Rocray,
That's exactly how I arrived at them. There aren't any Nola Dealers in South-East Michigan for auditioning either but the reviews and the blogs have convinced me to have a very close look.
As a retired guy who spends way too much time researching and reading on the internet, I created a list of stand mounted Bookshelf speakers that appealed to me for various reasons ranging from $1200 to $3200.
Timbre, imaging and sound-staging are my priorities. I can easily live without deep bass but a sense of scale and reasonable volume are mandatory. I generally listen to vocals, classical and acoustic pop. My source is a Sony SCD-XA-5400 ES going through a Schiit Yggdrasil DAC to a Schiit Mjolnir 2 (tubes) as a preamp then to a Marsh A400 Power amp.
A secondary (but important) consideration for me was trying to find speakers that were designed and manufactured here in the US or Canada if possible.
A few British speakers crossed the Radar but after shipping duties, tariffs and dealer markups they would have to be that much better than anything in their comparable price range to be considered and I haven't wrapped my financial ears around that yet. While I'm attracted to the Harbeths and similar British monitors sound; some part of me has always wanted to know why such simple cabinet speakers should cost so much. As much as I like their sound, I just can't find any love for a veneered crate in my listening room. Just my personal opinion. I have several friends with these speakers and their systems sound wonderful.
Moving on, I struggled with Be vs Ribbon vs Soft Dome vs Hard Dome and finally gave up on which was best because in the end, superior speaker voicing by a gifted designer will determine the best combination of hardware for a given sound. It's my job to decide if that sound fits my room, the equipment on hand and I.
I'm downsizing from decades of BIG systems to this new arrangement and it's really exciting. So far it seems like the Nola Boxer 2 is an American made speaker that hits most of the buttons on my list but I need to hear them if I'm to buy a pair. We shall see. I am considering other speakers as well.
That's exactly how I arrived at them. There aren't any Nola Dealers in South-East Michigan for auditioning either but the reviews and the blogs have convinced me to have a very close look.
As a retired guy who spends way too much time researching and reading on the internet, I created a list of stand mounted Bookshelf speakers that appealed to me for various reasons ranging from $1200 to $3200.
Timbre, imaging and sound-staging are my priorities. I can easily live without deep bass but a sense of scale and reasonable volume are mandatory. I generally listen to vocals, classical and acoustic pop. My source is a Sony SCD-XA-5400 ES going through a Schiit Yggdrasil DAC to a Schiit Mjolnir 2 (tubes) as a preamp then to a Marsh A400 Power amp.
A secondary (but important) consideration for me was trying to find speakers that were designed and manufactured here in the US or Canada if possible.
A few British speakers crossed the Radar but after shipping duties, tariffs and dealer markups they would have to be that much better than anything in their comparable price range to be considered and I haven't wrapped my financial ears around that yet. While I'm attracted to the Harbeths and similar British monitors sound; some part of me has always wanted to know why such simple cabinet speakers should cost so much. As much as I like their sound, I just can't find any love for a veneered crate in my listening room. Just my personal opinion. I have several friends with these speakers and their systems sound wonderful.
Moving on, I struggled with Be vs Ribbon vs Soft Dome vs Hard Dome and finally gave up on which was best because in the end, superior speaker voicing by a gifted designer will determine the best combination of hardware for a given sound. It's my job to decide if that sound fits my room, the equipment on hand and I.
I'm downsizing from decades of BIG systems to this new arrangement and it's really exciting. So far it seems like the Nola Boxer 2 is an American made speaker that hits most of the buttons on my list but I need to hear them if I'm to buy a pair. We shall see. I am considering other speakers as well.