I wrestled (literally) for 2 weeks with the 2.9s and kept thinking the 2.5i actually held my attention more in the showroom. My dealer is first rate so he took back the 2.9s and gave me the 2.5i pair. IMO they are superb for the price with pinpoint imaging and well-integrated bass. My other speakers are LS3/5a's which they do not match up to on vocals...but then what monitor does?

I've had these speakers for about 4 years now and all I can say is that these are the best speakers at their price range. They are ultra transparent and reveal details in my cd's I've only heard from speakers costing 10 times as much. I prefer the 2.5i's even to NHT's flagship the 3.3's! While no speaker is perfect, I think I have found one that I can live with until I can afford the Revel Gems which may be quite a long time.......

Clarity, Bass Defenition, Midrange

Power Hungry

These speakers are in a class of their own for their price range. Don't pay any more for them than 1,000 dollars. Uncle's Stereo is a great place to purchase these from. Try and mate them with the NHT SA-2 Amp. and they will sound sweet, plus you can customize the bass level to meet your own individual preference. If you don't like to hear every detail in a recording, than these speakers aren't for you. However, if you want sonic accuracy, and you want to listen to the recording the way it was engineered, you will love these speakers. This is one of the best buys I have ever made!

Similar Products Used:

NHT 1.5, NHT SUPERTWO

detail, soundstage, price

none for this price range

Summary: I Love These Speakers!

I've had them for 3 years now and they have never failed to bring a smile while listening to them. They sound great for all kinds of music (and DVDs). They are so well balanced that I have never felt the need to adjust (equalize)them for room accoustics nor for source material.

I bought these speakers based on a B+ rating from Stereophile magazine as well as a favorable review from Home Theater. While a B+ may not sound extraordinary, you must consider that this was a money is no object comparison of all available speakers at that time. The next least priced speaker that rated as high as the NHT 2.5i was three times the price. The A rated speakers were priced from $5,000.00 to $65,000.00!

Reviews aside, I personally find the 2.5i to be very detailed with a very deep soundstage. However, you must have smooth and somewhat powerfull electronics upstream or you will hear everything that is wrong with your system.

I am using all Denon equipment and have found this to be a very good match with the NHTs. I do consider the Denon power to be minimum for driving these speakers. If you really want to get the most from these speakers, bi-amp them with 200 watts or more and they will step up another notch in sound.

I suspect that the two reviewers that previously posted terrible reviews about this speaker were victims of very poor demonstrations. I base this on the numerous favorable reviews posted as well as the fact that the two disenchanted reviewers cited totally different problems with the speaker. One stated complete lack of bass and the other stated overwhelming muddy bass. In addition, one of the reviewers stated that he ended up buying $300/pair mini speakers that outperformed the NHTs- right.

I also have NHT Center and Surround speakers for Home Theater. While you can get more surround sound from bipolar speakers like Definitive Technologies or Mirage, I have found the NHTs detail to be far superior and more enjoyable. In the movie, The Matrix, you get a sense that you can locate each of the shell casings that bounces across the floor during the Lobby scene. With bipolar, each shell sounds like its everywhere. I find this aspect difficult to describe, but easy to demonstrate for my friends.

These speakers are worth every dollar and I would highly recommend them to audition. Just make sure that the equipment they use is of high quality.

Similar Products Used:

auditioned B&Ws,Energy, Mirage, and Definitive Technologies

Quality of sound, imaging, tight- defined bass. Did I say Quatily of sound!!!

None that I can define as of yet

I had 14 year old B+W DM220 Speakers which I was perfectly happy with. They served me well over the years, yet I just moved and my wife did not like the look of the bulky B+W in our new living room home theater. She "made" me buy new speakers to fit the look of our room. I auditioned Paradigm, B+W, Klipsch and the NHT's. I was looking for a slightly less expensive pair of speakers, but all the speakers I was auditioning were not satisfactory (compared to the sound of my existing B+W's). The salesman at 6th Ave (one of the many stores I auditioned speakers) suggested I listen to the NHT's. The price listed on the speaker $1,100 for the pair was over what I wanted to pay. (I ended up paying $999.00 for the pair). But after listening for over 1 hour to these speakers in the store (and comparing them with similiarly priced models from other manufactures) I could not get over the open sound of the NHT. The music that I brought to the store to listen to made me smile from ear to ear. One of the most defining things for me was the quality of the tight bass sound, as compared to Klipsch and Paradigm in the same price range.

With regard to the previous review where the reviewer indicates that the bass was too boomy, I have to disagree. By setting these speakers up at a minimum 12 inches from the wall, the bass (in my case) is tight and defined, not mushy and boomy. In fact, where I thought my previous B+W speakers had good bass response, I was wrong. The NHT's go lower and cleaner - with none of the midrange harshness I was used to hearing (which was clear that I had been hearing after hooking up the NHT's to my system).

So basically, I spent more than I wanted to - but after hearing these speakers I couldn't resist. And as they say on the NHT website. The 2.5i could be the last speaker anyone would ever need. I have to agree.

