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If you love SET amplifiers, boy do I have speaker for you.

I have had in-house for the last six weeks a pair of speakers that I'm reviewing for hometheaterreview.com from NSMT Loudspeakers, located in North Carolina, that are a perfect match with SET amplifiers.  I love SET amps.  However, historically I'm not a fan of single driver designs (rolled off high-end/lack of bass) or horn designs (I find them to have coloration that annoys me after a short while) that are normally used with beautiful sounding SET "Flea Watt" amps.  I have reviewed both types of speakers and they were good, but not keepers for me because of the above stated reasons.

The NSMT Model 50 is a small very attractive floor-stander which has an sensitivity rating of 101 dB and never dips below 8 ohms.  It is a three driver MTM two way design that loads into a double transmission line and really reaches down to 35Hz to 20 kHz in my room.  This is the third speaker I have reviewed from NSMT, the other two were wonderful music makers, and shows what a talented designer that Erol Ricketts is in all his designs at applying his unique version of transmission line loading. 

Now, the Model 50 sounds terrific with high power SS or tube based amplification.  But what has been enchanting for me is when I drive it with either a SET 2A3 amplifier, around 3.5 watts, or my Linear Tube Audio MicroZOTL as an integrated using the NOS 1940's Tung-Sol 6SN7 black glass oval plate tubes which produce only around 1 Watt.  With either amplifier this speaker completely disappears, the beautiful colors/timbres just float out and 3D chunky images of the players fill the soundstage.  However, because of the very high sensitivity of the Model 50 and its transmission line loading the foundation of the music, true deep bass, and overall dynamics/dB levels are hard to believe.

So, if you have or always wanted to try out a SET amplifier this speaker is a great choice.  The Model 50 retails for $1,800.00 a pair, so they are very affordable to team-up with your SET amplifier.  If you want a lot more details just go to NSMT-loudspeakers website.    
teajay
aricaudio's avatar
aricaudio
268 posts
 
@t_ramey - The amplifier won't struggle with larger drivers provided efficiency and impedance are all in check. Within the power limits of the amplifier of course. I receive this question a lot, and what it really all boils down to are listening preferences. If you listen at modest volume levels and listening to moderately dynamic music, then a 2A3 or other lower powered SET amp will work wonders. On the flip side of that coin, if you're looking to move lots of air with multiple 15" woofers playing fast-paced guitar heavy music with significant bass staccato notes in the 30 hz range then you will need more power. I have driven everything from 15" high efficiency horn-tweeter designs, 12" 3-way designs and 8" 2- way designs with ribbon tweeters without issue from as little as 3.5 watts. 90% of my listening is done where you have to talk loudly over the speakers, the woofers will pressurize and rarify lots of air and the room is filled with sound. However if Slightly Stoopid, Sublime or Bob Marley come on and I want to up the volumes to party levels- it runs out of steam and mostly in the bass first. For music like the latter- I much prefer Push-Pull. I hope this helps, Aric
wolf_garcia
6,602 posts
 
99db Klipsch Heresy IIIs with 2 REL subs, and a Dennis Had Firebottle SE amp...an inexpensive path to mojo all day.
t_ramey
632 posts
 
@aricaudio    

Thanks for the reply! That’s great info to be mindful of as I just took delivery of some nice klipsch speakers and would love to add more tubes to the mix at some point. 
tdwolf1414
11 posts
 
Hi @teejay did you happen to test these with the pass labs XA25 amp? Just wondering your thoughts.


teajay OP
1,655 posts
 
Hello tdwolf1414,

Yes, I have tried three different SS amplifiers, including the XA25, and the Model 50 delivers superb results with these much higher powered amps.  With each, the speaker's very high level of transparency allows the different amplifier's slightly different sonic signature to be easily heard.

So, I want to be very clear, this speaker offers wonderful results regardless what I drive it with.  My excitement over the Model 50 is that it is full range transducer that allows me to use my SET 2A3 based amplifier to hear the SET glory with no short comings at all regrading dB levels, bass extension, or a rolled off high-end.  As I stated before, I have auditioned/reviewed single driver designs and horn speakers, all of them were much more expensive, and none of them were keepers for me.   
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