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REVIEW: NHT - Now Hear This 2.5i Speakers Review by Tubegroover at Audio Asylum

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The NHT family of speakers all have the same characteristic sound which is to say the design attempts to recreate the recording as accurately as possible. For this reason NHT products have been labeled from "Great Value" to as one retailer described the 2.5i's to me as "Shouty little devils". Both of the above descriptions are true under the best and worst of conditions. As you will note in the review of the Model 3.3's elsewhere in the review forum these speakers are very system dependent.

I have currently owned the speakers for about 2.5 years. I am a former Vandersteen Model 2C owner (10 years) and am familiar with many speaker systems. As in any case with a speaker system, set-up and matching ancilliary components are critical to realizing the full potential of the system. Some speakers are less dependent on system matching but ALL systems benefit greatly from it. It is time consuming and at times very frustrating and leads many owners to change systems more often than might be necessary if they just spent more time auditioning the products with the right components.

The NHT models and that includes all models are EXTREMELY sensitive to component matching. When I first heard the 2.5i I was quite impressed with the clarity and bass. Being an experienced listener and having played and listened to much live music as well as having heard many bright systems I was initially wary. There was potential but the components matched to the speaker were less than ideal. To me a speaker system has to recreate the music in a balanced manner. Descriptives like "warm,forgiving, revealing, rich, bright," can be very misleading in describing a system. The real test of how good a system is to me is how well is its tonal balance across the board when synergistically matched with the right components.I felt that the NHT's were promising especially in their respective price range.

I went home and brought back my equipment at that time McIntosh MC-60's; Audio Research SP-6A (both with modified power supplies). The speaker immediately came to life. I knew that in it's price range that it was what I was looking for. The speakers recreated all the music in a balanced manner with the only noticable shortcoming was that at times the lower midrange - upper bass sounded at times a bit thin. The low bass was excellent for the size of the speakers and also of great importance to me the speakers could play intimate music to full scale orchestral music quite loud without compressing. Very promising, hey what can you lose. I wasn't aware of any speaker in the price range that did so much so well, I bought them.

That was then, January 1998 and this is now, May 2000. My system has gone through some changes since that time. I have the same digital set-up I did when I purchased the speakers, JVC 1050 CD player with a PS Audio Ultralink and Cardas Lighting digital cable added. The current pre-amp is an Audio Research SP-8 Revision 3 stock unit with an Audio Research D-115 MK2 amplifier. Both the amp and pre-amp driver tubes have ARC tube rings. Speaker cable is the Audio Research Litzline and all interconnects are Harmonic Technology "Truthlink". Turntable is SOTA Sapphire with MMT arm and various cartridges, (my next project; upgrading the turnttable). My room has also changed. The wall to wall carpet is gone and in place is a laminate floor with an area rug and egg crates and pillows on the borders of the floor to absorb some of the reflected sound. Every little bit helps.

The system in a word is "music". That is to say that what these small speakers do is play music. Bright does not come to mind unless the recording is bright or a brass instrument is playing, (contrary to what I read about bright I must say that I haven't heard a brass instrument that doesn't sound "bright" live). Rich doesn't necessarily come to mind unless the recording is rich. Forgiving never comes to mind because NHT loudspeakers could never be described as such. What does come to mind is how much I enjoy listening to music when I turn on my system. I DO NOT get fatigued listening. Something is right here. All I think about when I listen is the music itself. To give an example of the music and what the system does I will illustrate. To me the ultimate judge of how good a speaker is is listening to large scale orchestral music and any good female vocal recording. The example I will use for the orchestral is Classic Records CD of the 1960 RCA recording of "Scherazade"
by The Chicago Orchestra; Fritz Reiner conducting. This is an excellent recording of a great performance. The last movement of this piece is a tour-de-force with all the instruments rising to a climatic Fortissimo that many (most that I have heard) music systems have a difficult time keeping pace with.

My system unravels all the music with the shadings intact! To me this is remarkable since I have heard many speaker systems which can't keep up. The music starts compressing. The kettle drums come through distinctly and all of the instruments maintain their tonal character while the dynamics are natural without compression. The Vandersteen's could not do this although they have a fine tonal balance they can't present the dynamic shadings as well nor do they have the transparancy of the NHT's.

I will not say that the NHT 2.5i's have the best midrange in this price range (the Magneplaners are clearly better) Nor do they necessarily have the best high's (there are many notable performers in this area) It is hard to imagine a speaker that has better bass for the money; at least I haven't heard it. What they do have is great transparency and excellent tonal balance. They are neither warm nor bright unless the recording is. They present the music on the recording without editorializing the sound. They are in a word neutral. For anyone thinking of a full range speaker (29hz-25khz) this speaker is a must audition. But remember this, if you are not prepared to match this speaker with the excellent electronics they deserve you may ultimately be unsatisfied.


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Topic - REVIEW: NHT - Now Hear This 2.5i Speakers Review by Tubegroover at Audio Asylum - Tubegroover 16:18:47 05/5/00 ( 3)