Cube Audio Nenuphar Single Driver Speaker (10 inch) TQWT Enclosure


Cube Audio (Poland) designs single drivers and single driver speakers. 

Principals are Grzegorz Rulka and Marek Kostrzyński.

Link to the Cube Audio Nenuphar (with F10 Neo driver) speaker page: 

https://www.cubeaudio.eu/cube-audio-nenuphar

Link to 6Moons review by Srajan Ebaen (August 2018):

https://6moons.com/audioreview_articles/cubeaudio2/

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Parameters (from Cube Audio):

Power: 40 W

Efficiency: 92 dB

Frequency response: 30Hz - 18kHz ( 6db)*

Dimensions: 30 x 50 x 105 cm

Weight: 40 Kg


* Frequency response may vary and depends on room size and accompanying electronic equipment.
david_ten
@jollytinker  Thanks for your response.  Reinhard Thoress just responded to my inquiry via their website, which he says is sorely out of date.  He does offer the newer version of the EHT monos for 12.950 Euros and an integrated version for 8.950.  I haven't inquired about in-home auditions.
I've been listening to the Nenuphar with IsoAcoustics GAIA II for a few days now.. so far I can say that it's improved the center image and increased depth, really enjoy the Cube even more now.  Also noticed improved treble, I think that maybe because I'm no longer tilting the speakers up.  Note however that my listening room is a converted garage, the floor is already sloped down, which give a similar effect as tilting the speaker up.
These looks great and sounds great.. I've no plan of going back to the standard feet.

Some photos here:https://photos.app.goo.gl/NT6eiMgeea91o2Tt5
@stephendunn Glad you got in touch with Reinhard and got some up to date info. I can't recommend him highly enough as a businessman, electrical engineer, aesthetic designer and builder (though maybe not as webmaster! lol. I don't think the EHTs have ever had a presence on his site).  
I have to say I’m not a big fan of IsoAcoustics solutions using rubber or solutions using spikes for that matter either. I’ve had much better results using rollers and cups in combination with springs. It can make it complicated when trying to seismically isolate speakers. It’s far easier with components where one can use the rollers directly under components arranged in a equilateral triangle on plan around the centre of mass and they in turn sit on plates of slate with springs under the slate to take care of vertical isolation. You can use small inner tubes for the springs set at a low pressure to achieve a low resonant frequency or appropriate metal springs like the ones on ebay or Machina Dynamica.
Hi pulinap, this response is coming a little late I think - David alerted me to your post regarding the nenuphar, and from a read, I see it in specific reference to ‘holographic imaging, overall balance, and bass performance’.

ok then, I’m running my nenuphars with a 19W line magnetic 125 211 tube amp with a tube preamp. My prior experience with audiophile bass is from a 120W ss amp and a 30W tube amp paired with Larsen6.2 speakers going down to the high 20s, proac D30rs speakers going down to an accurate 20hz, and the tekton moabs with a claimed 20hz that doesn’t actually sound like it goes that low. 
I think excellent bass is absolutely vital for everything higher up to gell well, and at the very beginning listening to my nenuphars, I felt that the bass wasn’t performing as well as my proacs - this not in relation to depth of frequency, obviously, but with respect to total nuance, speed, and accuracy. With the right speaker cable, fuses, and power cables, however, the bass is now not only performing better than my proacs, but with such subtlety of timbre, I am moved to tears at times. It will never go down past 30hz, nor hit the subwoofer-like bass of my proacs, but it does something better - something which David first mentioned to me as sounding more ‘right’, having to do with the same driver that’s driving everything also driving the bass on that single unsplit signal. (I hope I’m explaining that correctly, David).

The outcome of that single driver and the amazing cabinet that drops the bass to ‘just’ 30hz, is that the lower frequencies I’m hearing has this cohesion to everything else I don’t hear with the other speakers I own, or any other speaker I’ve heard - on most speakers, the bass is just that, bass; great for the feel, rhythm, and depth, but mostly sounding unplaced and just there as bass coming from the speaker, however solid and deep, but expected. Nenuphar bass is a psychedelic thing for me, a teleportation to the very venue and air that resonates with a bass that belongs to everything else and becomes part of the sound decay of the music in the air - its so effing ‘real’. 
Ok, the bad news haha - there are three tracks I use to gauge the effectiveness of bass depth (nothing else regarding nuance or accuracy) - ‘temple caves’ - mickey hart, ‘raiders march ’ - john williams, and ‘fading sun’ - terje isungset. About 6 and 18 seconds into ‘fading sun’ there are these crazy deep thumps - they are not just casual events or accompanying background support, but absolutely vital and visceral parts of the track. These are so light with the nenuphars and my 19W tubes that they barely register, in comparison to my proacs and the Larsen with the same amp. The good news is that the Tekton moabs only do marginally better. With the ‘raiders March’, there’s this massive background orchestral bass drum hit that caps the movement at about the 1.32 mark - its deep solid boom resonates to cradle all the other instruments for that single moment - this is noticeable, but is still pretty weak from the nenuphar. Finally, about 12 seconds into ‘temple caves’ there is a super deep note of an earth drum immediately following the opening of the track - this drum strike lacks any presence whatsoever on the nenuphars, as would all similarly deep notes from tracks that go way down deep. I have not been disappointed in the depth of its bass performance in any other way, be it bass heavy numbers like Lorde’s ‘royals’ or Paula Cole’s ‘tiger’. And almost every full orchestral tracks. But do not bother listening to billie eilish’s ‘you should see me in a crown’, and you won’t get the same visceral chopper blade thud in your belly with Pink Floyd’s ‘the happiest days of our lives’ ; p

I have not made any mention of ‘holographic imaging’ or ‘overall balance’ because the nenuphar will not disappoint in any way on these two counts - it is an amazing speaker ; )

In friendship - kevin