I bought the NHT 2.5is about 8 months ago after a friend bought a pair and recommended them highly. He and I both had been looking high and low from B&Ws to PSBs to JPWs, to Definitive Technology to Thiel...the list goes on and on. The bottom line...BEST BANG FOR HE BUCK. I owned a pair of Klipsch Heresy's for the last 10 years and they are great if you want "loud". I was floored by the DETAIL the 2.5is' crank out. As others have said, I've heard things from my CDs I didn't hear before.
MARK MY WORD. These are NEUTRAL SPEAKERS and they will hand out whatevers given to them. The quality of the other components is very key. They are not forgiving speakers. A crappy recording on a crappy CD player will sound crappy. CASE IN POINT. About a week after I bought the speakers, I traded in my CAL DX-1 for an Arcam CD changer at a local dealer that said Arcam "blows CAL away". Well, after I got home, hooked the CD player up and listened for few days, I thought "my this music sure sounds edgy...wow, maybe I don't like these speakers after all..they are so bright".

Well, it was the #$(#($@##*$&* CD player. I took the Arcam back, and reclaimed my DX-1 (thank GOD!) and guess what...the warmth was back in the vocals and the strings were silky smooth once more. Don't let ANYONE turn you away from NHT 2.5i's because they are "too bright". You just have to be very selective about your source equipment. They are as detailed as I've EVER heard in a speaker of this price range and better than some much more expensive. I searched for about a year and I am extremely pleased. They retail for $1300 and I paid $1099. Also, I don't use the floor spikes because its easier to move the speakers around on the carpet.

I have listened to the NHT 2.5 and think they are great speakers and a real value in current market (four stars for them!).
Just one question: has anybody out there has listened to the new NHT 2.9? Any
oppinion on these speakers or comparison with the VT-2 and/or 2.5?

I am considering the 2.9s, as well as other speakers, as a potential candidate to upgrade my current NHT 1.8 home theater front speakers.

Thank you,

José Vicente Gomez

I really pondered making the decision on which speakers I should purchase for my new home theater system. I listened to most of the brands ( Difinitive, PSB, Polk, B&W, etc. ) before I decided on the NHT's. Actually, I was originally going to purchase the 1.5's but fell in love with the bass of the 2.5i. The B&W 602 with powered sub would have come in second place for me.
When I first took them home and plugged everything in ( Rotel separates with Sony DSP-7000 DVD ) I have to admit that I was not impressed at all. They did not have near the life that the ones that I had auditioned seemed to portray. However, I left them running for a few days and the sound began to improve amazingly.

Now I am absolutely satisfied with the music that I hear from these speakers. All things being good, I think that their most impressive characteristic is the soundstage that they develop. If you close your eyes and listen, there is no way you can tell that there are only two speakers creating this much music. I primarily listen to jazz, rock, and some country.

I bought them with the center channel and surround speakers. I also decided to get them in mahogany since they matched my wood floors. They look absolutely terrific, and the angled face gives them that "not mass produced" look that should come with speakers of this stature.

A couple notes of caution when deciding on these NHT's. Number one, you need at least 100 watts of clean power. These things are tough to feed and will only sound as good as supporting equipment. Number two, do not even evaluate them until they have been broken in for fifty or so hours.

Afterwards, sit back, relax, and smile...

super sound low bucks

need lots lots lots of power to sound good

For 500 bucks each cant find anything better than these babies.But I say dont buy em like you would other speakers.these suckers are very different than most speakers.these are the first speaks i ever had that had a left and rgt.that had an angle on the front of the speakers and a woofer on the side.I tried them with a 100 watt accurus power amp, Great amp just not for these speakers.Tried a 225 watt per side high current amp and they sounded very good but the only way to really make these things work is to bi amp two 225 watt amps.I found out after my testing that nht recommends biamping they even sell a specific amp for these speakers.By all means pick em up and power em up and in 20 years when you upgrade they will give you 1000 bucks each for em. there that good.

Similar Products Used:

Kef psb paradigm

super sound low bucks

need lots lots lots of power to sound good

For 500 bucks each cant find anything better than these babies.But I say dont buy em like you would other speakers.these suckers are very different than most speakers.these are the first speaks i ever had that had a left and rgt.that had an angle on the front of the speakers and a woofer on the side.I tried them with a 100 watt accurus power amp, Great amp just not for these speakers.Tried a 225 watt per side high current amp and they sounded very good but the only way to really make these things work is to bi amp two 225 watt amps.I found out after my testing that nht recommends biamping they even sell a specific amp for these speakers.By all means pick em up and power em up and in 20 years when you upgrade they will give you 1000 bucks each for em. there that good.

Similar Products Used:

Kef psb paradigm

SOUND STAGE AND CLARITY, HIGH TOLERANCE
FOR PLACEMENT.

