This is a brief review of the NaO Mini open baffle speaker with hybrid crossover by John Kreskovsky.
John is one of the talented speaker designers around and sells plans for his open baffle speaker designs:
http://www.musicanddesign.com/NaOMini.htmlHe will also sell an assembled active crossover for his speakers, and I went for that option.
The cabinets were made by Nik Brewer, who also hangs out at the partsexpress forum. (For those who are wondering, the construction uses 3/4 inch MDF veneered with ash with a pickling white stain.) Thanks to both of them! A photo of the speaker appears on John's website:
http://www.musicanddesign.com/images/DSC_0797.JPGMy prior speakers were Dennis Murphy designed MBOW1 monitors, which I was running with dual x-subs from avs123.com. After listening to some high end speakers over the years, including the Linkwitz Orion, and the avs123's LS6 line array, I got the upgrade bug. However, I was in a bind because of WAF issues. The only suitable place for large speakers in our house is our living room, and my wife didnt want that space dominated by huge speakers. For example, I was eyeing the Salksound HT3, but she found them unattractive and huge. I showed her the website for the NaO Mini and she said she could live with something that small (basically, it is just a 11x42 panel, and she liked the post-modern minimalistic look).
We also liked the fact that these lightweight panels would be easy to disconnect and move to a corner if we needed to create space in the living room for a party. No hope of doing that with a Salk HT3!
Thanks to Nik Brewer for a good job at realizing the look we had in mind! My wife thinks these look nice (OK, after allowing for the fact that for her the nicest speakers in the living room would be no speakers).
Now for the sound. In a word, the sound is awesome. I have heard some very nice speakers, including the AVS123 LS6 line source, some nice speakers from Peak Consult, JM Labs, DeVore etc in the $5-10K range, and the Linkwitz Orion and the Pluto. I thought that the Pluto was nothing special compared to my MBOW1, but the orion was quite impressive. I think the NaO mini sounds better than most of them and quite possibly is not bested by any of them. (Bear in mind that both the Orion and the LS6 I heard were set up in rooms that were too small for them.)
My old MBOW1 monitors used to cast a very holographic sound stage, but the one from the NaO mini is even better. What I really like about them is the effortlessness and naturalness of the sound. Even at very loud volumes they sound extremely liquid and natural. Symphonic music truly comes alive. At the same time, badly recorded rock music sounds tolerable and not fatiguing. Well-recorded rock music like Pink Floyd or Dire Straits sounds amazing.
The room is large (basically the ground floor of a house with an open floor plan) and full of large glass windows. There is no room treatment. I am sure that the sound would improve with generous room treatment, but I have yet to find a solution with high WAF factor. But the sound is fantastic even without sound treatment.
The active subwoofers in this design are tiny, barely larger than the tiny x-subs I used to have (which is a plus from WAF considerations) but the bass response is very good. The 10" Peerless XXLS woofers go down lower than 25Hz in my fairly large room.
Total cost for these speakers (including an active crossover assembled by John K) is under $2K, of which $1300 is the cost of the drivers and sub amps and crossover parts. I think this is a reasonable alternative to open baffle designs like the Linkwitz Orion. John has managed to create a great design using reasonably priced drivers, a very simple and lightweight panel design, and only two channels of amplification.
Electronics used:
Esound E5 signature (used as transport) --> Audio Gd Dac 3SE --> Active crossover --> Audio Gd P1 preamp --> Audio Gd S1 integrated (used as power amp) --> Nao Mini panels
(By the way, the Audio Gd electronics is fantastic for the price too.)
