NHT Launching Multiple New Speakers

By Joseph Palenchar -- TWICE, 10/18/2010

BENICIA, CALIF. — NHT has resurrected and updated the compact Super Zero mini monitor, developed a powered subwoofer tailored for use with it, and unveiled two new high-output powered subwoofers, which are promoted as offering significant performance upgrades over their predecessors in cabinets that are 30 percent smaller. They’re among the company’s first new products in several years.

All three of the acoustic-suspension (sealed-box) subs are the brand’s first wireless subwoofers, thanks to USB ports that accept optional wireless adapters due in the first quarter.

The two high-output subs are the cube-shaped $499 B10d and $699 B12d, which replace five-year-old rectangular models at the same price points. The B10d packs a forward-firing 10-inch driver in a 12.6-inch cube with 300- watt Class D amplifier. The B12d features 12-inch driver, 500-watt Class D amp in a 14-inch cube. Both models feature DSP to automatically control crossovers, phase, boundary compensation, movie-music EQ and amp current to deliver full power at all system impedances.

“The new B-10d and B-12d outperform the old models in every aspect” despite their smaller cabinets, said NHT partner John Johnsen, thanks largely to more efficient Class D technology and a DSP system that dynamically controls subwoofer performance.

As a result of the efficiency gain provided by the use of Class D amplifiers and DSP, NHT was able to use a sealed-box design instead of the predecessor subs’ vented designs, which are less accurate but are more efficient and can thus be driven by lower power amps, Johnsen said.

Like their predecessors, the two new subs feature LFE and line-level inputs, intended for connection to the subwoofer outputs and pre amp outputs of A/V receivers. The B-10d, however, adds speaker-level inputs and speaker-level outputs designed for use with the many stereo receivers that lack subwoofer outputs, Johnsen said. In this configuration, the receiver’s speaker outputs are wired to the sub, and the sub’s speaker-level outputs are connected to left-right speakers, which are driven by the receiver’s amplifiers. “We added this feature because of the renewed interest in conventional stereo music systems,” Johnsen said.

For the new Super Zero 2.0, NHT developed the Super 8 subwoofer, also with speaker-level ins and outs and a crossover designed for use with the new two-way mini monitor.

The acoustic suspension Super Zero 2.0, which resurrects one of the company’s first products, retails for $99 each, less than the $115 launch price of the original in 1993, Johnsen said, thanks to new construction techniques.

The original, which went out of production in the late 90s, was the company’s best-selling bookshelf speaker, given the sound-quality advantages — less diffraction distortion and stiffer enclosures — that small-size cabinets yield.

The Super Zero 2.0 features 4.5-inch woofer that delivers 100Hz+ bass. Its tweeter is crossed over at about 1,000Hz lower than the original model’s tweeter and now uses a second-order high-pass filter to lower distortion and improve the dispersion pattern and phase response with the woofer at their crossover point.

Under a marketing strategy launched in 2009, consumers buy NHT products factory-direct through NHT’s web site or through authorized on-line and brick-andmortar retailers and installers. Whatever the point of purchase, the purchased product is shipped directly to the consumer from NHT’s warehouse.