On occasion I buy speakers because I can’t make them for the price.  A good example is the NHT Classic 2 center channel.  I purchased a pair of these to act as the left/right speakers in the living room during the NHT holiday sales.  Price was $299 each.  The NHT Classic line, particularly the Classic 3, have received a lot of very positive magazine reviews.  The family lineage caries over to the Classic 2 center channel.  I really like these speakers, recommend them in general, and on value.  You can spend a lot more money and get a lot less speaker.

Yes, you read right.  I’m using a true center channel for a left and right speaker.  Here’s my reasoning.  The TV in the living room is above the fireplace, leaving just less than 8″ of height for speakers below it.  I looked at several loudspeaker bars and really did not like most of them.  The crossovers are too high, and the mid-bass units too small to really go down to 80 Hz.  Not all, just the vast majority.  The few audiophile quality designs I liked were quite pricey.

The NHT Classic 2 is a 3-way design.  A tweeter, a small mid-range, and a pair of mid-bass units.  The advantage of the small mid-range is the cross-over to the mid-bass units can be low enough that a horizontal layout doesn’t beam in the upper mid-range.  And the Classic 2 is short enough to fit underneath the living room TV.

First up, the frequency response.  Measurement conditions are on a box 32″ off the ground, mic at about 18″, in the front third of a 14′ x 17′ room.  the measurement window is only 3.5 msec, so the response is limited to 220 Hz on the low frequency end.  3 dBW was required to reach 90 dB at 1 meter.  The response is reasonaby flat up to 10 kHz.

What I am really happy with is the distortion levels at 90 dB.  0.4% or less at frequencies over 1 kHz.  Distortion falls to 0.2% between 300 – 800 Hz.  This is excellent, beating anything else I own or have built !!!  Distortion is also mostly second order, the nice distortion, except the 300 – 800 Hz range, where the third harmonic rises.

The sound is very detailed, even with cable TV.  Vocals are so clear.  I watched the movie The Man from Uncle and was blown away.  This movie has several parts where the movie plays music – just an amazing, immersive experience.  I attribute this sound quality to the very even distortion characteristics.