. The remaining three--the 803S, 804S, and the stand-mount 805S--have the less costly aluminium alloy device. All bar the 805S are three-ways with B&W's unique FST midrange driver.

Apart from a little cosmetic tidying up, all these new 800s look very similar to the earlier Nautilus 800 Series.

However, dealers prepared to put on a high quality demonstration should convince customers of the good sonic value they offer, even if their appearance lacks novelty.