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NHT (Now Hear This) restoration planned


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Goodwill score: Found a pair of NHT Model 1 and NHT Model Zero speakers, all for $19.99! The cabinets are all piano black and the larger 1's are perfect while the smaller Zeroes have an unfortunate corner bash that I haven't quite figured out how to fix. A couple of the plastic grille frames are cracked but that should not be a problem. All 4 speakers are dated June 1990.

Of course all 4 speakers need to be refoamed and I was able to order the parts from our old pal MSound. John does not have his new web site up and running yet but he does still sell foam, dust caps and complete kits. Contact is msound@shentel.net

NHT (Now Hear This) has been mentioned a couple of times here on CSP but for anyone not familiar with the speakers, the company was started by Ken Kantor. Ken is co-author of "Restoring the AR-3a". According to Wikipedia, "Beginning in 1983 Kantor was director of Advanced research and development for Acoustic. . . He introduced a number of innovations. . . . In 1986 Kantor co-founded and became executive vice president of Now Hear This (NHT), a successful speaker company, based on "Focused Image Geometry", a fundamental new psycho-acoustic technology."

Or read Ken's own words here: http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/IP.Board/index.php?showtopic=621

btw, Ken's first product at AR was the AR-SRC which has been written about here (old thread so the posts are out of sequence) http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/IP.Board/index.php?showtopic=1865

Won't get started on these for a while--too many irons in the fire right now ;)

-Kent

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Looks like another great find and future project - - it's especially fun to work on two similar models from the same immediate family.

Ouch on that corner crunch. :( From your close-up, the cladding appears like it might be ultra-gloss black plastic laminate, so even though that material would require some special tools and know-how, it may be fully repairable.

What is the concept for that angle front on the Model 1's? The grilles suggest a vertical positioning, so does this angle provide an automatic "toe-in" when the cabinets are otherwise set square with the room?

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looks worthy of $20 for sure. Curious what the back side(s) look like? Also curious as Robert asked about the angle setting on the bigger set. I assume a match set will be deviated the other way? Pretty steep angle too!

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Yes--I assume the angle is for toeing in and yes, it is a mirror pair. KK is no longer with NHT. There is a "new" NHT that sells direct to the public. On their site their "History" states "NHT’s first loudspeaker design. The Model 1 incorporated NHT’s proprietary Focused Image Geometry technology (F.I.G.) featuring a unique 21-degree baffle. This design improved imaging and detail, creating a wide sweet spot. The Model 1 was the foundation for a series of stereo speaker systems developed between 1986 and 1994."

Some more explanation in thei NYT article http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/10/arts/sound-true-bargains-in-speakers.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

And yes the finish is high gloss black laminate but I don't want to re-laminate them. I may attempt a patch and if it looks lousy maybe make some new cabinets.

Backs are pretty standard but finished with the same high gloss Formica. The 1s have nice 5-way binding posts while the Zeroes have spring clips. Apparently the Zeroes were built to a price point while their successors, the Super Zeroes, were very high quality mini monitors.
-Kent

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  • 3 months later...

Finished the speakers.

Here are the Zeroes. I re-foamed the woofers but left the crossovers intact.

The corner bash did not come out too great. I used epoxy, tinted black, but could not really match the piano black gloss. Not "too" bad, but far from perfect.

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