Reticuli

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Price Paid:  $750.00 from online

Summary:
These are finicky speakers. The weird load of the lower midrange presented by the midrange woofer is the biggest issue. When mono-amping, it gets sort of muddy. When bi-amping, the lower midrange gets recessed. There is a reason why most of the favorable magazine reviews say to use them with a tube amp...that's to warm up the lower mids. So I went from supremely finicky Bose, to still fairly finicky NHTs. It's not been a fun time. I would say your best bet with these is to find either a solid state that is very capable of handling complex 4ohm loads, as well as 8ohms, or get a very warm, powerful, yet detailed and delicate tube amp. That gets really expensive, and for a $750 speaker I'm not sure that's worth it. For less complex music, like the chamber variety, this speaker's staging and precision will know you socks off. But for anything more complex, multi-spectral, or demanding, it's going to give some problems. I honestly think classical is the last music you should be testing with speakers.

Weaknesses:
Lower mids; weird upper mids when cranked.

Jan55

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $680.00 from Sound Distributors /

Summary:
These are very good speakers for the money. I Use them for stereo only. Comments from other readers are mostly accurate except for the negative biamping comments. I played around with a lot of different arrangements and found that biamping them works best for me. Maybe a much more expensive/powerful amp would work for non-biamping, but then I probably wouldn't spend that kind of money on these speakers. I use a 50 watt tube amp for the mids/highs and a cheap ($100)100 watts/channel stereo amp for the subwoofer. I connected the two amps to the different outputs on my basic Sony dvd player and they sounded better than the non-biamped arrangement. Then I bought a Benchmark DAC1 (greatest thing sice sliced bread). Now I connect the amps to the different stereo outputs on the DAC. This thing sounds better than great. The mids/highs are very accurate, smooth and clean. The bass is reasonably tight. Sometimes they can be a little bright or hard on some music. I do have acoustical room treatment (inexpensive foam pyramid and corner blocks) which improves the imaging and reduces the bass boom.

Strengths:
Excellent value. I heard better speakers out there but for at least a $1,000 more than the NHT's. The built-in subwoofers let you get that low feel-it-in-your-chest bass that I didn't get from other speakers in this price range. The separate mid-tweeter section lets you get that clean monitor sound with good imaging and clarity. Love these things with jazz, clean rock (Cheryl Crow /Steely Dan)& acoustic music.

Weaknesses:
The tweeter sound is a little hard sometimes (on some piano music) and they can get muddy when driven really loud. But they can be driven sufficiently loud for normal serious listening. The reccesed mids do not favor hard guitar driven rock.

Similar Products Used:
My System (Total Cost ~$3,000): Jolida 302b integrated amp. Insignia 100 watt stereo amp (from Best Buy). Sony $140 dvd changer.

Price Paid:  $600.00 from www.acousticsounddes

Summary:
After reading the reviews on the ST-4 I purchased them to complete my home theater system. From much of what I these seemed mostly for home theater, but after listening to them in 2 channel mode I can't stop listening to music on them. The overall imaging is excellent. I have not bi-amped these so I really haven't tapped into what the subs can do, and I probably will just let my seperate sub do all the low frequency work. The black piano finish is great, but I wish they had some options for color/finish, although I probably would have still gotten the black. It will show fingerprints very easily, so look out for menacing hands. To cpmplete the home theater I will be matching these with the SC-2 center channel. I am definately not an audiophile but after auditioning these, there was nothing that compared. Sure, there are better speakers out there but you begin to start paying $3000 and up. For the price there is nothing I have heard that compares.

Strengths:
Truly Excellent Speakers Low price-Great Value Outperforms many higher priced speakers.

Weaknesses:
If you have kids running around the house, these speakers will show where their hands have been. A CSI episode would last 5 minutes if the victim had these speakers.

Similar Products Used:
Energy-Klipsch-JBL

Reticuli

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
4.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $750.00 from online

Summary:
I just have a word of warning for all of you. DO NOT BI-AMP THESE SPEAKERS. I don't know why, but they still just weren't sounding quite right to my ears no matter what I did. I put the jumpers back and just monoamped it and BAM! They had to be repositioned, but they're much much better. Most of my complaints about stealy highs and exaggerated chestyness still apply, but they are much less exaggerated now. The lumpyness in the bass is now almost completely gone and voices/vocals are more present and linear. The highest highs are there, too. I don't know if it was my HK 7200 or the NHT's, but something was wrong. Not anymore. I still feel they sound best with the grills on, though. And they have to be closer to the wall...about a 11 inches at the distance I'm sitting at to get the right low end. In a bigger room I think you need them further away because you lose highs. In fact I'm pretty sure with a bigger room and no TV between them they'd sound much better. The Downward Spiral has never sounded so good, and I just found out it was rereleased on SACD HYBRID and DVD-A...goodie. Sorry to post again, but the biamping issue absolutely needs to be mentioned. Is it just me, but do some DTS movies sound better in DD? Some DTS sound really warm and muddy. True Romance, for instance.

Jeff Alexander

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Price Paid:  $695.00

Summary:
Puchased the ST4's after a long search for new and used. Listened to Paradigm, Kef, B&w, Monitor Audio, Axiom & many others. I had a space problem and these fit the bill. I did have to have them placed with the bass driver facing inwards because of a shielding problem. With the drivers facing the walls my 36" GAOO was looking like it was ready for the dump. Once I flipped them the shielding problem was resolved. The top half of the speaker is shilded but not the bottom. Bass was not a concern as I have a PSB Stratus 7 for bottom end. I was suprised how nice they sounded with this set up for music listening. I did find they required more juice than the CYRUS Mission 782's that they replaced with my Nad receiver, but they really come to life when the volume goes up. Great for acoustic and rock music. I am now looking to have the center SC2 to complete the front. Great speakers for the money period. You will be hard pressed to find a speaker that can do as much as this one for both music and movies.

Strengths:
Clarity and balance. Depth and imaging

Weaknesses:
I wish they had a option of another finnish. Black is nice but I felt I was buying a Model T. You cann have it in any colour as long as it is black.

Similar Products Used:
Mission, Paradigm, B&W, Kef