NHT 2.9 or B&W CDM9NT

The best thing for you to do is ignore all the advise and go listen for yourself. There are no many variables that go into why things sound the way they do, you can get a rough idea of what is good and what is not from our recommendations, but that is it. Since you have narrowed it down to two speakers, then go listen and take your time.

You don't know our personal tastes? We may like tons of bass and you don't? How good is our hearing? What amp, CD player did we use? It may not have been appropriate or a compliment to one of the speakers in the demo, when some other setup would have yielded the opposite result. What is our music taste? We like rock and you listen to opera. How were the accoustics in the room where we listened? What cables did we use? You know none of these things.

My best friend's Home Theater setup has those Bose cube speakers all around. He likes how it sounds, so who am I to say he is wrong?? I have actually found myself in places where I heard something that sounded good and was shocked I was listening to Bose speakers. It just happened that all the right variables were in place to make it sound good.

I haven't heard the NHTs, but I own a pair of the CDM9NTs and I have been very happy with them. I listen mainly to classic jazz, rock, and classical in that order, with some country and R&B thrown in for good measure.

In my opinion, the CDM9s do a good job of presenting the music accurately without getting too bright or forward. They do equally well with recordings that feature plenty of horns (such as Coltrane's Blue Train) or those that feature piano and bass (Keith Jarrett's Live at the Blue Note). They also do well with large orchestral pieces (I just got Kleiber's recording of Beethoven's Fifth, and it sounds fantastic). They stay very composed as the volume increases and don't break up until you reach truly loud listening levels.

As for the bass issue, I went with the CDM9s rather than the CDM7s because they do a significantly better job with the bass. I run mine off a Denon AVR-4802 (would like to add a separate amp in the future, but this works fine right now). They are two months old and they keep getting better as they break in. No buyer's remorse here.

I have the 2.9's and 3.3's. I would like to point out that although I love my NHT's They are a very position dependent speaker. I don't know what kind of a room you have but they need a wall both behind and outside them, (i.e. a corner) for the bass to look at. And if you can do it, seperate them by 10 to 14' with nothing in between. Even just moving them inches can have an effect on the sonic dynamics of them. If your serious about the 2.9's, might I suggest you give one of the engineers at NHT a call. (number's on their web site) Their always more than happy to give you advice on how to meet your system goals. Truly they would know better than any advice you'll get here. And if the 2.9's may not work in your situation, they tell you that too.
As far as the B&W's, decent sound (not as power hungry) and you don't have to worry as much about placement. Hope that helps. It's all in the ear of the beholder.

For my CDM7NT's, I found a used B&K EX442 (200w/ch) to be an excellent match and very positively changed my opinion of the speakers. Un-harshed 'em. Paid less than $500, leaving room in the budget for other goodies. The current production version (I forget the model) is in the $1500 range, I think. If you like tube sound with ss convenience, try to give B&K a listen.

i work at a hifi store in the south and we sell both b&w and audio research. one of the sweetest, in fact, THE sweetest sound i have heard so far is not with b&w's nautilus series, but with a pair of cdm9nt's played through audio research equipment. in fact, the vt60 tube amp sounds absolutely fantastic on these b&w's!!! as for nht equipment, i am unable to make judgment; however, i think crutchfield sells them. all the music critiqued on the b&w's was brubeck jazz and tchaikovsky classical.