Big Picture Big Sound

NHT (Now Hear This) has been known for some time by audiophiles and home theater fans as a provider of loudspeakers that represent excellent value. I still have a set of the old "Super" series (SuperZero, SuperOne, SuperCenter, even a "Super Woofer" SW2P subwoofer) in my secondary home theater system. Pinpoint imaging, excellent dynamics and timbral balance - they're a hard act to follow. Over the years, NHT has gone through some mergers and acquisitions, but their core focus on loudspeaker excellence has remained intact. However, that focus is expanding now, to include electronics (preamp/processor and power amps) that are specifically optimized to make NHT's loudspeakers really sing.

NHT's XD system ($6,200 and up, depending on number of channels), which we covered at its introduction at CES 2005, was their first to take a hard look at room and speaker correction in order to get truly flat frequency response. The system incorporates an advanced equalization and correction system, digital amplifiers, satellite and subwoofer speakers. Just plug in a stereo preamp or home theater processor's line level outputs and this system provides the rest, with optimized crossover and dedicated amplifiers for each speaker in the system. But when you start getting into a multi-channel home theater system based on XD components, you get well into five figures pretty quickly.

Now with a recently introduced electronics line that includes a home theater preamp/processor and several stereo and multi-channel power amps, it's possible to build an optimized all-NHT home theater system for quite a bit less, with your choice of NHT speakers, even some totally stealthy in-wall speakers.

The heart of the NHT system is their Controller ($2,750), a home theater preamp/processor that includes all the usual processing modes, digital and analog video inputs and ultra-modern styling. But it also has a twist: in its "speaker configuration" menu, you can select from a list of different NHT speaker models, and it will apply correction, equalization and crossover settings automatically, based on the specific speakers chosen. Using the included microphone, it will also adjust speaker distance and level settings, so you know you're getting your home theater performance "dialed in" without any real effort.

Of course, you're welcome to use any other brand of speaker with NHT electronics, and you have full manual control over crossover settings, level and distance. But NHT's goal is to provide a whole optimized/calibrated system that works together synergistically, and eliminates the bother of manual calibration and adjustment from the equation. Demos I have heard prove this approach to be very effective. So if you like the idea of a one-brand optimized speaker/electronics system, then definitely give NHT a look and a listen.