New NHT Electronics

kaxixi · « **on:** 1 Feb 2006, 08:46 pm »

Hi Folks,

Anybody heard NHTs new components? They're releasing a preamp and a 5 channel digital amplifier. The two are designed to work together through an ethernet protocol of some sort though I haven't figured out why they benefit from doing this.

One feature I noticed is DSP of NHT speakers. I'd be curious to know what this does.

Feisal K · « **Reply #1 on:** 2 Feb 2006, 04:43 am »

maybe they are just using Cat5 cables to carry digital signals from the preamp to the digital power amp. havent seen anything so this is pure speculation

that would be 1) a first and 2) awesome especially if the digital audio were to be converted directly to PWM

kaxixi · « **Reply #2 on:** 2 Feb 2006, 08:26 pm »

Nope. That would be cool, but they're transfering the signal over using good old interconnects.

The ethernet is being used to allow the two devices to talk to each other for some other reason--looks like the preamp controls the amps somehow, just not sure how.

kaxixi · « **Reply #3 on:** 2 Feb 2006, 08:37 pm »

found one press release that talks about it:

http://marketnews.ca/news_detail.asp?nid=1386

price is a *little* out of my range...

CJ Paul · « **Reply #4 on:** 2 Feb 2006, 08:59 pm »

Quote

They're releasing a preamp and a 5 channel digital amplifier.

Why are companies that are arguably more associated with home theater than stereo still releasing 5 channel products?

Feisal K · « **Reply #5 on:** 3 Feb 2006, 06:21 am »

Quote from: kaxixi

found one press release that talks about it:

http://marketnews.ca/news_detail.asp?nid=1386

price is a *little* out of my range...

doh! whatever happened to the promise of cheap(er) digital amplification

John Ashman · « **Reply #6 on:** 10 Feb 2006, 10:07 pm »

A couple notes:

The NHT Controller has EQ curves for NHT SuperAudio, Evolution, Classic and current iW/iC product. None of the older formica gear is supported for EQ, unfortunately

Of course, if you can afford this system, you can probably afford to upgrade the speakers anyway.

The control cable allows the amps to be turned off when not needed. So, in stereo, only two amps would be on.

There is a matching 2-ch amp coming out. Most systems in most homes are still 5-ch though, and most people complain that they are buying more than the need with a 7-ch amp.

The amps are based on B&O's ICE modules. 200Wx5. NHT is not into price gouging, so I would guess that the $2K price reflects the cost going into it, for better or worse. If anyone can and would lower the price going forward, it would be NHT. This is just the first salvo as well, expect a lot of other electronic products to come from NHT.

kaxixi · « **Reply #7 on:** 12 Feb 2006, 05:50 pm »

Thanks for the info, John. If you have time to post your impressions of the improvements in the sound of the classics once you've heard them with these components, that'd be great.