Originally fell in love with the 21 deg. angled look which means my wife no longer have to straighten out the speaker angle.But I have tested out several high end speakers and the 2.9 just sounded very neutral. High Frequency are clear but not too bright or too soft. Bass is strong but not boomy. I have place them parallel to the wall without my wife constantly readjusting my preferred speaker angle placement.

I have paired the 2.9 with AC-2 for center channel which sounded very detailed, HDP-2 for rear channel, Velodyne FSR-12 and powered by Yamaha RX-V2095.
Cables used for 2.9 are Monster Z2 reference.

THESE ARE FANTASTIC SPEAKERS FOR THE MONEY. I AGREE WITH THE POEPLE THAT SAY YOU NEED GOOD EQUIPMENT TO REALIZE THEIR FULL POTENTIAL. I STARTED OUT USING A CAL AUDIO LABS CL-5 CD, A ROTEL RC972 PRE AMP, AND A ROTEL RB-981 AMP,WITH TRANSPARENT MUSIC LINK AND WAVE 200 CABLES. I THOUGHT THE IMAGING WAS OUTSTANDING,ALONG WITH THE HIGHS AND MIDS. ALTHOUGH I CAN SEE WHERE PEOPLE THAT DO NOT LIKE A BRIGHT SOUNDING SPEAKER WOULD BE REPELLED. INITIALLY I WAS NOT IMPRESSED WITH THE BASS. THIS HOWEVER WAS NOT A SPEAKER PROBLEM. I DUMPED THE ROTEL AMP,AND UPGRADED TO AN ACURUS A-200. RESULTS WERE BETTER BUT NOT GREAT. I DECIDED TO GET RID OF THE ACURUS AND PURCHASE A BRYSTON 4-B. HUGE IMPROVEMENT. THE 2.9'S CAME TO LIFE. HIGHS, MIDS, AND LOWS. YOU CAN PLAY THESE SPEAKERS LOUD. I'LL BE UPGRADING TO EITHER A BRYSTON BP-25 PRE AMP OR A BEL CANTO DESIGN SEP1 PRE AMP. THE 2.9'S ARE A GREAT SPEAKER FOR THEIR VALUE. SET UP AND EQUIPENT ARE IMPORTANT IN ORDER TO GET THE MOST OUT OF THEM. KEEP IN MIND IF THE RECORDING IS NOT QUALITY THE NHT'S WON'T DO ANY FAVORS. THESE SPEAKERS ARE NOT FORGIVING AND THEY DON'T TELL LIES. THEY REPRODUCE FROM THE SOURCE, AND THEY DO IT WELL. I'M MOVING UP TO THE 3.3'S BECAUSE I LIKE THEM EVEN MORE, BUT I GOTTA GIVE THE 2.9'S A 5.

I'm really glad I experimented to get these speakers to sound right. I auditioned Paradigm Active's, Reference Studio 100's, B&W Nautilus 805's (with a Servo Sub), and the NHT 2.9's.
I thought the Paradigm Actives (internally bi-amplified) would win hands down after all the reviews I read. They sounded great but lacked the volume to fill my room. The 100's were very efficient (driven by my Marantz MA500 125 WPC), but way too bright (almost harsh). The B&W's were beautiful in midrange performance but needed some low end help which I supplied with the Paradigm Servo 15. The combination, even with the supplied Paradigm X-30 controller, could not mate succesfully without a pinched sound between the sub and the 805N's.

I was at my wits end until I hooked up the NHT's. They sounded wonderful with a clean natural sound with significant depth throughout the transition from tweeter to midrange. The bass however needed some help. It was fine considering I was using the 125 watt monoblock amps; I just thought I needed more power to really make the low end sing. This was until my saleman stated he had the same set up at home and told me to upgrade my interconnects (Monster M1000i) and speaker wire (Monster M2.2) through the audition to determine if there were any significant changes......

I really didn't think this would help.....I was dead wrong! The difference was truly night and day. The bass came alive to the point I turned the tone control on my Sunfire Theater Grand to flat. The imaging off my 20-bit source CD's were well beyond the perimeter of the room and much wider than the speakers. It was amazing.

I am still thinking of more power, but the MA-500's were definitely in complete control down to the 3.2 Ohm minimum. I may even try to Bi-wire using Monster M2.4 wires. It really becomes exciting when you have all these techno tweaks to bring your old CD's alive.

In closing, the 2.9's were purchased this past weekend along with a matching center channel, NHT 2.5i rears, as well as all the cables and interconects. It turns out my MA-500's cannot support Bi-wiring through their set up...(rats).

I believe that using low end equipment to drive these speakers will not give you the results you wish-but they are extremely rewarding for those who put forth the effort to improve all the weak links in their system. For me, it was definitely my cables. A five star speaker for sure.

dynamics, balance, ease of use, well-thought out product design

a little too eye-catching in glossy black, slightly bright treble

I bought the NHT 2.9s mainly as a concession to aesthetics when I recently moved to a house with a smaller living room. Before, I was running Infinity Overture 1s as satellites with M&K MX-5000 MkII and MX-105 subs in a home theater setup. Needless to say, the M&K subs simply took up too much space in anything but a large room.

