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Customer's Model 10S Mod

 

A Customer's Model 10S Mod

NSMT's Model 10S

The New Model 10S
Ultra Definition Minimonitor 

$1,495 per pair

 

 There are only a few real contenders to the NSMT 10S in the sealed mini-monitor market.

 

"There are only a few real contenders to the NSMT 10S in the sealed mini-monitor market. The Harbeth P3ESR [$2,195] which uses a 4th order crossover (I prefer a simple 1st order crossover for reasons that you are already aware of) and the Merlin TSM [$4,180] which performs well at 9’- 12’ distances, but not as good as the NSMT 10S for nearfield or extreme nearfield listening positions."

Ken Harris
Nashville, TN


 

Erol,

I am enjoying my Chorus speakers, still experimenting with them to get the best out of them. The bass is too strong with the ports open, but a little thin with the ports sealed. My best option may be to augment the bass with a small sub placed in the corner of the front wall. That way, I should be able to dial in just the right amount of bass to get a full sound without it becoming boomy.

I thought that you might be interested in seeing what I have done with my NSMT 10S Speakers. I acquired these speakers a couple of years ago, (used) in the Walnut finish (shortly after the Walnut finish was no longer available from NSMT). I sent the speakers back to you for refitting with the new Seas Woofer and modified crossover.

The original finish on the cabinets was in pretty rough shape (abused by the original owner), so I decided to re-veneer them. Before deciding to re-veneer them, I had done extensive experimenting with bi-wiring vs. single wiring with a variety of high grade speaker cables, and although the differences between bi-wiring and single wiring were very slight, I determined that there was slightly better coherence of the drivers with single wiring. So, I eliminated the second pair of binding post, modified the internal wiring of the crossover/drivers/binding post (using DH Labs OFH-14 14ga. Teflon insulated, silver-plated, stranded, high purity copper wire) , epoxy filled the unneeded binding post holes (as well as the baffle grill post holes) and re-veneered the entire cabinets with some premium bookmatched Walnut veneer. The binding posts have been upgraded to Cardas Copper SSBP. To further dampen cabinet resonance, a very thin layer of rubberized cork has been bonded to the internal surfaces of the cabinet. A small amount of natural long haired wool, purchased from Madisound, was added to the cabinet interior. (Natural long haired wool is preferred over the synthetic material (Acousta-Stuf) because the wool fibers are all of different lengths and absorb a more diverse band spread of frequencies.)

The baffle around the tweeter is fitted with diffraction felt pads purchased from Jim Goulding at Diffractionbegone.com. (The naturally grey felt pads have been dyed brown to more closely match the walnut finish of the speakers.) These really help clean up the high end and prevent ‘smearing’ by eliminating baffle reflections from the tweeter. The speakers are securely mounted to custom sized Walnut mounting plates I made which sit atop Core Audio Designs speaker stands. (Small bolts are run up through the mounting plate, with a thin layer of rubberized cork sandwiched in between the mounting plate/speaker base and pulled tight.) The speakers are firmly coupled with the mass of the stands and gone is the fear of them being toppled from their perch.

Anyway, here is what my NSMT 10S (Audiophile Edition) Speakers look like now.

My NSMT 10S speakers are used in an extremely nearfield listening position with a Adire Audio Rava 12” sealed cabinet subwoofer. Integration with the sub is completely seamless. Source is a Rega Apollo CDP, amplification is provided by a Red Wine Audio Signature 30.2 Integrated Amp providing 30 watts RMS per channel into 8 ohms. Interconnects between the CDP & Amp are Artisan Silver "Ultimate Silver Dream" pure silver wire, terminated with Cardas SLVR RCA plugs. Speaker cables are homemade, constructed with VH Audio 18 gauge, solid Core UniCrystal OCC with foamed/cellular Teflon insulation, configured in a twisted pair and wrapped in 100% cotton sheathing. These cables outperform any multi-stranded cables I have ever tried.

I obtained my N.A.R.A.S. recording engineering certification back in 1975, and although I did not pursue the music business as my profession, I have been an avid music lover, audiophile, and audio equipment hobbyist/tweaker for the past 40 years. In that time, I have owned and have had the privilege of listening to many fine speakers. I still own Bang & Olufsen Penta Towers, JBL Studio Monitors, DLK Monitors, and an extremely modified pair of Magnepans. But my favorite speakers out of the bunch, and the ones that I enjoy listening to the most, is my NSMT 10S setup.

When I really want to hear the mix that the engineer intended, the NSMT 10S speakers are what I use. The midrange tonal balance of these speakers is near perfect. As I have always said about speakers, if it can’t do voices right, nothing else matters! The NSMT 10S speakers do voices right!

As far as imaging, none of the other speakers I have can do what the NSMT 10S can do. On a good recording mix, vocals and bass are solidly planted in the center and all the instruments are spread across the soundstage and have their own place in space. The sound does not seem to emanate from the speakers at all, but hangs in the space above and between the speakers with a depth that extends several feet behind the front plane of the speakers. When positioned correctly, the NSMT 10S speakers are able to project a 3D holographic soundstage. With most speakers, you hear the drivers, but with the NSMT’s, you only hear the music.

You did a fine job designing the NSMT 10S speaker Erol, and I just wanted you to know how special that I think these speakers are. I can’t imagine any other speaker sounding better in an extreme nearfield setup (although someday, I would like to audition the NSMT model 20M).

Best regards,

Ken Harris
Nashville, TN