NHT VT-2 Speaker System Review

The VT-2 is NHT’s reference audio/video speaker system. According to the manufacturer, it is designed (like its smaller brother, the VT-1A) to meet the needs of both high-fidelity home music systems and home theaters.

The speaker is a three-way tower system whose main drivers are grouped in the top portion of its 4-foot-tall cabinet. The two 5-1/4-inch polyethylene-cone woofers are mounted one above the other on the front panel, flanking a 1-inch fluid-cooled soft-dome tweeter that’s offset from the center of the baffle. The speaker baffle, made of reinforced plastic, is designed to minimize the spacing between the drivers and to reduce interference effects.

These three drivers are magnetically shielded and operate in a subenclosure within the cabinet. Frequencies below 125 Hz are reproduced by a 10-inch long-throw subwoofer, which is not magnetically shielded, located at the bottom of one side of the cabinet (opposite to the offset of the tweeter). The subwoofer uses most of the internal volume of the cabinet, which is vented through a 3-inch duct opening in the rear of the speaker.

The VT-2’s cabinet is finished in a high-gloss black laminate, and the upper part of its front panel is covered by a removable black cloth grille. Two pairs of multiway binding posts are recessed into the rear of the cabinet; the inputs are paralleled by gold-plated jumpers, which can be removed for biamplified or biwired operation.

The installation instructions indicate that the mirror-image speakers (which are labeled Left and Right) should be positioned with the subwoofers facing outward — that is, away from each other. The VT-2 is equipped with stabilizer bars and spiked feet for use on carpeted floors; rubber feet are available for use on hard floors.

The most unusual feature of the VT-2 is its front-panel audio/video switch. According to NHT, the switch optimizes the radiation pattern of the speaker for either video or audio-only playback. In video mode, the sound-stage is broadened across the horizontal plane, creating an ambient field that minimizes the sense of separation between the sound and the video image. In audio mode, the directional response of the system is said to be optimized to create the precise imaging required for music playback.

The only functional difference between the two modes is the frequency and slope of the crossover between the woofers and the tweeter. In audio mode, the crossover point is 2.3 kHz with 12-dB-per-octave slopes. In video mode, the crossover is at 5.5 kHz with 6-dB-per-octave slopes. In either mode, the subwoofer crossover is 125 Hz with a 12-dB-per-octave slope.

Since the NHT VT-2 system was designed with A/V systems in mind, we verified the effectiveness of its magnetic shielding. Above the subwoofer (about 18 inches from the floor), the strength of the magnetic field we measured did not exceed 2 gauss at any point on the cabinet exterior. Below that point, the strength of the field increased rapidly, but that shouldn’t present any problems in normal installations, where the TV screen is a few feet above the floor. In other words, the VT-2 can be placed next to a TV without interfering with the picture — unless the TV is sitting on (or very close to) the floor.

The rated sensitivity of the VT-2 is 88 dB sound-pressure level (SPL) with a 2.83-volt input, which was consistent with our measurement of 89 dB. The system is recommended for use with amplifiers rated between 50 and 250 watts. Frequency response is rated at 25 Hz to 21 kHz +3 dB, and the nominal impedance is 6 ohms (4 ohms minimum).

The measurable impedance differences between the audio and video modes were slight. The minimum was approximately 4 ohms, as rated, and it remained between 4 and 8 ohms from 20 to 700 Hz. The maximum impedance, 18 to 22 ohms, occurred at 2 kHz in audio mode and 3 kHz in video mode.

In audio mode, the room response of the two speakers, placed 8 feet apart and 3 feet in front of a wall, was flat within +4 dB from 35 Hz to 20 kHz (the lower frequencies were unavoidably affected by room boundaries). From 300 Hz to 20 kHz, the response was excellent, within ±3 dB. In video mode, response was quite similar except for a 3- to 4-dB difference in the mid and upper frequency range. Horizontal dispersion over a ±45-degree angle was typical of systems using 1-inch tweeters, with a ±3-dB variation up to about 10 kHz and a drop to about -10 dB at 15 kHz.

There was a measurable, though slight, difference in horizontal dispersion between the audio and video modes, principally in the range between 1 and 4 kHz. The most obvious audible difference was a slight increase in brightness in video mode, noticeable only during direct comparison between modes.

The close-miked response of the 5 Vi-inch woofers was impressively flat, ±2 dB from the 125-Hz subwoofer crossover point up to about 6 kHz. The subwoofer response was at its maximum at 60 Hz, falling to -4 dB at 35 and 140 Hz. The low-frequency output, extended by the port radiation, was clean and useful to well below 30 Hz.

We also measured the quasi-anechoic (MLS) frequency response of system in audio mode (limited to frequencies above 300 Hz) at microphone distances of 1 and 2 meters. The two response curves were essentially identical, with a variation of +2.5 dB from 500 Hz to 20 kHz.

In listening tests, the NHT VT-2 lived up to the promise of its measurements. In particular, its soundstage was seamless and believable, and despite the size and obvious presence of the speakers in a moderate-size room, they were audibly “invisible” at a normal listening distance.

We have noted a recent trend toward narrow-profile speakers with built-in side-firing subwoofers (both passive and powered), which have generally delivered outstanding low-bass performance without resorting to a physically separate subwoofer module. The NHT VT-2 is an excellent example of this genre, delivering palpable and truly room-shaking bass down to the 25-Hz range.

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