Similar Products Used:

B+W DM220 Speakers

NHT 2.5i, 3 Way Speakers, bi-wirable, 6 ohm nominal, 3.6 ohm min. impedance. Price: $1300 per pair in the Gloss Black finish.
The 2.5i is modeled after the highly praised 4 way 3.3s. Although physically smaller, the sonic characteristics are just as big. The 2.5i incorporates a design NHT calls Focused Image Geometry which uses an angled cabinet for directing radiation. The 2.5i uses a slim but tall cabinet (53"H) that is setup like a two way monitor but incorporates a separate chamber to house an 8 inch subwoofer. The subwoofer is located on the lower side of the cabinet firing towards the center while the 6.5 inch midrange driver and the 1 inch aluminum dome tweeter are housed in their own sealed enclosure on the top half. Even though the 2.5i is set up like a satellite system, the speaker covers its 29Hz - 25KHz rated frequency response with relative uniformity. Crossover points are 3.3KHz 12dB/octave HP and LP, 100Hz 6dB HP and 12dB LP. Recommended minimum amplification is 35W min. and 200W max.

In describing the 2.5is sound characteristic, "precision" immediately comes to mind. These speakers exhibit an unnatural ability to sort out complex information with great sophistication and neutrality. For example, when I listened to Jazz, the 2.5i uncannily separated and located every instrument. I heard sounds I’ve never heard before with vividness. I want to say these speakers give an analytical presentation but I’m afraid of giving the impression that they are not musical sounding speakers. On the contrary, the 2.5i gives the listener the ability to appreciate music from another level.

There is little coloration in the 2.5I’s sonic characteristics but its tonal balance is such that with certain music it can take on a bit of a dark tone. This quality may be alleviated by choosing the right components. Low frequency reproduction is strong and well defined but can sound boomy if placed too close to rear wall and/or used with less than adequate amplifiers. The highs are delicate and tend to lean towards the bright side but by no means are they fatiguing. The aluminum dome tweeters used in the 2.5i doesn’t contain any of the annoying sonic characteristics typically associated with metal dome tweeters. The highs are well integrated to the rest of the system and produces a very accurate soundstage which at times can have amazing effects.

Out of the box, the 2.5i sounded somewhat stale and one dimensional but after about 50 hours of conditioning, they’re starting to sound promising. Its soundstage and imaging qualities have improved tremendously since. I use the NHT 2.5i in the bi-wired configuration. Main System: YBA 2 Preamp and Amp, Krell KPS-20I CD player, Audioquests Quartz X3 interconnects, Tara Labs speaker cables. I’m very impressed with the results. The sound improves each day I use them. Although it doesn’t sound bad, the 2.5i produces somewhat of a dry sound when used with my Acurus DIA100 integrated which is perfectly at home with my Energy C-4s. This proves that system matching is critical. Conclusion: These speakers when paired with the right components can produce amazing results well beyond what one would expect from $1300 speakers. The NHT excels with great imaging and its ability to sort out complex information, qualities typically exclusive to speakers that cost much more.

In my transformation from an ignorant consumer of mass-market audio to audiophile, one of the weakest links in my sound system was my pair of speakers. I originally had a pair of Bose 301 Series 3's. 'nuff said.
Listening to speakers proved difficult; it's hard to do A/B comparisons when you have to go to different stores to compare units. I had listened to a lot of units: The Linn Tukans, various B&W monitors, Snell monitor and floor-standing speakers, Linn Keilidh's, Phase Technology PC80 II's and PC80T's, Vienna Acoustics stuff... you name it.

The problem: trying to find a decent speaker that didn't cost an arm and a leg.

I found a little shop in Scottsdale that carries Magneplanars, which can be had fairly inexpensively, and I decided to give them a listen. While I was there, I noticed that the store also carried NHT equipment.

Well, because my listening room at home is so small (comparatively), magneplanars and electrostatics are pretty much out of the picture. But the NHT's looked interesting, and I asked to listen to them.

The NHT SuperZero's, SuperOne's, and 1.5's all sounded great, although the 1.5 really sounded strained as they tried to deliver bass from a small midrange driver. The 1.5's just didn't sound natural.

They had 2.5i's on display. These are the latest incarnation of the 2.5, a floor standing speaker that sits somewhere between the 1.5 and the 3.3 in the NHT product line. Just to give you an idea of the differences, the 2.5 has two binding posts on each speaker, whereas the 2.5i has four (so biwiring and biamping are possible); also, the 2.5i uses the same tweeter as the 3.3, and uses improved midrange drivers over the 2.5 model. I test listened to the 2.5 versus the 2.5i, since the 2.5 was on sale.

The 2.5i just plain sounds better. Not only that, it's a great general-purpose speaker. Whereas every other speaker I listened to had some major drawback (lack of bass response in the monitors, the B&W's all sounded better on classical music than anything else, etc.), the NHT 2.5i's sounded really good across the board. They have plenty of bass, but it's not overly boomy or muddy. The highs are excellent. There's no particular genre of music that they suck on, or excel in. They're about as neutral as I've found in their price range.

