NHT speakers in Zaph's blog

[Mazeroth]

The NHT speakers Zaph has in his blog have caught my interest. Is anyone else going to pick up a pair or two and what do you plan on doing with them? If you did purchase them, how much was shipping?

If the woofers did perform like the W15s and shipping wasn't too bad I'd like to get four of them and swap the W15s for a different woofer and use them in a separate build. Just thinking out loud... :B

[ThomasW]

Zaph is incorrect there are less than 72 of the XdS cabinets with drivers still available. This info is per Jack Hidley as of 3/20/09

[jkrutke]

One thing is for sure... you can't DIY cabinets like that. They are nice.

[jkrutke]

Zaph is incorrect there are less than 72 of the XdS cabinets with drivers still available. This info is per Jack Hidley as of 3/20/09

It's not my info that I made up, it's from the qty available spreadsheet here. It lists 342 available as of this writing. On the other hand, it hasn't changed in the last week, so I'm beginning to think it's not being updated.

Edit for clarity: the comments field says "200 Classic finish. These are complete speakers. 142 Dark finish. These do not have drivers, cabinet only $50 each. If you want the Special Dark finish you MUST order one of the Classic finish speakers and one of the Special Dark finish cabinets, and swap the drivers yourself." So not quite the hundreds, but if anyone wants some nice looking Seas cabinets, there you go.

[ThomasW]

Correct the spreadsheet hasn't been updated in quite a while....

JonMarsh visited Jack Hidley's house on the 20th to pick up some XdS for his own use (Jon lives 15 miles from Jack).

Jack told him there were less than 72 of the assembled XdS speakers as of that date. A hold is on new orders until later this week while NHT takes inventory.

[neb001]

I sent my email just in time for him to reply that everything is on hold

[JonMarsh]

In conversation, he indicated they would be doing inventory this week, assessing where they were, and probably be finished by Thursday. They are still shipping product to dealers, and may be assessing priorities.

As Zaph notes, these are very nice cabinets, I'm pretty impressed with the workmanship myself, and will probably order a few empty cabinets, too, considering the needs of some friends for desktop speakers and how I might move drivers around for my own needs.

Be warned that at anything near significant SPL, they probably will work best crossed over around 175 or higher- I'm looking at a two piece Duelund crossover style design with the center frequency at 1 kHz, and an aleph=2.5, which place 200 Hz about -18 to -20 dB. Then, with the low diffraction and stiff cabinet, they should sing nicely. Like canaries... :B

~Jon

[AJINFLA]

Welcome back Jon.
When were you emancipated?
Temporary?

cheers,

AJ

[JonMarsh]

Welcome back Jon.
When were you emancipated?
Temporary?

cheers,

AJ

Every now and then I slip out of the facility where they confine me and find an internet cafe somewhere and see what's happening in the world....

The economic slowdown may have a silver lining for me in that I get to take some of my accrued vacation and not be quite so busy on some "normal" weeks, though I couldn't tell it from the last two weeks on business travel with only 12 hours at home in the middle... :E

I've got a lot of pent up "audio demand", including getting my music/media server setup (Mac based), with a new DAC, and play with these NHT head units and some PE 1 cu ft boxes with midwoofers as a "practice" for a sort of Indra clone. Sort of clone, only in the planned cabinet size and shape, and general driver configuration, not the driver specifics. (I.E. "gasp!!" no Accuton drivers in this one?!?)

Don't worry, I'll make up for the lack of Accuton with something else weird and strange. :B Or at least expensive, if nothing else. :B

Let's face it, I've got a lot of catching up to do!!! :naughty:

[fjhuerta]

Jon, I don't know how much time you've been away, but it's nice to see you back here.

[JonMarsh]

Jon, I don't know how much time you've been away, but it's nice to see you back here.

Thank you for the kind thoughts... it's been since around fall of 2007, for the most part- work has been like a non-stop episode of "Lost", if that means anything to anyone.

I hope to maintain more of a presence this year, but it will likely fluctuate due to work, still. I'm also trying to diversify my life a bit, back to hiking, some other activities.

~Jon

[tf1216]

Anyone hear from Jack this week?

[JonMarsh]

No updates on the web site notice. Until it changes, Jack won't be processing new orders.

[benchtester]

BTW - Zaph has published his NHT crossover.

[JonMarsh]

Zaph did a nice job, :T pretty much with the changes I expected; the issues in the 700-900 Hz area I've seen before, too, and it's why I've been a tad over the top about rear baffle relief or even using metal plates for mounting drivers, to avoid this issue.

I'm still planning to try a variant on the Modula MT/Natalie P crossover, at least to see how feasible it is. The original design works best with tweeters with extended LF response, like the Seas, and RS28a, and that isn't the case for the Seas Tweeter in the NHT's. It works well with the RS180's dual resonances, which is actually a bit tougher to tame than the W15 Seas.

And hey, if it doesn't work out, there's always Zaph's with the larger inductor to fall back on! :W


Too bad Jack has taken down the NHT closeout site- just a terse message left behind- I hope things get sorted out and it's back up in the future, and some of the stuff available, but the current situation does seem to be PO'ing him. Very understandable.

[jkrutke]

This was an interesting set of measurements because it's so difficult to make a measurable point about the backside ventilation. It doesn't make much difference for some drivers.

I'd speculate that it varies so much because we're seeing two distinct issues that sometimes combine for some weirdness - reflection and restriction. If it were just reflection, it would just be a mild rise of a DB or two. But throwing restriction into the mix does seem to occasionally result in the "up" cliff. Not to be confused with a "down" cliff, which seems to be edge resonance in low end drivers.

