If you love SET amplifiers, boy do I have speaker for you.


I have had in-house for the last six weeks a pair of speakers that I'm reviewing for hometheaterreview.com from NSMT Loudspeakers, located in North Carolina, that are a perfect match with SET amplifiers.  I love SET amps.  However, historically I'm not a fan of single driver designs (rolled off high-end/lack of bass) or horn designs (I find them to have coloration that annoys me after a short while) that are normally used with beautiful sounding SET "Flea Watt" amps.  I have reviewed both types of speakers and they were good, but not keepers for me because of the above stated reasons.

The NSMT Model 50 is a small very attractive floor-stander which has an sensitivity rating of 101 dB and never dips below 8 ohms.  It is a three driver MTM two way design that loads into a double transmission line and really reaches down to 35Hz to 20 kHz in my room.  This is the third speaker I have reviewed from NSMT, the other two were wonderful music makers, and shows what a talented designer that Erol Ricketts is in all his designs at applying his unique version of transmission line loading. 

Now, the Model 50 sounds terrific with high power SS or tube based amplification.  But what has been enchanting for me is when I drive it with either a SET 2A3 amplifier, around 3.5 watts, or my Linear Tube Audio MicroZOTL as an integrated using the NOS 1940's Tung-Sol 6SN7 black glass oval plate tubes which produce only around 1 Watt.  With either amplifier this speaker completely disappears, the beautiful colors/timbres just float out and 3D chunky images of the players fill the soundstage.  However, because of the very high sensitivity of the Model 50 and its transmission line loading the foundation of the music, true deep bass, and overall dynamics/dB levels are hard to believe.

So, if you have or always wanted to try out a SET amplifier this speaker is a great choice.  The Model 50 retails for $1,800.00 a pair, so they are very affordable to team-up with your SET amplifier.  If you want a lot more details just go to NSMT-loudspeakers website.    
teajay
@teajay I could not agree more with respect to your comments regarding the virtues of the 6SN7, though I have not had the opportunity to evaluate that Tung-Sol oval plate to which you refer.  There are some great NOS 6SN7's that are still affordable. I have never really been satisfied with the musicality of a system that did not have the 6SN7 somewhere in the chain.  

I might take a look at the MicroZOTL amp.  This idea really fascinates me.   I will be looking for your review.
Hi teajay,
have you listened to Eric's Tekton Perfect speaker? I've been thinking about purchasing them to mate with my SET. Best, mikirob.
To answer your questions:

1) Don't know what drivers Erol uses in the mastering series.
2) I'm going to get in for review Eric's new Prefect SET speaker next month for review. Knowing Eric's creativity they will be wonderful and offer SET amplifier owners another option at a very reasonable price.
Thank you teajay. Looking forward to your upcoming review of the Perfect. Looks as though reasonable priced speakers for us SET lovers is now happening. Best, mikirob 

P.S. Hi Brownsfan, trust you are enjoying retirement. I recently joined the geezer crowd. Your Browns are starting to look like an NFL team again.