And they fit nicely into a compact listening room. Although these are full-range floor standing speakers, they occupy less than a square foot of floor space each, by my reckoning. They have spiked feet included. To conserve space, the subwoofers are mounted on the sides instead of on the front of the speaker, allowing the designers to make the fronts narrow. The 2.5i's have the classic NHT angled front baffle. The bass reflex port is on the back panel, near the bottom (underneath the binding posts). Whereas the 2.5's have partially plastic binding posts, the 2.5i's are 100% metallic, and gold plated. The 2.5i's come with gold plated tie straps, but you'll want to get rid of them so you can bi-wire these speakers. (It's not that expensive to get decent cable for bi-wiring.)

If I had to do it over again, I might have listened more to the Vienna Acoustics line of speakers, and spent a bit more. However, with the money I saved, I was able to invest in a badly needed amplifier/preamp upgrade.

One note of caution: These speakers can dip down to 3 Ohm impedance, and lower! Make sure you use a high-current amplifier that has honest power ratings, no Japanese mid-fi garbage that claims to put out 100 Wpc but clips when real demands are made of it. (I've found that a Parasound preamp/amp combo works nicely. My HCA1000 amp is specifically designed to deliver high current, which earns it THX certification.)

In my opinion, at $1300 - 1450/pair this is the lowest priced full range speaker currently available. I have heard and currently own several high end components and speakers but for the price, this one can't be beat.
The bass goes low enough and is solid enough that a sub is an option even for home theater for all but the MOST discriminating bass fiends. The midrange is very nice... actually is what made me decide on them. And the treble, although a little hot is very revealing. Some might say it is harsh but that would be too harsh a judgment (pun intended) in my opinion. Unless mated to either very low fi electronics or particularly aggressive treble equipment, it isn't anymore than just slightly on the hot side of neutral.

A lot of stores may not display them in the best circumstances but rest assured that if you are even somewhat interested in these, give them a long hard listen at home. The bass changes dramatically with regards to distance from the rear wall. In my room, at 12" away, they were boomy and sounded as if the crossover was trying to let the speakers go lower than they could go but bringing them 14" out fixed everything. The bass is low and solid and with no boom. Just 2" really made THAT much of a difference.

As far as imaging and sound staging go, they throw a very VERY deep sound stage. It's not the widest but as deep as I have heard under $5500. Laterally, they don't image much beyond the outside edges of the speakers, but the depth takes the image right out behind your listening room rear wall. Also keep in mind that these speakers can be place further apart than most speakers. The manual recommends the distance between the speakers and the listener be 1.5 times the distance between the tweeters.

They are reasonably sensitive. On paper, they are 86 db at 1V but in reality, they are subjectively louder than would appear by that specification. And they can play LOUD. I usually have them hooked to a McCormack DNA-0.5 but when hooked to an AmFi TheaterOne 75 wpc receiver, they played to about 108 db with no appreciable distortion and no woofer bottoming. This isn't much compared to what Cerwin Vega or Klipsch speakers can do but it is pretty amazing for a truly high end speaker.

Anyway, I've made my point. I've heard quite a few very decent speakers and have even driven up to 800 miles to add a speaker to my "I've heard it" list. While I wouldn't quite call it the best I've heard, I guarantee that it competes against anything under $2500. This is truly a high end speaker at a mid fi price.

I've been shopping for a speaker that's priced below $2k for a long time. I ended up at a store that carried Alon, Thiel, NHT, B&W, Celestions, and a few other highend brands. I listened to them all including some of the higher priced speakers like the Thiels, a brand of which is highly raved in the audiophile community. Sonically the Thiels were great but they didn't do it for me as far as imaging goes.
I ended up purcahsing the NHT 2.5i. I found the 2.5i's overall sonic characteristics very pleasing. The midrange I thought had very little coloration and the highs delicate enough to pick up a lot of detail. It had a very dry sound but the imaging and sound staging was great. The presentation was what sold me on these dry but neutral speakers. I also like the bottom end. The 2.5i had bass extension but never did I find the speakers too boomy.

In summary, the NHT 2.5i has many of the sonic characteristics I look for in high end speakers. Like all other components, the NHT is by no means not without faults. I'm just willing to overlook the ones the 2.5i have because I feel they are easy to live with and it more than makes up for them with its superb imaging qualities. $$$Good value!

detailed, accurate sound, imaging, bass, great value

bass sometimes boomy on material with prolonged deep bass (however depends largely on recorded quality)

Very, very satisfied with these speakers. For the money they offer incredible value on all sound fields. Good imaging, deep soundstage, and yes, I also toe them out a bit which widens the stage while maintaining its depth.

I ran them with a NAD T770 receiver (great smooth musical receiver, but fails a bit short on power (2 x 80 wpc 2ch stereo mode for the 2.5i) and NAD T550 DVD/CD player. Very enjoyable combination nonetheless.

Since a couple of days I got the Classe SSP 25 / CAV 150, and suddenly and got a sound from the 2.5i I never thought they could have had. Bass noticeable improved, mids, highs, everything. They also cast a more "airy, spacious" sound now, each instrument with pinpoint accurate and well separated from each other.

Value: with this sound, the best on the market
Sound/overall: .... you guessed it

Similar Products Used:

B&W, PSB