[JLM]

As primarily an amplifier company who is now branching out into speakers, this question of active versus passive design immediately came to mind as I read of the S9 (especially as it already has an outboard crossover).  The advantages of active design are well documented and cannot be ignored.

Years ago I auditioned Paradigm Studio 20s ($800, rather typical small 2-way standmounts) against the Paradigm Active 20s ($1600, slightly larger 2-way standmounts).  Paradigm built both concurrently and both represented their top of the line product, so it made for an excellent opprotunity to compare approaches.  But there was no comparision!!  The Actives absolutely blew the Studios away.  Bass was tremendous (no sub needed, period).  Dynamics were amazing.  Frequency response was ruler flat.  Coherency/imaging/smoothness at the crossover were all greatly improved.  In this 14 ft x 24 ft room the Active 20s all but matched the $2000 Paradigm Studio 100s (full sized passive floorstanders) in terms of bass and dynamic performance, but out classed them again in coherency/imaging/crossover smoothness.

I highly recommend you consider offering an active version.  In fact I'm convinced that an active two-way version would easily outperform the current passive S9.  You already have varying amp sizes on the shelf that IMO are begging to be combined with a line level crossover into a single enclosure.

[deBunk]

Hi JLM

I think you pose a very interesting question.  A good friend of mine who is an audiophile with a lot of experience of good equipment was happy with his set-up (unusual for an audio nut!), which featured Apogee Stage speakers with a Sunfire sub and pretty high quality amplification (Krell KSA-100S, Electrocompaniet 4.5 pre).  He bought the NF Ref9, and spent some months comparing it to the Krell, mostly favourably - although it wasn't the slam dunk I was expecting.  The Ref 9s were crystal clear and very detailed, with great imagery (especially in combo with the Apogees), but after some time he noticed some harshness on vocals that began to bother him.  I could also notice it once he pointed it out.  Anyway...

Recently, he purchased a pair of acclaimed pro monitors from JBL, which are active: the LSR 6328P.  He now has a quality of sound that is unsurpassed in his experience in just about all aspects.  I have heard them a couple of times, and found them quite incredible; they have a clarity that knocks off anything else I've heard while still sounding very natural, with fantastically tight, gutsy bass and imagery that is simply sensational.  Undoubtedly, they bring rock to life in a way that I have not experienced before - and they seem just as good for any style of music.

The only drawback is that they are most suited to near-field listening, which is always his preference, but not necessarily mine.  I haven't heard them in a more "normal" loungeroom situation.

Anyway, since my friend purchased the JBLs, I have been thinking about changing to active speakers.  I certainly like the NF Ref9s, and have no doubt that the SEs are better again, but they would have to be to equal the wonderful sound of these active JBLs.  Yours is the first squeak I've heard from any source other than my friend that acknowledges the tremendous quality of sound that is possible in a domestic audio context using active speakers.  I am most interested in Jason's response.

Cheers

[rustydoglim]

We "branched" into speakers because we feel that we can't get the "perfect" sound we want at the price point. Anyway, we now call our ultimate system the Nuforce Trilogy: P9,Ref9SE,S-9.
S-9 has external crossover precisely for the reason that it can later (or now if you buy another active crossover) be upgraded to active speaker.

Trust me, we have a 5 year product road map. But before we introduce an active speaker (way down the road, may be 2008), we need to demonstrate to the world that we (in collaboration with SP Tech) and produce a world class speaker.

Robert Greene from The Absolute Sound just wrote a review on the S-9 and I believe the Feb 2007 issue is already out.  S-9 is one of the very few speakers that he said are able to reproduce live music.