Hi all-

Thanks for reading. I need your help.

I am a music fanatic, but a neophyte to the world of better-than-average audio equipment. I am in the midst of making a step up, and feel good about the decisions I have made for my new amp and cd player. But I'm wavering a bit on the speakers, and need some advice.

I have just purchased (ordered, really) a Bryston b60 integrated amp, and a Rotel 1072 CD player. I love the way they sound, and am really excited for them to arrive.

I am strongly considering buying B&W Nautilus 805 speakers. It's a bit more than I wanted to spend, but I want to have speakers that do my system upgrade justice. And my fiancee has all-but-mandated (okay, mandated) that I purchase bookshelf speakers.

I've auditioned the 805s twice, and love their sound. I've compared them to the B&W CM2s, but the 805s really blow them away.

The thing is the bass. The 805s just don't carry the low bass octave. I'm not interested in shaking the foundations, but there are some songs that just sound a bit odd without a deep bass upon which the song is predicated. At first, the songs just sounded odd-- and then I realized that it was just the absence of that bass.

Would this issue be resolved if I get a sub-woofer (I think I can borrow a pretty good one from a friend)? Is there another bookshelf speaker that doesn't have this bass issue, or is it endemic to bookshelf speakers (which I've never owned before)?

Basically, is the 805 the smart buy if I can get a sub-woofer? Is the CM2 adequate? Is another bookshelf speaker better?

Thanks so much for any and all advice.