TOO TRANSPARENT, NO WAY TO HIDE ANY MINOR DEFECTS FROM CD OR EQUIPMENT. WATT HAPPY.

I LIKE THE CLARITY AND SOUNDSTAGE OF THIS SPEAKER VERY MUCH. THE SOUND IS VERY TRANSPARENT, IE. JUST LIKE A MIRROR, GOOD QUALITY CD AND EQUIPMENT IS
A MUST. I AM USING AUDIO RESEACH SP9 PRE
AND ASSEMBLAGE POWER AMP. THIS SPEAKER LIKE TUBE AND THUS I CHANGE MY THRESHOLD
400A TO THE ASSEMBLAGE, GIVE ME A WARMER
BUT VERY MUSICAL COLOR.

Similar Products Used:

PROAC TABELLET

staging, imaging, scale, dynamic ( especially bass )

lack of detail in midrange (and low treble), rather difficult setting

For a some time after perchase of 2.5i I hadn't set these big speakers properly because of my small listening room. So, I couldn't help standing dull & booming sound, I felt only timbre, except soundstaging, scale, dynamic, etc which are strengths of recent speakers. But one day, I decided to move away all furnature, and set 2.5i in the way that NHT recommended, and set precisely to my ears. Setting environment is 3.5 X 4.5m room, and has sofa,curtain,cusion and blanket. All absorbent stuffs were set by trial & error. They result in much improvement of sound, but I wish it were a little more spacious.

2.5i are tallboy type, and have focused geometry shape about 20 degree, and very beautiful black highgrossy surface. I think all NHT¡¯s product have good looking. They have bi-wiring terminals. In spec, frequency range is 29Hz ~ 25kHz (+-3db), 86db.

According to many other user¡¯s review, ¡®2.5i are very difficult to drive and demands high power(more than 100W ) and spacious room. Otherwise, they reproduces booming sound.¡¯ For the most parts, I agree with that. But in my experiences, with low wattage amp and small room, 2.5i reproduce good bass. Not booming but tensioned if only use proper absorbent and optimum placement. 2.5i is depandant more on placement than on amp wattage. So I recommend 2.5i users to try various test. I matched 80W integrated amp.

Treble
2.5i¡¯s Treble is open and well extended without hesitation by alminum dome tweeter. Somewhat lean and cool, metallic, non-silky sound. So, wrong placement or bad matching may result in fatiguing sound to the people who have very very sensitive ear. Detail is good but not top class compared with bookself speaker like proac or dynaudio. But for the most music (classical or jazz) 2.5i¡¯s treble is good rather than bad.

Midrange
Very smooth mids with polypropylene midrange. This smoothness sometimes reduces vividness in vocal music (like tenor or soprano). Midrange is lack of detail and is somewhat dry. But I experienced incredible improvement of this weakness by matching with a single 6V6 tube amp. Although the tube amp¡¯s tonal balance and hum were terrible, the midrange¡¯s detail is much better. I think 2.5i and tube make positive matching. 2.5i¡¯s piano sound is amazing. Especially, left hand¡¯s touchs are fantastic. Its reverberation is full up in the room. I strongly recommend 2.5i to piano song lover's.

Bass
Great!! The bass of 2.5i with good placement is wonderful. Very deep and rich, plentiful and apparent. This excellent bass makes soundstage big and huge. Bass guitar and kick drum of rock music, double bass and big drum of orchestra etc, the entities of all bass parts have distinguished scale and clarity.

Timbre
Neutral, no coloring, if any, very very little. Because of a bit lean and cool sound, Finandia or Violin concerto of Sibelius are literally 'cool'. But, lack of warm sound in the chamber orchestra. Maybe some people like 2.5i's timbre and others not, according to their tastes.

Staging & Imaging
Wide and deep staging (a little bit laid back sound staging). Very clear and vivid imaging. Satisfied with large orchestral symphonies like Wagner or Mahler.

*Recommended to those who think much of staging, scale, dynamic, and who enjoy AV and HIFI at the same time
*Not Recommended to those who want detail and subtlety of top class

Similar Products Used:

Proac, B&W, Royd, Rogers, Mission and many others

I have got a pair of the nht 2.5i and nht 1.5 that are now coming to a year. I feel that it is time for me to post some feedback for some who are thinking of buying these speakers.
My current setup is using the the 1.5 to stack on top of the 2.5i. With the 1.5 in the inverted position to match the 2.5 tweeter and mid range setup (ie, the left 1.5 is placed on top of the right 2.5i) . I thus have a nht 2.5i + 1.5 setup (maybe called the 4.0, if nht were to design this).

