I owned a fully-upgraded pair of North Acoustics Spirits which are/were the ready-made version of the North Creek Okara II's. As well, I did the North Creek Super Duper upgrade to my NHT Super Zeroes. Both were/are excellent. I haven't heard the Rhythm. It seemed to be, however, their most popular speaker - given its long history and long time in the North Creek lineup.
The Spirits made music. They were detailed but it wasn't "in your face" detail. I found myself listening to a lot of different music on them and not just the best sounding cuts. I'd be very surprised if the Rhythms are much different in terms of balance of musicality vs. overt detail. George Short, the designer and owner of North Creek, seems to have had very consistent goals and priorities over the years. And given that the Okara and Rhythm lines overlapped for quite some time and that they, depending on configuration, shared some of the same or similar drivers makes me believe that the Rhythm would be a very musical speaker with plenty of detail and excellent soundtaging...and much deeper bass than my Spirits.
One thing that convinced to try North Creek was that I noticed that a number of their owners on AudioAsylum were more experienced audiophiles that were very satisfied with them and had owned them for a quite a while. They weren't speaker of the month types. That was good indication to me that they were worth trying. I only sold mine because we moved to a bigger house with a much bigger room. If you go for them, you may not be blown away on first listen but I think you might find yourself listening more often.
Scott