Looking at the attached W18 plots, (done by others) both are mounted to the same test baffle. Just judging by the rise in response, the hole isn't chamfered on the inside. But one is a new W18 that comes with a rubber boot, making for a slightly higher restriction. That's the one with the cliff.

Comments and speculation welcome.

[JonMarsh]

Good examples, John. I've seen that same "cliff" phenomena with some other drivers that have short frame to rear basket supports that can be easily occluded by a non-chamfered mounting baffle, such as the HiVi D6.8, that I've used a few times, and some old Seas 5" drivers I used in the 80's. That's when I first saw the "cliff" and figured out it was possibly rear wave related; the solution then was to make an aluminum mounting plates for the two midwoofers, with larger openings in the MDF underneath. That turned the trick, and it looks like what I'll need to do with the so called W5-1685. (now, why do they call those "5", with a frame mount diameter of 6"?)

[tf1216]

Do you guys who know Jack think we will get our $10 down payment or our NHT order from him?

[Tsloms]

Any idea if and when Jack's site will come back up??

[jkrutke]

Any idea if and when Jack's site will come back up??

Jack is probably PO'd about seeing things like this. He made it clear that the point of selling this stuff at a low price was not so people could turn around and resell for a profit. His goodwill has been abused.

He'd better not sit on any down payments too long however. At Paypal all it will take is one or two claims before his entire account and everything in it is frozen.

[ThomasW]

That's been listed for 30 days....appears buyers are smarter than the seller ...

[mikec]

Jack is probably PO'd about seeing things like this. He made it clear that the point of selling this stuff at a low price was not so people could turn around and resell for a profit. His goodwill has been abused.

I don't think so. If you add up the cost of Jack's selling price for all the parts, the seller of the Agon XDs isn't profiting much. Personally, I think the hope was that some of the less desirable items on his closeout page would sell instead of the loss leader items.

http://www.changedetection.com/log/net/comcast/home/~jhidley_log.html

[Operandi]

Jack is probably PO'd about seeing things like this. He made it clear that the point of selling this stuff at a low price was not so people could turn around and resell for a profit. His goodwill has been abused.

I saw that yesterday, pretty sad.

Hopefully he opens the site again when the inventory is taken care of, I've been thinking about getting a pair of the xDSs.

[---k---]

I don't know what that change log proves? And, I must be missing something, but the link Jon provided is for the XDS Mini Monitors, and it looks like the guy is trying to make a $500 profit.

Jack is a professional, industry insider, good guy and a friend to the DIY community. He's not out to make a profit. It is unfortunate that some many people like to pontificate on forums about what they have very little first hand knowladge about (not pointing at you, but at other forums.) I understand why manufactures don't like to deal with DIY.

[AJINFLA]

Typical. Seems like the AudioMorons™ got word and descended on the site (which has been around for a while now) and caused the guy more grief than it was worth. Strange hobby we are in.

cheers,

AJ

[Operandi]

Well it's just one jerk, I'm sure 90% of the people are well intentioned. Hopefully he dosn't ruin it for everyone else though....

[mikec]

I don't know what that change log proves?

It contains the pricing information.

And, I must be missing something, but the link Jon provided is for the XDS Mini Monitors, and it looks like the guy is trying to make a $500 profit.

Ah, yes. I mistakenly thought it included the $300 XD sub, which it doesn't.

[Dave Bullet]

If someone wants to profit from this, then if they've bought the goods then I don't see the problem. If Jack thought he could sell the speakers at twice the price, wouldn't he have just set the speakers at $200/pair?

If he really wanted to keep it a secret, I'm sure he knows enough people in the industry and could have just privately sold to them at $100/pair without a publicly accessible web page.

[HareBrained]

Previous to the site going "white", there was a notice at the be bottom that stated something to the effect that he wouldn't be filling orders until the brown-out of NHT was settled. This included among other activities, inventory of remaining NHT stock. He probably just decided to pull down the site until the dust settled.

[benchtester]

If someone wants to profit from this, then if they've bought the goods then I don't see the problem. If Jack thought he could sell the speakers at twice the price, wouldn't he have just set the speakers at $200/pair?

If he really wanted to keep it a secret, I'm sure he knows enough people in the industry and could have just privately sold to them at $100/pair without a publicly accessible web page.

Did I miss something? I thought they were $100 per speaker, not a pair.

[Dave Bullet]

Did I miss something? I thought they were $100 per speaker, not a pair.

Probably, I can't access the site. Exact dollars don't matter, my point was that if you sell something below market value, don't be surprised if someone on-sells it to profit. I'm sure Jack would know this anyway. (basic business). It's the cashflow balance between maximising revenue and minimising time for stock on hand (unworking capital).

[sokoban]

Well, whatever is the case, this stinks because I wanted to get a couple pair.

[ThomasW]

JonMarsh bought some, they are/were $100 per speaker

[HareBrained]

It's amazing that you get an enclosure, a (pretty good?) tweeter and an excellent woofer for 66% of the cost of the woofer alone. I could really see buying two sets and building a ported MTM or MTMWW. Has anyone else thought about this?

[tf1216]

Anybody know what is up with NHT? Wondering if I will ever see the product I was trying to buy.

[aaa]

Did anyone else pay in full and not receive their speakers yet?

[Rick Craig]

I have one here for testing.

[Rick Craig]

I did measurements on the Xd monitor and then modeled both crossovers (John Krutke and Jack Hidley). John's comments on the differences are spot on; however, I ended up designing a new crossover for my customer's proximity to the rear wall. These are an excellent value! For the $ you cannot beat this.