Pics of your listening space

My lowly SuperTwo’s sound terrific. Those 2.9’s must be a whole ‘nuther level of greatness especially with all that Carver juice behind them.

I wouldn't know actually. It was nearly 11 pm when I hooked the NHT's up in there last night, so never got to play it any louder than whisper levels. Maybe when I get home tonight before it gets too late, I'll be able to get the Carver juices flowing a little. The 7 years that I've owned these speakers, I've never powered them with anything more than maybe 100 watts from a HT receiver. Never had any decent power going to them like I do now. These Carver M-500t MkII amps are good for 395 watts per channel at 8 ohms (420 w @ 4 ohms), and I'm vertically bi-amping them. I guess I'll find out tonight. :naughty:
 
Same here as in HT duty all these years since they were new. I should give them a go with my monoblocks.

Yes, but even powering them with that 100w HT receiver, I was always living in an apartment, so I still never stretched their legs. Now living in a house again, I can do that without anyone complaining.
 
I wouldn't know actually. It was nearly 11 pm when I hooked the NHT's up in there last night, so never got to play it any louder than whisper levels. Maybe when I get home tonight before it gets too late, I'll be able to get the Carver juices flowing a little. The 7 years that I've owned these speakers, I've never powered them with anything more than maybe 100 watts from a HT receiver. Never had any decent power going to them like I do now. These Carver M-500t MkII amps are good for 395 watts per channel at 8 ohms (420 w @ 4 ohms), and I'm vertically bi-amping them. I guess I'll find out tonight. :naughty:

...err mah gerrd...
First off, that's awesome you have 2.9s and are in a house, not appartment. :)
From my enjoying SuperTwos for a year straight until recently, they really like, ney, NEED the juice.
I sent my 160 wpc Yamaha power amp into clipping very easily at reference levels, so then I horizontally bi-amped them with great success.
Horizontal has many, many advantages over vertical: your top end speakers are not affected if your sub amp clips (that crunching sound tweeters make when the amp clips hard...), you relieve the top amp of the low frequencies so it may play cleaner (assuming you're crossing over electronically), you gain level control over your subs at your finger tips, etc etc

Words can't describe how inefficient those NHTs are, mine gobbled up 320 clean watts each, but never a dull moment!
Congrats, those are end-game speakers for many owners.
 
...err mah gerrd...
First off, that's awesome you have 2.9s and are in a house, not appartment. :)
From my enjoying SuperTwos for a year straight until recently, they really like, ney, NEED the juice.
I sent my 160 wpc Yamaha power amp into clipping very easily at reference levels, so then I horizontally bi-amped them with great success.
Horizontal has many, many advantages over vertical: your top end speakers are not affected if your sub amp clips (that crunching sound tweeters make when the amp clips hard...), you relieve the top amp of the low frequencies so it may play cleaner (assuming you're crossing over electronically), you gain level control over your subs at your finger tips, etc etc

Words can't describe how inefficient those NHTs are, mine gobbled up 320 clean watts each, but never a dull moment!
Congrats, those are end-game speakers for many owners.

Yeah, I don't think I need to worry about running my amps into clipping. I don't play my system that loud normally. Only once in a great while.

Vertical bi-amping also has its advantages, as in the amp/power supply don't have to work as hard to power two power hungry woofers on each channel, only one power hungry woofer on one of the channels. The other channel is free to nearly idle along powering the mids and highs.

I'm mean, if I was really concerned about it and could afford them, I'd get four Carver Silver 9t amps and bi-amp my speakers that way. Now that would be the nuts!
 
Yeah, First time I saw KISS was 1976 as well. Have seen them around 35 more times since. I have more stuff but don't have it all out at the moment. Not as much as I used to have but still have a few things. I am a TOTAL 70's hard rock guy. To me, music peaked back then.

