Anyone here heard the NHT Xd system yet?

ZooDog · « **on:** 23 Jan 2006, 08:59 pm »

These speakers have really piqued my curiosity. I'm a fan of active speakers and these seem like the logical next step in speaker design. Have any AC'ers had a listen yet?

http://www.nhtxd.com/

CJ Paul · « **Reply #1 on:** 23 Jan 2006, 09:00 pm »

There's a review of them in Stereophile from a few months back.

ZooDog · « **Reply #2 on:** 25 Jan 2006, 03:40 am »

Well, I actually got a chance to listen to them at a dealer today. I knew that the XdS satellites were going to be small, but I wasn't expecting them to be this small. These speakers and the accompanying XdW subwoofer will fit into any room physically, if not visually. I thought that they looked really cool with the burgundy and blonde color scheme. There were a few issues: the room wasn't great (3 glass walls), there were at least 12 other pairs of speakers in there, and the left/right channels were reversed. I've heard a couple of other speakers in this room before (Thiel 1.6, B&W Sig. 805) and I recall these demos as being a little uninspiring, so I wasn't expecting much.

I only had about 20 miinutes with the system and I listened to a couple of Sting tracks, and several unfamiliar tracks of off the Dali Demonstration CD. Since I wasn't familiar with most of the music I can't get real specific, but the word pure keeps popping into my head when I want to describe the sound. The treble was as smooth as I've heard, and definitely is making me think that there is a problem in that area in my own system. The soundstage was wide and uncongested, and there was very good depth there, too. Imaging was very good, but again, the setup was clearly hindering the system from showing its true abilities in this area. Having the channels reversed was not helping me either.

The bass module was placed along the front wall with about 6 other various subs so it was not optimally set up and this showed in the form of little bit of bass boom and a very slight disconnect between the bass and the rest of the music. I blame this completely on the less than ideal set up. The XdW seemed quite potent, though.

Despite the issues with the room and the setup, I could tell the Xd system is something special, and warrants further investigation. There was a remarkable purity and coherence to the sound that I've only heard from very expensive systems in professionally designed and treated rooms. I wish that I had my own music with me and more time to listen, but I heard enough to know that there was something good happening with the Xd.

If you have a chance to hear these, do so, because I guarantee you will be impressed by what it can do. The salesman (who was very knowledgeable and helpful) said that a lot of the other salesman kind of ignore the Xd system because it is so much different than what they are used to selling, but we both agreed that it probably represents the future of speaker design.

Loftprojection · « **Reply #3 on:** 25 Jan 2006, 03:38 pm »

Very interesting comments. I currently have an NTH kit from the early 90s and I've always been very surprised by their performance versus many other speakers. This new "system" seems revolutionary, you basically buy an amp directly with your speakers, wouldn't be surprised if it's a digital amp. Did they tell you the price of the kit?

CJ Paul · « **Reply #4 on:** 26 Jan 2006, 02:36 pm »

I think that full EQ is one way of the future, but not necessarily THE way. EQing has its costs, both financial and musically, so it will never be the be-all, end-all for everyone.

ZooDog · « **Reply #5 on:** 26 Jan 2006, 07:59 pm »

Loft -

The system includes 4 channels of 100 watts of digital amplification for the satellites (2 for the tweeters, 2 for the woofers), and the sub has 500 watts built-in. The price is $6,000 with 1 sub, or $7,200 with 2 subs. Not cheap, but the sound this thing produces is easily worth that, IMHO.

CJ -

I agree that for treating room problems EQ is not a total solution. But the Xd actually uses DSP to EQ the drivers themselves. So if the tweeter has a 3 db peak at 6000hz it can be easily smoothed out digitally. Traditionally something like this would have to be done very skillfully via the passive crossover. The DSP in the Xd also allows the system to maintain perfect phase and time response.

I suggest reading Kal Rubinson's review in Stereophile. He can explain this stuff much better than I.

http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/1105nht/index.html

Branwell · « **Reply #6 on:** 26 Jan 2006, 08:14 pm »

If you are interested, here is the URL to the company that does the DSP for Xd system.

http://www.deqx.com/index_content.html

Branwell

CJ Paul · « **Reply #7 on:** 26 Jan 2006, 09:00 pm »

I read the review, remember I'm the one that mentioned it

I'm sure the speakers sound quite astounding I just think they wont be for everyone. It certainly defeats the purpose of having say, an all analog, tube based front end system if all speakers were using DSPs to EQ themselves in the future. I think we definitely can agree that extra analog to digital to analog conversions, when done poorly are bad, but how good does the process work in these types of systems that are more high end? An example would be something like a Behringer feedback destroyer or Velodyne SMS-1 that people use to EQ their subs. They have to convert the audio signal to digital to apply the DSP that EQs the signal. I think you would not find many "audiophiles" that woudl want to run their whole full range signal (say 80hz to 20khz) through a $99-$600 devices such as this just to get better frequency response in-room.

ZooDog · « **Reply #8 on:** 26 Jan 2006, 10:51 pm »

Quote from: CJ Paul

I read the review, remember I'm the one that mentioned it I'm sure the speakers sound quite astounding I just think they wont be for everyone. It certainly defeats the purpose of having say, an all analog, tube based front end system if all speakers were using DSPs to EQ themselves in the future. I think we definitely can agree that extra analog to digital to analog conversions, when done poorly are bad, but how good does the process work in these types of systems that are more high end? An example w ...

The XdA, which houses the DSP and amps, only has an analog input so it does add in extra A-D and D-A conversions to the chain. I'm sure that this alone will make a lot of people say "Eeeewwww". It doesn't bother me because I am a digital guy, and it seems that whatever harm is being done by the extra conversions is small compared to the overall result. You can still use a tubed cd player and a tubed preamp with it, and maybe their sonic qualities will still come through in the sound.

The Xd is about correcting the problems that traditionally have affected all speakers - frequency response, distortion, dispersion, phase, and timing. I think that the passive crossover is audio evil and will be a thing of the past in ten years. An interesting thing is that a DSP based system can potentially be "tuned" to give a certain sound. Maybe it could add harmonics to resemble a tube amp?

I guess I'm turning into an audio heretic. I sold Dynaudio Confidence C1's and a Simaudio W-3 and replaced them with a $1,000 pair of studio monitors and didn't feel like I was giving up much (if anything). I also now use a computer as my source, and I wouldn't even trade it for the dcs stack.

RDaneel · « **Reply #9 on:** 27 Jan 2006, 01:56 am »

Interesting though that it is a 4.1 system, seemingly with no ability to add a center...