Still, I enjoy good bass and need full range performance from my system. After looking around and considering my options, it looked like the 2.9s would fit the bill nicely because even though they are 21" deep, they are fairly narrow and take up a minimum of floor space for a true floor standing, full-range speaker.

I knew it would be hard to follow-up the bass performance of twin M&K subs-- and I didn't want to be disappointed. I certainly wasn't! While ultimate low frequency extension isn't quite as good as when I was running the M&Ks (which go down below 20Hz), bass impact, slam, and transient response are still excellent. The small tradeoff of size vs. ultimate performance is suprisingly small, and these speakers are much, much easier to live with than a dual sub arrangement. The 2.9s can take the whole house and literally SHAKE them. We are talking volume levels that are almost violent. All the drivers are well chosen for their given frequency range task, and the 10" woofers must be truly well designed and of high quality to do what they can do!

These speakers also perform well on jazz and classical music. Low volume levels and delicacy on the nuances may not seem like these speakers' strength, but only because of how competent and potent they are at high volume levels. These speakers can sound pretty bright, but I attribute this at least partially to the fact that I am running them in a room with bare hardwood floors. With certain source material, most speakers would sound bright under these conditions.

Fit and finish are excellent, and the 2.9s are obviously a quality product. I am biamping them with four channels of 130 watts from my HT amp for a total of 260 watts to each speaker. The NHTs will take all of this power easily without strain. I've even run them to the point that my preamp's volume control would not go any higher (not recommended!).

I think that rock 'n' roll, hip-hop, and hard rock fans simply could not go wrong with this speaker. Bass performance is excellent by any standards, and transient dynamics are almost startling. While you may get more delicate, refined high freq. response at low volumes from a good B&W nautilus tweeter, B&Ws in anywhere near this price range simply cannot match the NHTs in overall full-range performance. I don't think that any speakers, including even dynaudios, can.

In short, these speakers are a great value, especially if you can get them for less than the $2500/pr. retail price. Although they are fairly large and noticeable in all but the largest rooms, they represent a lot of performance in a reasonably compact size. They are about 39" tall, 7" wide, and 21" deep. Unless you have a large room, I can't imagine anyone needing the much larger NHT 3.3.

Similar Products Used:

Infinity Overtures, M+K subs

I was narrowing the field to ProAc Response 3.8's, Audio Physic Libras and one or two others in the $7500 price range. I was going to have to buy interconnects and speaker cables as well. $$$$$!!! Then I listened to the NHT 2.9's next to $7500 DynAudio Contour 3.3's at The Sound Factor in Pasadena, CA. The same associated components, everything, including the CD cuts. Back and forth I went between the two. The 3.3's were better. But not by alot and sure as hell not $5000 better!! I bought the 2.9's. With the reduced amount that I spent on the speakers, I went whole hog on interconnects and cables. Total cost, $5200. The speakers arrived at my door along with the other stuff minus the interconnects. The store explained that the Audio Truth Diamond interconnects were not available and that they were going to send me the equivalent of another manufacturer. I could not stand the wait, so for the interim, I went to Radio Shack and bought their finest audio interconnects. $10.00I was dazzled! I have not only yet to play with speaker positioning, but yet to receive the good interconnects. At this point, the overall rating that I give these speakers in my large, open, spacious living room is *****!!!!!. Who knows after everything is correct. If you get a chance, like I did, to listen to these speakers next to some very expensive highly rated speakers, using all the same associated equipment, then I advise you to do so. If you are not greatly impressed by the NHT's, then you are dead.
My associated equipment: Cary SLM 100 monoblocks; Anthem pre-amp; Cal Audio Labs Icon MKII cd player; Audio Truth Silver speaker cables; interconnects: not sure yet.

Accurate, Pinpoint Image, Revealing

Need similiar quality amp/pre-amp to get the most - NOT REALLY A WEAKNESS!

Basically, these speakers will give an unbiased representation of source material. For me, I love this. If you have poor recordings, or poor components upstream, the 2.9s will let you know. On the otherhand, if you have the 2.9s connected properly, they will blow you away.

My favorite aspect of these speakers is the way the image. While finicky to improper setup/placement, they present an image that is deep,wide, and specific when set up properly.

James Taylor at the Beacon never sounded so good as on my 2.9s with the EAD setup, and DH Labs cables.

Similar Products Used:

NHT 2.5, NHT VT2, Paradigm, Vienna Acoustic, Meadowlark

I posted a review of these a while back, when they were hooked to my Sony HT system. In that review I mentioned that some things just did not 'sound right' to me.

I have since changed cables, amps and source, changed placement in the room and now these speakers absolutely are awesome! I still use four 2.9 and an AC2 with a Velodyne FRS12 as Sub, but for the front pair I now use a Mark Levinson 335 power amp. For stereo music, I now use a Sony SCD-1 and a Mark Levinson 380 Preamp, the whole audio chain is now interconnected with balanced cables, and I got some AudioQuest speaker cables as well.

