Nothing major to report since last time. I find that Ebaen is right when he says that the EHTs and Nenuphars together sound like “something cracked open.” good words for the sensation. “Benign psychotropic drug” is also good. it sounds like a quantum leap in resolution without the tipped-up feel of other similar drivers. In this regard I’m comparing the Nenuphars to a pair of Teresonic/Lowther speakers I have in an upstairs system (which are smaller btw). When everything in the system is right it can be really spectacular and if things aren’t right, you’ll know.
The EHTs are really special amps in my estimation and I’m not sure why they’re so little known. If you find yourself having to choose between warmth and detail, the EHTs just seem to leave that whole problem behind. They’re “warm” in the sense of being full in the midrange with gorgeous timbre, but also open and airy and pinpoint in the presentation of a soundstage. I’d say they’re just genuinely linear. They also sound great with both Proac tablette 50 signatures and the nenuphars, obviously very different speakers. I’m about to try them with the Lowther/Teresonics so I can update further on that pairing.
On the Nenuphars, I’ve settled on the basic layout I started with. Slight toe-in as recommended by the manufacturer, with slabs of rock wool against the wall next to speakers to damp the first reflections. That really helps to crystallize the images lying outside the speakers, ironically. I have a tough room to work with at the moment - about 14’ square with 10 foot ceilings - and it’s our living room so I don’t want to make it look like an audio lab (any more than it already does). in the next year we’ll be doing a re-model that will give us a much larger and longer room elsewhere in the house, so at that point I should be able to dial it in much further. As for amps, I’ve been happy enough with the EHTs that I haven’t thought about trying anything else (besides the SIT3 which was very nice but not like the EHTs).
I will say on the very slightly negative side that the Nenuphars seem to have a bit of a …. not sure how to phrase it. I hear it as a certain lack of resolution in the bass as compared with the mid and high freqs. Or maybe you could say they have a dip in the lower mids or upper bass. I take this to be the crossover point between the driver and the cabinet and as such it makes a lot of sense to me that the subsequent efforts from Cube Audio appear to be concerned with bass reproduction (larger drivers and subwoofers). That said, the bass can be immensely satisfying on the right recordings (acoustic basses often sound just right), and I take this to be an inherent aspect of this kind of speaker design (if you need a car for shopping you wouldn’t pick the Lambo).
also I found Stillpoints Ultra SS to work well in place of the OEM spikes at the front of the Nenuphars. There are adapters made by Stillpoints that work perfectly - I’ll get the name and measurements if anyone’s interested.