The source unit is Sony DVP S7000
The DAC is Musical Fidelity X-24K
The Preamp is ShenZhen Valve Audio Lab Tube Preamp (based on Marantz 7 topolgy)
The Power Amp is a pair of Decware Zen SE84B Mono Bloc Tube Amp
The digital interconnects are Illumination DV-75 and LAT Di-20 Mk II
The analogue interconnect are Silver Audio (Ex D Lin Audio) silver Bullet 4.0 and Nordost Blacknight
The speaker cables are Silver Audio Symphony 32 and Nordost FlatLine Gold
The subwoffer Power Amp for the 2.5i base unit is the nht SA2 Class G Mono amp
The Power Cords are LAT AC-2 and WireWorld Aurora 2
Both the 2.5i and 1.5 are placed on Brass Toe vibration isolation footers

The mid and high of the 1.5 and 2.5i are connected in parallel to the Zen Mono Pair. The bass units of the 2.5i are powered by the nht SA2, with the crossover on the SA2 set at 75Hz.

The sound from this setup is very very revealing, I have tried a lot of different setups before, but so far this setup is the most satisfying ones. I am listening to very sweet SET tube sound that come from the 1.5 and 2.5 mid range driver. Because of the low efficiency of the nht speakers, i used 2 set of the nht mid range driver running them in paralle to gain more mid range from them. The bass are powered by the nht SA2, and the bass volume can be adjusted to your desire as well to match the type of music that you listen.

For my listening room, which is a typical apartment size living room. The sound level is just right for critical listening and not too cramp to lose the spaciousness that these speakers can project.

Overall, after coming to close to a year now and after the long burn-in and stabilisation of my entire system setup, these speakers have prove that they really live up to what they are reputed for by manys.

i have owned these speakers for a little over a year now. i listened to many speakers before buying these, and i have listened to many more since (i am prone to bad cases of buyers remorse). but i have to say that buying the 2.5i's is some of the best money i have spent. you see, i am a big classical music fan and this is one of the few speakers i have heard that is fast enough to resolve all of the info on large orchestral pieces, and present it with such outstanding timbral accuracy. plus the double basses really come through - it really does sound like there is a symphony orchestra in my room playing for me. vocal music is also a joy - there is none of that midrange bloat i hear with so many other speakers. many people describe this quality as "fullness", but to me is sounds like the singer is being recorded with a megaphone up to his/her lips. after i bought the speakers i decided to upgrade from the old sony receiver i was using as an amp. trust me, you owe it to yourself to listen to this speaker hooked up to a bryston amp. my local dealer hooked up this combo for me (with an acurus act 3 as the preamp/processor). i was floored. when i put on my Jewel test cd (some of her vocals are brutal on tweeters) i could actually hear the acoustices of the rooms she was recorded in. i could also tell very easily when she was singing her own backup vocals or when it was another woman. and talk about power, brahm's piano concerto #2 almost knocked me on my butt (emil gilels on piano & eugen jochum conducting). there were also some very delicate passages on there that were presented very beautifully as well. and bass? low, and tight. listening to portishead, olive and fiona apple was almost a religious experience. the bryston really moved & stopped those woofers fast! its funny, when i was looking for speakers, my price range was up to $5000, but of all the speakers i heard (martin logan,definitive, klipsch, meridian, sanus faber, acoustic research, linn, paradigm, hales - ugh) i liked these the best. i actually like them better than the nht 2.9's, and the nht 3.3's. they just sound more coherent to me, less analytical than those guys. so there you have it, the best speakers i have heard for under five grand. i do have one piece of advise for my fellow audiophiles - do not buy a "nice" speaker that will make the majority of your current music collection sound "good". Buy the most highly accurate speaker you can find/afford and then buy recordings that will live up to your equipment. when you get your music collection up to par you will thank me. when 24/192 becomes the new standard, you will really thank me. obviously i think the nht 2.5i's are such a product, but go out & listen for yourself.

I can't really add much to some of the very detailed reviews that are already posted. So, I'll just say that I concur with most of the good reviews that I have seen so far for this product. The imaging is excellent and I think the overall tone is neutral and at worst case only slightly on the hot side of neutral. The only other speaker I've heard which compared well with this was the Energy C-8 which was brighter and not quite as low in the bass (although I listened to them in an uncarpeted room if you can believe that). The C-8's bass, however, was tighter and quicker. My search lasted for about 7 weeks, also listeneded to the B&W 602s with Sound Dyamics sub, PSB Silver and Bronze, Paradigm Ref SM60's, Klipsch KLF20, Def Tech BP10. They were all decent, but did not suit me or my system like NHTs or the Energy. The 2.5 is a truly full range speaker which is not common at this price point. The only complaint I would have is its lack of sensitivity so I agree with others that having a 100W/channel in 6 ohms is a good thing, and having more can only help. I have heard it demonstrated with a 35W NAD integrated which sounded good enough, although the classical piano piece that was being played was not exactly pushing the power requirement envelope. Overall, one of the best speakers for this price range. This also is a Stereophile Recommened Component.