Interview with NHT On Loudspeaker Design Philosophy

A

admin

Audioholics Robot
Staff member
As long time fans of NHT Speakers, this behind the scenes interview gives you a glimpse of the reasons for their success for building no-nonsense speakers for over 25 years. We sat down with Chris Byrne, Co Founder/Owner, and Jay Doherty, Chief Engineer of NHT to get the scoop on the design philosophy behind their products. NHT builds speakers they themselves would want to own, free from pseudoscience but packed with quality components and real engineering design principles that Audioholics can get behind.


Discuss "Interview with NHT On Loudspeaker Design Philosophy " here. Read the article.
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
Thanks to Gene and NHT for this interview. I've owned and loved my NHTs since early 1998 (and loved them much more after using Pioneer's MCACC to tame my room). 16 years in, and I don't feel the need to change. Sure, I've felt the itch, but it's always just been a desire to change...not because I find these lacking. Instead of changing, I bought two more 1.5s on eBay in 2012 to move to a 7.1.
 
gene

gene

Audioholics Master Chief
Administrator
Thanks to Gene and NHT for this interview. I've owned and loved my NHTs since early 1998 (and loved them much more after using Pioneer's MCACC to tame my room). 16 years in, and I don't feel the need to change. Sure, I've felt the itch, but it's always just been a desire to change...not because I find these lacking. Instead of changing, I bought two more 1.5s on eBay in 2012 to move to a 7.1.
I have their new 02-ARC outdoor speakers in for review. The definitely crush my current outdoor speakers and possibly the finest outdoor speakers I've heard to date. Solid company!
 
Transmaniacon

Transmaniacon

Audioholic
Great interview, it's nice to get some insight on how they go about designing their speakers. I have some SuperZero 2.0s powered by a t-amp for my desktop, and they are wonderful to listen to. I found them to be more accurate and better sounding than the powered Mackie studio monitors they replaced.
 
fuzz092888

fuzz092888

Audioholic Warlord
The only NHT speaker I've ever heard was a center I purchased awhile back now. I can honestly say that I could have lived with that center for a lot longer than I did, which I think is saying something given the centers that came after it.
 
AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi
I used to own the NHT SuperZero +SW2P for over 10 years. I've listened to other NHT speakers over the years. They are truly great sounding speakers.

And I cannot believe the Absolute Zero has an average on-axis (listening window 200Hz-10kHz) of about +/-0.8dB on HTM. Is that an error, I wonder? Could AH confirm this measurement? :D
 
defmoot

defmoot

Audioholic
Thank you for the article/interview. Casual but informative. Well done.

I have the Classic Threes paired with an Outlaw EX. It's a solid, nice sounding 2.1 rig. The Threes reproduce clean, articulate, and to my ears, accurate sound. I've been an aggressive listening enthusiast since the 6th grade (1973) and was a musician for a while. In my estimation the one area where the NHTs really excel is in timber accuracy. Musical instruments sound like they're supposed to sound, and low-level details don't get lost in distortion or a goofy frequency response. They have a smooth midrange, nuanced highs, good horizontal dispersion, and throw a focused soundstage. You could do worse for a lot more money.

My previous "best/favorite" speakers were a pair of KEF model 101s bought new in 1983. They set the bar for me in terms of accuracy/performance/cost. I've owned a few other brands since then and listened to many others, but it wasn't until I heard the Classic Threes that I once again got the smile that comes with the intuitive satisfaction of knowing "oh yeah, that sounds about right."

Great sound, great value, purposeful design execution. Good to see NHT out and about.
 
sleepysurf

sleepysurf

Junior Audioholic
I still have their classic Sub Two, with it's superb outboard controller. Still going strong after 14 years!

However, it will be relegated to secondary Home Theater use soon, as I have a MartinLogan BalancedForce 210 on order (with acoustic measurement/room EQ capability).
 
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J

jbay

Audiophyte
Long time fan

Great article, I am always interested in NHT as I have been a long time fan. I started my NHT speaker collection back in 1994 with a pair of 2.3A towers, a pair of HDP-1 Dipole sides and a 1.1C center. I ran that for a long time back then with a Technics SA-TX1000 being pretty darn happy without a subwoofer. I had also bought two pair of Super Zero's at the time for two other zones in the old house.
A Classic Twelve sub was added at the new house in a dedicated room which finally got totally rebuilt a couple of years ago. The 2.3A's were still rocking so I gave them a little help. With the 9.2 Yamaha RX-A3010 and an AMC 2100, a pair of Boston Acoustics VS-210 subs and another pair of Super Zero's my configuration sort of got out of hand but I happily call it an 11.3 system using the Boston's as bases for the 2.3A's in the front and the Classic Twelve run off the line out of the AMC for the rear presence at the back of the room.

At this point if I stumble into any money I think the next upgrade will be room treatment. Does that tell you anything about how happy I am with the old NHT's??
 

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