NHT 1.5 bookself speaker system, short review.

[Seth=L]

I am very glad I decided to get these things. I only paid $60 for them because I purchased them used from a pawnshop. I figured since they retailed for $600 new, I thought that 1/10 price was pretty darn good.

These are deffinetly the best speakers I have owned, even better than my PSB floorstanders, they just aren't near as bright as the Infinitys or the PSB's. These little things have nice silky highs and are very accurate near as I can tell.

These speakers need a sub to complement them, as they are acoustic suspension and small they don't get much deeper than say 65hz (just as a guess based on listening).

I have been testing the speakers with some older cd recordings, Alan Parson's Project, I' Robot and Susanne Vega's Retrospective (greatest hits). "The Voice" on Alan Parson's has a very open passage with strings and some synth instruments that I find very involving, and it openned up the soundstage and showed these speakers true colors, pun intended. With Susanne Vega's "Caramel" I noticed every detail in her voice, warm and grainy at the same time. The song itself has a very warm sound to it in generall.

If I had purchased these speakers new at retail, I would have rated them 7 of 10. Being that I got them on the cheap with some damage (cosmetics only, ding on one of the corners) I would give them 10 of 10. After spending a couple of hours of getting the finger prints off the finish they look very nice, aside from the ding on the right speaker on the top, front, right corner.

Anyone feel free to post your thoughts and experiance with these speakers or similar ones.

 

[Sheep]

Everything you said fits with what was said on Audioreview. Very accurate, sometimes bright, bass shy speakers.

I'd love to hear those, or any NHT's for that matter.

SheepStar

 

[Seth=L]

I just can't beleive I got $600 speaker that were discontinued last year after a very long run (like 10 yrs) for only $60. I am still bugin about the HSU STF-2 I got for $70 from the same pawnshop, just crazy.

 

[googdot]

good score!!! and thanks for the review

 

[Seth=L]

Thank you, googdot. Do you have experiance with these speakers?

 

[googdot]

hi seth. not personally, but a mate of mine has these in his second system setup and they have always been on my shortlist for a decent bookshelf speaker. and they must be great with a sub...enjoy! cheers frank

 

[Adam]

Seth,

Congratulations, that was one excellent buy! I bet somebody was sad to part with those. I paid $600/pair for two pairs (one main, one surround) back in 1998. They were quite a step up from my Radio Shack Mach 2's. For years, I had them paired with a Yamaha RX-V992. That receiver was great for home theater, but pretty bad for music. The combo was overly bright and harsh with most music. I now have a Pioneer receiver, and the combo of it with the NHTs is much better. Smoother, less harsh.

Did you get the piano black finish? Pretty slick looking. I liked their wood finish better, but it was hard to come by when I was in the market.

Adam

 

[Seth=L]

Mine are the high gloss black. I think the wood finishes with any NHT speaker is limited production and may cost more as well.

I really like these speakers, extremely transparent sound. They can scream if they want to without distortion. The tweeter is just awesome with a roled surround tweeter breakup shouldn't pose any problems for me now.

 

[Seth=L]

God, I love these speakers. Sorry for the Political incorrectness, but they just keep surprising me. I recently acquired some BIC America Cinema One C-8.3's from a friend for a cheap $20. Because my sub is currently broken, bad power supply, I decided to use the internal low-pass x-over and send a signal to the amp.

I used a Y-adapter to connect the mono sub pre-out to 2 channels of the amplifier, so two channels are used to power the NHT's and two for the sub out (one channel is unused). Then I hooked up the two BIC's to the sub outs at the amp and stuck them in the corner so they would not cancel one another out. Each BIC has two 8" woofers and a rear reflex port, so they have good extension. They are also efficient because BIC has efficient speakers, with harsh tweeters but I obviously am not making use of those.

Well I couldn't be happier right now, spending less than $100 dollars on a good sounding speaker system. Were the NHT's lose their edge in bass the BIC's pick it up and take it down to the low 30's. While it is not sub performance, it is quick and punchy. So I have fast accurate bass and sweet silky highs and a pretty solid midrange.

If I calculate the MSRP of my entire system and put it against price paid, well lets just see. The preamp was $600 usd and got it for $90 usd, The Carver amp was $1100 usd got it for $300, Pioneer Elite PD-65 was $800 got it for $90, The Toshiba SD-9000 was $1000 usd got it for $40 HA!, NHT's for $600 and got for $60, BIC's for $450 got for $20. Total system retail: $4550 usd. Total system cost to me: $600! Just enough to purchase the NHT's new. I have omitted the M&K MX-100 because it need repaired (just a $75 power supply and it will be up and running again), but it retailed for over $1000 and I got mine for $350. It destroyed my Sunfire True Subwoofer MKI. Having heard the M&K I knew that I had screwed myself by getting the Sunfire, you live and learn, huh?

So if you ever think that you cannot have a good sounding system because it is to expensive, think again. With patience and less concern for remotes (get a nice universal like a Harmony) and cosmetics ("hey, even the Mona Lisa's falling apart") then you can have a very respectable system.