Ace Frehley's wife, Rachael Gordon, recorded a song that I wrote (and played guitar on) for her album, "Rock'n'Roll Girl." (It was released in Japan only.)
:beatnik:
 
Man, they must be really good since we haven't heard a report. Must still be listening to them!

Sorry I missed this post. I'm assuming that was directed towards me and the NHT 2.9's.

To answer your question... They ARE!

I spent nearly all day Wednesday playing music, watching a couple of live concerts, and even a movie (Batman vs Superman). With any music that I played and/or music concerts, the loudest I could handle it in this tiny room was right at 100 dB peaks with a sustained 92 - 95 dB. The Carver amps were just coasting along at 10 - 50 watts, barely getting warm.

Then came the movie. During certain scenes, I was reaching up to peaks of 107 dB and sustained levels around 98 - 100 dB. Again, the amps were just loafing along, barely breaking a sweat with peaks between 100 - 150 watts, and still barely warm. And keep in mind, these amps, with their many upgrades, are now rated at 395 watts @ 8 ohms, 420 watts @ 4 ohms. So this type of "abuse", if you really want to call it that, is nothing to these amps.

Just like with the Martin Logan SL3's, the NHT 2.9's play loud and clean all the way up to where I can or am willing to handle it. They do not change in timber or anything whether they are playing at whisper levels or at full tilt. They simply get louder. The only real differences between the SL3's and 2.9's in this room is that the SL3's place the sound stage much higher (for obvious reasons), though the 2.9's still place the sound stage a foot or two above the tops of their enclosures. That and their top end is a little bit more crisp, more airy, more open than the SL3's. The 2.9's bass output has a little bit more weight to it and are possibly a little punchier, though the SL3's are certainly no slouch at all. One thing about both of these very different loudspeakers when talking about bass... They are both extremely detailed and tuneful.

With all of that being said, the NHT 2.9's definitely play better with this small room vs the Martin Logan SL3's. Being somewhat crammed into the corners, those large ESL panels pretty much box in the rear wave that's bouncing off of the walls behind them, which gives them a very prominent center image to the point of being overwhelming. Even a somewhat heavy-ish, sort of box sound to the midrange. The 2.9's on the other hand simply sound clean and natural throughout the entire midrange.

I'm very fortunate and grateful to own two very well known and highly regarded loudspeakers, and being able to compare them side by side in the same room with the same equipment on the same day. It really displays the strengths and weaknesses of both when placed in a small room. It's been a while since I actually measured this room, but I think it's 10' x 13' with an 8' ceiling. But as I figured would happen, the NHT's are a better match for this small room than the Martin Logan's.
 
Working with the compromise of living with my parents after a divorce. They were nice enough to let me set up in the living room temporarily. They CA speakers serve well, But I'm missing my Monitor Audio Silver 8s. Biggest problem with the room is the red chair absorbing high frequencies from the left channel.

Sock pic
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Baco99. That looks really nice. FWIW, I checked out that amp and did a couple of updates to it before it went to you but I didn’t restore it. That amp looks almost new, inside and out. Enjoy it.
 
Most recent update...

Things are always moving around here. Current system is incredibly simple.
Sources: AppleTV to Pioneer DPR-609 being used as a DAC, OR Bluesound Node playing TIDAL
Power: Bogen DB230A integrated, restored by @LexDM3
Speakers: Holt Hill Audio Cionnsaile Monitors on matching stands

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I can't believe how clean that Bogen is. What's the story behind it?

GeeDeeEmm
 
I can't believe how clean that Bogen is. What's the story behind it?

GeeDeeEmm

It was part of a big collection of mostly tube gear that I bought a year and a half ago from the daughter of a guy who died suddenly. He left almost no information behind about his collection so it has been a "inspect, test and see what it needs" process for each piece.

This Bogen 230A needed very little. I tested all of the tubes and brought it up slowly on a variac while measuring PS voltages and it played music. One output stage coupling cap measured a bit off so I changed them all to be safe. Other than that, I cleaned the controls, adjusted the output stage and that was that.
 
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