Wow, the sound cool looking small footprint no subwoofer needed great dynamics for home theater play loud and dont fatigue your ears

don't make 'em like this anymore

I bought these speakers off Ebay bravely having nothing to go by but the reviews here and the fact they had been Stereophile Magazine recommended components. I must say these speakers deserve he 5 of 5 rating or at least close to it. The strengths are many the weaknesses are few and far in between. I have listened to speaker upon speaker and I am afflicted with what people call "upgraditis" Basically if there is something better out there I want it. For the price I paid all the way up to theoriginal $1200 asking price of the speakers I have not heard a smoother sweeter sounding speaker. It's very musical and the bass is sufficient for all but the lowest music and movie sound. I hardly ever use my 2 subwoofers when I am listening to music. I use a Sony ES amp to power the speakers. I have them each on top of a subwoofer in the front corners of the room. Height from floor is probably 14-15" The best thing about this position is the midrange and tweeter drivers are alomst at the level of my center channel speaker for a nice seamless soundstage. Not only is the bass deep and tight, the mids are very crisp and the highs are so sweet...it just seem like these speakers are "just right" what I like most is the smooth sounds from these speakers no boomyness in the bass and no harshness in the treble. These bad boys make beautiful music I dont see myself needing a new set of speakers for a long time to come.

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JBL Studio Klipsch Paradigm Def Tech Athena JM Lab

Precise audio reproduction at any level

weak on the bass...but the sw1p sub takes care of that

I've had these now for 7 years and I still marvel at their beauty and sound capability. As is typical for high end speakers, your ears never hurt even at very high db because their are no frequencies that are over-emphasized or clipped (a great amp helps). The SW1P subwoofer like all NHT subs has the ability to cross out lows to the sub. It's highly recommended for the 2.3s because it allows the smaller woofers to focus on the meat of the music/movie. IMPORTANT: The sweet spot for these speakers is about 12 inches off the ground and thus I highly recommend raising them with either a homemade or commercial stand....you won't believe the difference in sound. If you have a chance to test or listen to them, have a friend (strong) lift one off the ground while listening to just the one speaker...it will suddenly fill the room with sound at about 12 inches off the ground. I have a pair of stunning Infinity Reference Standard II's from the '80s that are unriveled in sound reproduction, however these NHT's are equal at nearly 1/4th the size and 1/8th the price. The 2.5's were a replacement and I believe far inferior as NHT was simply trying to satisfy those that complained about the 2.3 bass. Unfortunately it changed the dynamic of the speaker drastically and made a combo with a good sub generate far too much bass for true sound reproduction. Finally, nobody does a better job at finishing a speaker (except maybe KEF) than NHT...and they're not even expensive!

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TNTC

Great sound, clarity at all volumes

not video shielded, interfered with my tv
Not as good with music as my maggys

I bought my 2.3s in 1994 at a discount store. They had been on display for a couple of months at $717 with no takers. I gave in to temptation and made a deal an the 2.3s, an nht1.1c and a yamaha 870 for $1200.
I found out the 2.3s weren't sheilded and interfered with my tv. The 2.3s wound up at camp hooked up to a small nad. They sounded great with music.
Now I have more space available and have gone to dolby digital. I added a set of nht superones and a klipsch subwoofer and have a great home theater.
I kept my yamaha and the maggy smg set up for music. As good as the nhts are the maggys are unbeatable on music.

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Bose interaudio, dcm, magnapan smg

I have such a hard time calling myself an audiophile. You see, in my younger years, I saw audiophiles spend sooooo much money on equipment- the kind of money that would have paid my tuition for the year or bought me a slick car with no rust on it. Hey, I had a great truck for hauling all my PA gear - but it was old and I thought I would look better in a Porsche. (I could have bought two porsches -cash for the price of the Wilson Grand Slams I heard in Houston five years ago). While I was running a small sound company (while in college under the "tax table"- its been more than 7 years so I can now confess it) my living room was half filled with Pro loudspeaker stacks and amp racks weighing 200 lbs. I loved designing for clubs and studios and learned about acoustics from all those old 1950 theory of sound books and even some old radio shack books. It took a while to realize what I was up against, but time was what I had plenty of, slumming in Pro audio and Hi-Fi shops. I met many arrogant salespersons and owners who turned me off to the audiophile experience- the pro guys were usually younger and more fun to deal with so I passed by "audiophile" to the self inflicted title of "Crazed Audio Freak."
In the last five years, I have owned many new and USED "audiophile" pieces and also some really great stuff and some sucked worse than the Pro gear in the home. Just for the record, I did meet many Hi-Fi reps who were super great to me in the old days and I buy from them still, now that I have hit the "consumption years." At any rate, you notice I mention Pro gear and thus you probably are thinking this guy CAN'T have a clue. But allow me to qualify my position- I promise a review of the NHT 2.3s!

After years of running a local sound company I DID learn (the hard way) that using pro gear in a home set-up is really a waste of time and living room space. But I had it to waste and found that 5% of the pro amplifier market supplied amplification that smoked most of the Hi-Fi transistor stuff under $2500, ok, ok! This is an NHT 2.3 review, so I will go on towards that direction.

My point in the short story above, is that I never pay retail for audio gear- Pro or Audiophile, with two exceptions- the CD player and a pair of NHT 2.3s.

Pro loudspeakers took up half of my apartment until I started building Hi-Fi speakers using active crossovers on each component, many times building the active x-over (I love Marchand Electronics), amp, or pre-amp. I was (and still am) a purist to the deepest level- whoops, sounding audiophilish!! Anyway, I basically couldn't afford what I wanted for less than THOUSANDS of dollars so I made it myself. The only problem was that a 750 lb. Pipe with the only pro 18" driver that truly would do a flat 18Hz was hard to move and the speakers were always UGLY cause I was too lazy to finish anything once I got the sound right.

