In what may likely be the first of many such announcements, NHT Loudspeakers has announced that they are shutting their doors.

The letter released yesterday by NHT states that after 22 years in business they will be selling through existing inventory and closing their doors approximately March 31. They state that they will continue to offer customer service and repairs. Bankruptcy is not stated as the reason for this drastic announcement, and it appears that their motivation is a reinvention of the NHT brand. Nevertheless, the doors at NHT will be closing, and one wonders whether we'll see another product with the NHT badge ever again.

 

AV Enthusiast wishes those at NHT the best. Hopefully they will emerge from this with a direction that ensures their future success. I hope that I don't have to write any more articles like this one, but in this economy I'm afraid that NHT won't be the only one, just the first.

 

 

 

 

RBH Sound has added two models to their Signature Series of loudspeakers, the RBH Sound 8300-SE and the RBH Sound 8300-SE/R.

 

The front ported RBH Sound 8300-SE loudspeaker towers over most floorstanders at 55 3/8" in height. Driver compliment includes three 8 inch aluminum woofers, two 6.5 inch aluminum midrange, and a one inch textile dome tweeter. The RBH Sound 8300-SE/R loudspeaker ups the ante by utilizing upgraded 6.5 inch midrange drivers with phase plugs, a liquid cooled Scan Speak silk dome tweeter, and a modified crossover optimized for the driver upgrade. These hefty bad boys tip the scales at 115 pounds each, and those looking for full range floorstanders will be happy to hear that they are rated to go down to 22 Hz before significant roll off in the frequency response occurs. The 8300 twins will be available in approximately 30 choices of veneer, just like the rest of the RBH Signature Series. If you've ever seen an RBH Signature loudspeaker in burl walnut, you know how incredible their enclosures look.

The $7999 RBH Sound 8300-SE and the $8449 8300-SE/R aren't in everyone's budget, but you'll be hard pressed to find loudspeakers that provide this much sonic and aesthetic value in this range. Try to find an RBH dealer if you're interested in quality loudspeakers that provide big sound for both hi-fi and home theater use. They're well worth an audition.

Denon has released the first information for their upcoming Blu Ray universal player, the Denon DVD-A1UDC1.

 

The Denon DVD-A1UDC1 will be Denon's first Blu Ray Profile 2.0 player, and features SACD and DVD-Audio playback in addition to Blu Ray, DVD and CD capabilities. A Silicon Optix Realta chip handles all scaling duties, so video performance should be stellar. Denon is touting the Denon Link 4th Edition interface that allows the Denon DVD-A1UDC1 to share the same clock as a Denon AVR-5308CI for digital signals. This apparently eliminates almost all possibility of jitter when playing back digital sources. The DVD-A1UDC1 sports 7.1 analog outs and balanced outputs for two channel, for those who prefer analog to HDMI for audio.

 

Word is still out on whether the unit will be Divx endowed, which would truly make this unit a one box solution for all your disc playback needs. The Denon DVD-A1UDC1 is slated to ship in February 2009 for a cool 3800 clams.

Those goofy French. Eaters of snails, force-feeders of ducks, lovers of Jerry Lewis, inventors of the pantomime, makers of glass loudspeakers.
 

Waterfall Audio has unveiled a new floorstanding loudspeaker, the Waterfall Niagara. Setting the 3 way Niagara apart from the other loudspeakers in the Waterfall Audio lineup is the horn loaded design of the tweeter. The horn loaded tweeter is enclosed in a second enclosure that rests atop the main loudspeaker, and receives it's own crossover. The main enclosure houses two 7" drivers supplying the midrange and midbass, fleshed out by the down firing 8" woofer, which lets the Niagara boast a bottom end extension of 36Hz. Sensitive at 89dB, the Niagara will accommodate owners of amplifiers ranging from 60-250 watts. All is housed in a beautiful glass housing made from 15mm thick plates that effectively mass-load themselves: these bad boys weigh 176 pounds apiece.

 

At $53,000/pair the Waterfall Niagara is not for everyone. If however you are redecorating the Fortress of Solitude this winter these loudspeakers from Waterfall Audio may just fit the bill.

German lautsprecher maker Canton has updated their entry level line of GLE loudspeakers with six freshened models sporting a curved front baffle, improved efficiency, and extended top end.

 

Notable among the updated models are the Canton GLE 490 floorstanding loudspeaker, the GLE 470 floorstanding loudspeaker, the GLE 455 center channel, and the GLE 430 bookshelf loudspeaker. The Canton GLE 490 is a 3 way speaker utilizing two 8" aluminum woofers mated with a 7" aluminum midrange and Canton's redesigned 1" silk dome tweeter. The GLE 490 has an approximate impedance of 6 ohms, better than average sensitivity of 90.5dB and a frequency range of 54-24k Hz. At $1399 a pair MSRP that is a lot of loudspeaker.  The 490's little brother, the Canton GLE 470, is an MTM design. The 2 1/2 way 470 uses two 7" drivers and the same 1" silk dome. Canton claims improved off-axis for this MTM from a redesign that sends midrange to the top 7" only. For only $499 more the Canton GLE 455 center channel makes this array 5.1-friendly. The 2 1/2 way GLE 455 utilizes two 6 1/4" aluminum drivers mated with the 1" silk dome.

 

While the boxy, vinyl clad Canton GLE series may not have the sex appeal of some of the competition, the big German floorstanders produce an extraordinarily big, rich sound that is pleasing as well as forgiving of less than stellar source material. I've auditioned the predecessors of these new Canton's, and I can heartily recommend a sitting with them if you're in the market for new loudspeakers at this price point.

Cary Audio has quietly updated their website, revealing some new components in the Cinema Series. Of particular note are the Cary Audio Cinema 7.250 amplifier and the Cary Audio Cinema 11A Processor.

 

The 7.250 is a nice upgrade to their existing Cinema 5 amplifier. Rated at 250 watts per channel at 8 ohms and 400 watts per channel at 4 ohms, the 7.250 maintains balanced and unbalanced inputs. No word on peak current capacity, but those twin torroidal transformers and the bank of capacitors look capable of producing lightning bolts. The Cary Cinema 11A Processor looks to continue Cary's tradition of offering home theater lovers components that will make the hi-fi guys jealous. Similar to the Cinema 6 it replaces, the 11A adds decoding of advanced audio codecs and a pair of HDMI v1.3 inputs.

 

We've waited quite a while for the separates makers to catch up with the mass market offerings in terms of HDMI and codec support, and it's great to see a highly regarded company like Cary Audio offering AV Enthusiasts these options. I am sure that when the reviews start rolling in these components will be as well received as their prior ventures.