Ontic Oren

Hi, my name is Oren, and I’m a borderline audiophile. It used to be really bad, with new speakers every few months, CD players sitting on sandbags, leadshot in the speaker stands. Luckily, my wife and her style sense have cleared me of much of that. But I’m still at heart an audio snob, if not phile. After suffering for years with my Microsoft Digital Sound System 80, I finally broke down last month and picked up a new pair of speakers for my computer.

Allow me a digression: I was flipping through AudioAdvisor’s catalog one day, and saw this big “SALE” notice next to the aforementioned speakers. Save 38%!!!! Big flashy colors!!!! I did a quick internet search before buying: too bad they’re still 25% more expensive than you can find for a “normal” price at ListenUp. In a nice circle-of-life type thing, ListenUp is the CO based store that nurtured my original addiction back in college. I would spend hours hanging out there, talkign to the sales guys, playing with the toys, going at least one weekend a month. I probably spent <$1,000 in the four years, and they never treated me as anything less than a great customer. I was ecstatic to buy from them again.

Back to the speakers. I picked up a pair of the NHT M-00 (affectionately called the Moo), the S-00 and the PVC PC on top of it all. While the speakers and sub are self evident, what’s the PVC PC? There are those who claim that adjusting the volume on your computer limits it’s quality. The PVC allows you to keep the audio at 11 on your computer, and adjust the volume in the analog world. Plus, you can use line-out sources (i.e. the iPod) and not blast your ears.

ListenUp was originally out of stock on the PVC. My initial hookup was a mini->RCA into the sub, then balanced from the sub->satellite. There was a ton of groud loop noise, enough that the auto-power would never kick in, and the speakers would all stay on unless manually powered off. The quality while playing was pretty good besides the noise, but I didn’t listen super critically.

Two days later, the PVC PC was in place. I’m now running the mini->RCA into the PVC, RCA->RCA from PVC to sub, and balanced from sub -> satellite. As it turns out, the PVC is also a ground loop eliminator. There is NO noise at all, and my cables are crossing power lines 20 times up and down, left and right. Silent.

Enough yammering, how does it sound? Amazing. I can not get over how much better this sounds. There is a level of clarity and musicality I’ve never expected from my computer. Compared with my Sennheiser 580, the Moo are more analytical, less crystal clear, but somehow more engaging (probably cause the physical bass). Sure, the cans are better, but not enough that I really care. The M00’s are involving, accurate, fun, detailed, crisp, natural. With the S00 there’s some bass, nothing below 50hz to speak of, but enough to annoy the dog.

In my room, they are far from tonally flat. Possibly because of the layout (tucked into a corner, on a desk), I get this huge +5-10 db (as measured with my rat-shack hand held SPL meter) mid-bass bump around 100hz. It’s noticeable in listening, and even at times a bit annoying. It’s cloys up the sound, almost a bit of pollution in this otherwise accurate gem. None of the settings on the cross-over have had a positive effect - I’ve minimized the impact as much as possible. Don’t let that scare you away though, I’m not listening to the 580’s any time soon while I’m sitting here! I really just love this setup.

I can honestly say this has totally changed my listening habits. I can’t wait to sit in front of my computer now. I’m working more, I’m sure as hell listening to music more, and most importantly, I’m enjoying the hell out of it. Every song just sounds great (or terrible, if that’s what they intended). Yes, it’s a lot of money to spend on computer audio, but I’m using it more than my home setup, it’s significantly cheaper, and frankly it sounds better for stereo music listening. Highly highly recommended for anyone looking for great computer audio.

Next up - A friend has the Adam A7 and Mbox setup. All the cool kids scoff at the NHT (it’s not even sold at sweetwater) and drool over the A7. At some point, one of us will bring the other’s speakers over so we can compare. In the meantime, I have NO regrets, and strongly encourage anyone out there to give these a spin.

Disclaimer: My source so far has been 192KBPS VBR MP3 (or higher) from either the Great Re-Rip of 2006 (that’s a blog post for the future) or Amazon MP3 store. For some out there, that’s enough to invalidate any thoughts I have, as clearly my ears are crap if I’m not listening to FLAC/Apple Loseless/whatever with some fancy external DAC.