About 3 years go two problems occurred to me at once. I was faced with real income and my speakers were UGLY as sin and I could now buy them new cause I didn't have time to make them. It had occurred to me way back that the problem with almost every loudspeaker was phase phase phase!! Subwoofers screwed everything up with BASS BASS BASS that shifted out of phase with the main system at different frequencies which were measurably flat, but not aligned.

Enter Two Companies: Which will prove why it works to go Pro sometimes and is relevant to the review!! Hang in there with me- this all leads to the 2.3!

Two companies have recent products that fix the phase problem. I'm talking about: Snell in last month's Audio Magazine with a processor called the RCS- 1000 which costs $15,000 and Rane Technologies Professional Audio with their processor called the RPM 26 for $1,500. Drop off the zero and there you have it. Yes, yes they work a little differently, but I think the Rane does a better job with independent driver control and programmable features equal to but slightly different from the Snell. Both great products, but do the math.

OK, Point being, Pro really is fitting at times if you go to the level of audio that exceeds the $10k range at the audiophile level AND KNOW SOME OF THE ENGINEERS IN THE BUSINESS.

Now why the NHT 2.3s are the perfect speaker? THEIR ENGINEERS ARE BOTH COOL AND SMART and they did the math for the first time in the audiophile market!!!

I was going crazy trying to find the right speaker that did it all under $3K and had almost given up, preparing to take two weeks off and regress to the woodshop for yet another round of sanding and gluing and sawdust poisoning. I couldn't find anyone doing infinite baffles with REAL crossover design and decent components. Also, why was every damn speaker manufacturer out their designing their bookshelves with a BIG hump in the 40 Hz range when EVERYONE was buying the stinking sub to go with it anyway!! Why!!

Then, by accident, I wandered into a shop in Austin, TX and saw these NHTs 2.3s for the first time. Offset faces- ya…good for turning off midrange standing waves in cabinet. Also great solution for placement while have 0 axis to drivers. Tweeter under midrange driver exactly at sitting ear position. Super accurate driver manufacturing with a SERIOUS understanding of crossover to driver physics. NHT bends toward the minimalist design with the most comprehension crossover knowledge in the industry of the interaction of phase and crossovers (in my price range). I knew these guys were on the right track cause they were new…Thus innovating outside of the B&Ws of the world who make great stuff, but for a price and with a unique market. MY final desire was to own a speaker that wasn't using 4th order design, which could be bi-amped, AND by hand with the joyous and inquisitive support of NHT's engineering staff! As I said they are COOL and SMART and I don't know them beyond my phone calls which were directed strait to engineering- kinda makes you reminisce back to the days when Audio was a hobby. When the engineers, did it on the side, not for a job with profit being a big motive. Back when Radio Shack guys new what the hell a .5 millihenry inductor was, not "would you like to buy our piece of *&$%# surround receiver with 5,000,000 watts of voice coil warping power?" Or, some equally annoying audiophile salesman who is in the business making impressions instead of catering to them?

The NHTs are parallel Bi-amped with each having a Yamaha P2250 professional power amp (in the garage- other side of the wall) running one channel on the top tweeter and mid bass driver and the other on the bottom two 6" sub-bass drivers. The active x-over is a hand built Marchand Electronics 24db/Octive, 0 phase adjusting, 2 channel unit which cuts the two 6" forward firing sub woofers in the NHT 2.3s off at 34 hz where my 750lb construction pipe sub kicks in (I just couldn't live without it). The sub sits on the carpet to seal the bottom and the top piece is two ¾' MPF particle boards glued and stacked. It is now loaded with the latest McCauly 18" Pro driver which goes down to 14Hz, 20Hz flat on a good old BGW 750C….and is capable of delivering 132dB flat down to that 20Hz.

I got exactly what I wanted: A speaker with all the right engineering that I could tinker with- WITH the help of the guys who built it. I almost cried sweet tears when I read Corey Greenberg's article (in this months article in this months Audio magazine-Dec 97') and found out that his reference speaker was the NHT model 3.3. If you want to know more about the NHT line, I suggest you read Corey's review of the new NHT. Or better yet, go listen to a pair.

Russ Davenport
Crazed Audio Freak
Austin Texas

Clarity from top to bottom.

None that I have found

Purchased by NHT 2.3's at least 8 years ago and haven't needed to complain about their performance once. These are the best speakers I have had. I have had Bose 901's, Bose 10.2's, NHT 2.5's, and others but I have always gone back to my 2.3's. Sold or returned the others.

Have my NHT 2.3's, NHT SW1P 10" sub-woofer w/mono amp, and NHT Center Channel speaker putting out sound from a Philips FR940 Receiver, Toshiba SD 3109 DVD Player, and Panasonic 4 Head HiFi VCR. Need to get some rear satellite speakers at some time in the future, but for now it stills puts out some quality sound.

Would definitely recommend a pair of NHT 2.3's if you can find them. They haven't been built since 1992.

-beautiful highs and mids
-piano black finish
-versatile for movies and music

-a little weak in the bass
-not bi-amplifiable

I bought these speakers about two years ago at stereo exchange. At first I was a little wary about buying a used speaker, but I needed something to fill in while my friend borrowed my 2.5s. I must say that when I hooked them up, I told my friend to keep the 2.5s. These speakers are truly unbelievable if not a little weak in the bottom end. But match them up with a good sub and you've got a killer combo. On another note, I recently did a in-home demo of KEF RDM 3, and still went back to the NHTs. If you can find a pair, by all means pick them up

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NHT 2.5i
KEF RDM 3