1
English
Limited Warranty
Dear customer,
Welcome to B&W.
This product has been designed and
manufactured to the highest quality
standards. However, if something does
go wrong with this product, B&W
Loudspeakers and its national
distributors warrant free of charge labour
(exclusion may apply) and replacement
parts in any country served by an official
B&W distributor.
This limited warranty is valid for a period
of five years from the date of purchase or
two years for electronics including
amplified loudspeakers.
Terms and Conditions
1 The warranty is limited to the repair of
the equipment. Neither transportation,
nor any other costs, nor any risk for
removal, transportation and
installation of products is covered by
this warranty.
2 This warranty is only valid for the
original owner. It is not transferable.
3 This warranty will not be applicable in
cases other than defects in materials
and/or workmanship at the time of
purchase and will not be applicable:
a for damages caused by incorrect
installation, connection or packing,
b for damages caused by any use other
than correct use described in the user
manual, negligence, modifications, or
use of parts that are not made or
authorised by B&W,
c for damages caused by faulty or
unsuitable ancillary equipment,
d for damages caused by accidents,
lightning, water, fire heat, war, public
disturbances or any other cause
beyond the reasonable control of
B&W and its appointed distributors,
e for products whose serial number has
been altered, deleted, removed or
made illegible,
f if repairs or modifications have been
executed by an unauthorised person.
4 This guarantee complements any
national/regional law obligations of
dealers or national distributors and
does not affect your statutory rights
as a customer.
How to claim repairs under warranty
Should service be required, please follow
the following procedure:
1 If the equipment is being used in the
country of purchase, you should
contact the B&W authorised dealer
from whom the equipment was
purchased.
2 If the equipment is being used outside
the country of purchase, you should
contact B&W national distributor in
the country of residence who will
advise where the equipment can be
serviced. You can call B&W in the UK
or visit our web site to get the contact
details of your local distributor.
To validate your warranty, you will need
to produce this warranty booklet
completed and stamped by your dealer
on the date of purchase. Alternatively,
you will need the original sales invoice or
other proof of ownership and date of
purchase.
Owner's manual
Introduction
Thank you for choosing Bowers &
Wilkins.
At B&W, we have always followed John
Bowers' original philosophy of combining
the art and science of acoustic design to
create simply a better product, the
objective always being to get the
maximum amount of enjoyment and
fulfilment from listening to music or
watching movies.
The original Nautilus 800 Series
contained a raft of new technologies that
propelled it to being probably the best
selling high-end speaker range in the
world.
Since then, our team of research and
development engineers have been
striving to improve performance still
further. Here is a short summary of what
you will find new to this Series.
Bass cones throughout now feature a
sandwich construction of carbon fibre
skins bonded to a Rohacell foam core.
Rigid diaphragms are best for
reproducing bass frequencies and this
new construction allows us to thicken the
cone section, without suffering increased
mass. The extra thickness makes the
cone a more effective barrier to any
residual sound generated inside the
cabinet, giving tremendous dynamics and
timing to the bass, with the secondary
effect of cleaning up the midrange.
The FST midrange drive unit receives a
new chassis – stronger, yet maintaining
the maximum open area behind the
diaphragm to minimise reflective
obstruction and allow the free flow of air.
The response of all B&W tweeters
extends well into the ultrasonic region –
important to realise the potential of
SACD and DVD-A recordings. Now, the
top models in the Series feature diamond
dome tweeters. They're difficult and
expensive to manufacture, but they take
the response all the way to 80kHz in a
smooth manner, superior to most so-
called supertweeters.
Crossover design – getting the signal to
the drivers with the minimum of
degradation and blending them
seamlessly together – has long been
regarded as something of a black art. For
this Series, our engineers have taken a
sideways look at some of the traditionally
held views of filter design and bent the
rules a little. The result is imaging with
unsurpassed perspective and stability.
These are speakers of the highest calibre
and it's worth taking care with the set up
of your system, so please take time to
study this manual. Further information
can be found in the FAQ and Technology
sections of our web site
www.bwspeakers.com.
How to use the manual
This manual covers all the passive
speakers in the 800 Series. Even if some
of the information does not immediately
concern you, having it all in one place
will help you in the choice of extra
models you may require to expand your
system at a later date.
Each of the sections carries an
identification number and you will be
guided to the relevant sections by
navigation instructions. marked with an
f arrow. Some text, applicable to only
certain models, is indicated by a vertical
line to the left.
Topic f Go to
Check the contents 1
Positioning your speakers 2
Mounting your speakers 3
Connecting your speakers 4
Fine tuning 5
Running-in period 6
Ancillary equipment 7
Aftercare 8
1 CHECK THE CONTENTS
Different accessories are packed
according to model. Use the chart of
figure 1 to check the contents for your
particular model.