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
@t_ramey - You’re very welcome and that’s most excellent! I think Klipsch speakers of the large/high efficiency variety are great candidates for SET amps!

@teajay - It sounds like these speakers are a winner, and nonetheless a very affordable conduit to allow the speaker/amplifier magic to really shine.

Best wishes and Happy Holidays to all! Aric
  101 db 1 watt softdome tweeter does not exist 8 inch woofers good to 35hz at 101 db also do not exist 
"...101 db 1 watt softdome tweeter does not exist 8 inch woofers good to 35hz at 101 db also do not exist."

I must confess I'm also intrigued by the 101dB sensitivity specs. Like to better understand how's that accomplished.
I do not believe the published specification of 101db/w for a second. I do not see how it is possible to crossover a 1" soft dome with 8" paper cones and retain that sort of output, all without halving nominal impedance.

@teajay do you have anything negative to say about them? Your threads about products you are 'reviewing' are always quite generous