The musical performance is now fantastic... The speakers truly do amazing things! The increased detail is simply stunning, the highs are clear, the bass is tight and even more defined and punchy. The midrange is now simply magic! Detail is totally amazing, hear all the instruments and vocals, more detail all around.

I raise my rating to 5 stars, previously was 4. The reason? It was not the speakers... It was the other gear that made them sound less than very good.

Now I badly need new amps and cables for the rear and center speakers...

These are outstanding speakers that perform with products well beyond their price point. The NHT 2.9s are NOT bright sounding speakers, as many comments about them (and about NHT spearkers in general) would have you believe. They are, however, very revealing, accurate, and faithful to the recording being reproduced. If these speakers sound bright, then the problem lies in somwhere in the upstream equipment/cable chain or the recording be reproduced.
The recent rave reviews about the Maggie 1.6QR and the slamming review given the NHT 2.9 by Robert Greene in the Dec 1998 Fi made me curious about what I was "missing" with my 2.9s. After some critical listening evaluation and comparison of these two very different approaches to speaker design-my conclusion is that I am missing NOTHING, and gaining the wonderfully accurate bottom octive that the 1.6's clearly lack. I am particularly mystified about Greene's remarks that the 2.9's lacked "coherency". Something must be going on with his room, room treatments, or upstream chain. I noticed no such advantage of the maggies in this regard compared to the NHTs. I never have had the sense of separate drivers working when listening to the 2.9s. In fact, it seems to me that to duplicate the NHT bottom end performance, one has to use a subwoofer with the 1.6's which definitely WILL be difficult to integrate in a coherent manner. In my opinion, the NHT's have a better soundstage and clearly image more accurately than the Magnepan 1.6 QR. On some recordings, the NHTs produce a startling wrap-around imaging effect, that comes close to the five-channel Citation 6-axis processing that I use in my home theater audio system. And I'll bet 2.9s will play a lot loude than the Maggies with a lot less dynamic compression , if called on to do so, while having better low-level resolution. I did find that tilting the front of the cabinet upward slightly using the adjutable spiked feet, does offer slight imporvements in imaging, soundstage, and timbre, as Corey Greenberg pointed out in his review.

I paid $2000.00 for my 2.9s. These speakers are a great value, and I highly recommend them if you are looking at speakers in the $1500-$3500 range, provided that you have taken care in selecting the other components in your system.

System:
Adcom GFP-750/McCormack MLD preamplifiers
McCormack DNA-0.5 amplifier with SMc Audio Revsion A upgrage
Sony CDP-XA7ES CD player
Rega Planer 3 table w/AudioTechnica ML-150 cartridge
NHT 2.9 speakers
Velodyne FSR-12 subwoofer
Ted's Excellent Cable speaker cables (this stuff is great-try it, check out www.tedsexcellentcable.com)
Kimber SilverStreak interconnects

I am pumped! I listened to some NHT 1.2s after listening to some B&W 604s, Def Tech 2000 and 2002's and some Snells (?) and they flat out blew away the B&W and Dev Techs for detailed, crisp, accurate sound. They held their own against the Snells which is a great complement given these were higher end Snells. I have been doing some heavy research for the past 2 months, and the most information came from this site. Thanks so much for all of your insight and great advise.
I just ordered some NHT 2.9's and NHT VT-2s to go with my Yamaha 2095 and Sunfire Cinema Grand. I may try bi-amping my Sunfire w/ current source (mids/tweets) and voltage source (woofs) at Bob Carver's reccomendation unless this will be too much power for these 250w max speakers. Any concerns out there?

My expectations are extremely high and am sure I will not be dissapointed. I cant wait to her some classic Fleetwood Mac, James Taylor Live, a sprinkle of Rush and a DVD or two! Its 3:20am in Anchorage right now. Does that tell you how jazzed I am?

Ill keep you posted if I can pull myself away from the NHTs!
Perry

Prancer

Firstly, I want to thank George Diamond for tipping me off about the Recoton outlet store in FL. I bought their last pair last week for $999 U.S.!I may need help with set-up for these. Although I am getting excellent dynamics, imaging and clarity with the 2.9's, the soundstage width is not what it could be. Any suggestions? I have them about 7' apart and about 24" out from the back wall.
The pair I have is not broken in yet and actually sound a little lean in the midrange compared to my (well broken in) psb Stratus Silvers. It must be early in the breaking-in process, still.
These speakers are beautiful to look at and to hear, and promise even more beautiful music in the hours, weeks and years ahead. Presentation of large scale orchestral works are particularly clear and dynamic with placement of instruments extremely well delineated. Also, there is a wonderful sense of intimacy with solo acoustics and vocals. Bass is well defined, natural and never unduly imposes itself on the musical balance.
I can't wait to get home tonight and listen to them some more.
As to the review immediately prceding mine, all I can say is that I do not count that person's score in the overall average.
I give the 2.9's a 4.5 (which rounds up to a 5) rating for performance and value.

Equipment:
EAD T-1000 transport
MSB Link dac
Virtual Mode SL-3 passive linestage
Virtual Mode Power Pack power amplifier
Virtual Mode power cables
MillerSound interconnect and speaker cable