Apparently there is currently only one pair of Nimbus Black speakers located on the North East....and guess who got to have a 3 hour listening session with them!?? In keeping with the thanksgiving theme, I will say that I am very thankful to fellow audiocircle member dex67 for welcoming me to his home to behold the absolutely
AWESOME sound these speakers produced!
First things first: The music I brought over from my collection that we had a chance to hear, sounded THE BEST I'd ever heard them, no question. I brought CD's and some vinyl.
He played CD's and vinyl from his collection as well. My musical tastes are all over the map and I was absolutely delighted to find out that dex67 had wide tastes in music as well like, just as wide as mine! We played ALL kinds of stuff from acoustic guitar, to classical, to south african hip-hop (!!), to alt-rock, to soundtracks, to soul, to stuff that would just BREAK someone's system that didn't have the muscle/power to play it (he did play a track that managed to blow a dealerships amp that didn't heed his warnings because they were trying to show off how loud their system could play that particular track with ease).......you get the point. It was a no-holds-barred listening session! We played NONE of the standard audiophile fare from..........well YOU know. That stuff is great and all but there is SO much more stuff out there. No offence. I like those audiophile-show-standard's tracks as well when I'm in the mood....but whoever says there is no more good music?? Is just not really looking.
He is lucky enough to have a dedicated listening room and so there were no restraints in regards to music playback volume and that was just SO fun! You see, I live in an apartment......in NYC and so.....yeah, exactly. There is
definitely a limit to how loud I can go, and sometimes that is a bit of a bummer because (I don't know about you) but sometimes I feel the need to crank that volume nob (or button) to really swim in the sound. I go to live concerts from time to time and some of the musicians I see (not all of them), play at pretty high volumes [I wear musicians earplugs for safety] and feeling the bass and the kick-drum in my gut does something to me emotionally. I don't always need to feel that sound pressure but it is missed in a home listening environment with some types of music. Well the Nimbus Black's (NB) brought that "live" feel to some of my cherished music and that is a special achievement. I think it's mainly because of the levels we were able to play music without any distortion and with
awesome dynamics and a grand sense of scale (the pure
size of the sounds). The Vapor Sound dudes are doing something very right with the components they are using in the NB. You can talk to me all day about this cap you use in your crossover (or don't use) and that wood your speaker has that resonates (or doesn't resonate) and so on...but at the end of the day, the product has got to deliver. All aspects of the speaker should work in unison and then "take a step back" and let the music do it's thing. These speakers do that.
So let me say this about these NB....I set the volume for the first track or two that we listened to...then dex67 raised it even higher for the tracks he chose to play (and I was like F*$# yeah, this guy is
awesome)...and the NB "did not break a sweat", to use a well loved term. Again, I heard no harshness to the sound. That Raal Tweeter seemed to keep the cymbals and flutes and violins and chimes and all those sounds that live in the higher registers, clear and distinguished from the wonderful, intimate sounding vocals and....................THE BASS. The bass on these speakers is just phenomenal and plumbs the depths when the track requires it. I just can't get bass like that in my apt with my tiny speakers. Physics, you know? I brought the title track from the soundtrack "The Sheltering Sky" (epic, dramatic strings) and there were notes playing WAY down low that I just never ever heard before. And dig this: There were no sound treatments in this room. Like none.........now I'm not saying I don't believe in such treatments or that they couldn't have a positive effect on the sound of ones system. But dex67 put it simply. He trusted his ears and his ears said he didn't need any sound treatment....and my ears said the
same thing hahaha......No boomy bass here, and I feared they might be when I saw the size of that 15" driver and the large front facing bass ports. Not an issue. His room could take it. My current room could
not.
I flat out smiled and involuntarily laughed at the eerie realism of the sound coming from these speakers at times. A violin coming from the left channel during one of the tracks he played (can't remember which) was like WOAH, it was so real sounding. I had my eyes closed for most of our listening and instruments seemed to be coming from WAY out of the boundaries of the speakers. So yes, they are capable of producing a very wide/deep soundstage. I played a cut from a group called Sister Crayon called "Ixchel, The Lady Rainbow" which is basically beautiful soaring vocals over solo piano. On dex67's system, the piano sounded like it was way behind the right speaker and the vocals were dead center and clear and intimate (like the singer was right there singing just for us). I really had a better sense of the recording space they used because i could hear chairs creaking and something buzzing in the background maybe from an unused electric guitar amp in the recording room. I loved hearing all that extra stuff. It always sounds lovely on my headphones...but now it sounded like I could get up and walk around the recording space because the speakers seemed to project
that space into dex67's room.
I could talk all day about my time there and I don't have many people in my life who are patient enough to hear me go on and on about music and speakers so I'm putting my excitement on these here forums for you to enjoy and to say CONGRATULATIONS to the Vapor Sound team!!! These speakers are
stellar and I hope to have a dedicated listening room one day where I could have a speaker of this caliber to make my music listening as exciting as I heard at dex67's home with the NB.
I should also mention the "supporting cast" for that night because the speakers did NOT play themselves. There was stuff from Emerald Physics, Woo Audio, Jolida, Dana cable...and others......the important thing to mention is that they were NOT in the same price point as the NB and that was an interesting fact for me. He spent the bulk of his audio budget on the
speakers and it just goes to show that the speakers are
the most important component in an audio system. I mean, I've read this and heard people say it....but now I really believe it and I will remember that when it come time for me to upgrade my speakers.
Oh did I mention how cool the NB look?? Well dex67 says one of his friends said the NB look like "two big cows" (pause for laughter.........)
Yeah I thought that was funny as well haha. The wood finish was beautiful and his pair also had a carbon fiber "laminate" that a friend of his from the motor industry did for him because of a mishap (accident) during shipping and him not wanting to send the speakers ALL the way back to Vapor headquarters for fixing........Also, the requisite audiophile "knuckle tap" on the side produced a satisfyingly dead knock sound. He even invited me to try and give them a little push to see how hefty they were. Yes....hefty indeed. The website says they are 230 pounds. Yah, that sounds about right.
The best part of the night was the exchange of music that happened b/t us. He played tracks I'd never heard of, I played tracks
he'd never heard of. Sometimes I'd play a track and withing 5 seconds of it playing he'd say "Oh, I'm buying this album!" haha. That made me so happy! I just loved sharing some of the music that has touched me so much. He used an app on his phone to identify a track I would play so that he could order it later......technology huh? Crazy. I was a BIT more old fashioned? I took pictures of the covers of some of the albums he played stuff from right before we ended the night. I was downright giddy to hear some of the music I'd brought after realizing what this system could DO. There is a track from a group Warpaint called "Intro" off their latest album that has HUGE sounding drums (like John Bonham huge) and the NB played that track just how it should be played every time I hear it! Such commanding power of the enormous kick drum and bass sound, and yet still with great decay and shimmer of the cymbals and wonderful bite of the electric guitar (no vocals on that track).
I had one of the most exciting and fun experiences listening to music I may have ever had that wasn't live....and yes, we spoke about gear and prices he paid for stuff and he gave me a walk-through of his system etc etc...but that all faded away once we hit play. Just how I think it should be.
I'm desktop bound right now and you know what? That's exactly where i need to be right now and my system is SUPER enjoyable for me at this stage in my audio journey. I'm so lucky to have experienced the level of sound quality that a pair of Nimbus Black speakers can offer. It makes me curious of the other offerings that Vapor Sound offers...but for now the NB have left quite the impression on me.
You can't see me now (I hope you can't!) but I'm standing up and giving the Nimbus Black's a well deserved slow clap.
WELL. PLAYED 
