Back about 1993, I hired a man to work with me. His wife worked for a company that made speakers in Lisbon Maine called; New England Audio Resource. He told me of how they made speakers with no spiders. Instead, the voice-coil was in a ferro-fluid that would sue the magnetic field of the coil to center it. The stronger the signal the more centered. The fluid also worked to cool the coil, so more power could run through the coil. This allowed them to give the speakers a massive magnet and an absurd throw.
He told me that they had aluminum cones and that at demonstrations they would put them in a fish tank and they would continue playing. I thought these were great gimmicks. Then he played a pair of small bookshelf speakers and switched to his Fischer floor-standing speakers. I was impressed. I went to the local HiFi store and got a demo of a tower speaker set. They had copies of Stereo Review where the reviewer said that to get a better sounding speaker, you would have to pay $5,000 each. The pair sold for $2499.
Years went by and I remembered them. When I bought a house and was looking for a Hifi system, I looked them up. Unfortunately, they no longer made home stereo products. They were purchased by Bogen and now manufacture exclusively outdoor speakers. I was sad. Then, I bought a pair from ebay used. I loved them. Then someone had a 6.5" driver for sale. I bought it. Then someone had a ceiling model with a 6.5 inch woofer and a 1" inverted dome tweeter. I bought that. Then someone had 8 matching 5.25" drivers they took from a set. I bought all 8.
Now I needed to make my own cabinets. I found a design and then modified it to the point it was unrecognizable. I made 2 towers and a center speaker. Each had two 5.25” woofers. Now I needed a mid and a tweeter. I went to ebay and found new-oldstock of Lineaum tweeters. I bought a pair. Then I looked all over the internet trying to find a great match for the mids. I tried some Bose drivers I had kicking around. I tried some JBL’s. Wasn’t happy. On a whim I bought a pair of Teac NXT speakers from Goodwill for $6. They were perfect. I looked them up on the internet and many audiophiles had said they were incredible for the microsystem sold by Teac and by Brookstone. Their range is 900hz to about 16khz. Because they are flat speakers, the dispersion was not overpowering, yet the speakers are very efficient.
I bought a 3 way crossover set for the towers. Then I used three individual crossovers for the center channel. I should have bought a third three-way. Crossed them over at 900hz and 4.5khz. The NEAR woofers will produce a good signal much higher than 900hz. They sound phenomenal. I have some JBL towers (E86) and the Hybrids eat them alive. The bass is deeper and clearer. The treble is loud without being sharp. The soundstage is phenomenal.
About the time I got the front speakers finished, someone put some NEAR Studio Monitors for sale on ebay. I purchased those to use as the surround speakers. They have one 6.5” woofer and one 5.25” full range speaker in each. Then I use the E85 JBL’s as the rear speakers in a 7.2 setup. I intend to use the 6.5” woofers and the NEAR tweeters I have for rear speakers when I have time to build them.
I used 1.25” x 11.5” x 4’ Oak stairtreads for the sides, top and bottom of the cabinets. (Lumberliquidators was having a sale on them.) I used 0.75” Oak for the front and back. The woofer cabinet stops just under the mids. It is ported in the back. I was lucky enough to find a set of tweeter covers of an old Radio Shack Optimus LX5 speaker set. Currently, I have a generic horn in the center channel. I will likely change that to a ribbon tweeter when I find the right one. All wiring is 12 gage except for the tweeters.
I am convinced that New England Audio Resource are the best speakers I have ever heard. I am very familiar with: Klipsch, JBL, Bowers & Wilkens, Mission, Martin Logan, Miller Kreisel, and some other high end speakers that I can’t currently bring to mind. The only bad part about my system is that it is likely irreplaceable. With luck, it will outlast me.
