NHT Pre-Amp

I stumbled across the announcement for the NHT prepro while looking for options in the $2-4K range.

http://marketnews.ca/news_detail.asp?nid=1386

The prepro is built upon a Vinci Labs platform. Vinci Labs technology is used in many current prepros including the Parasound Halo line.

Certainly worth a listen when they come out.

I was wondering if NHT would come out with an prepro since Vinci Labs bought NHT.
By the size of the picture it looks as though it is Vinci's cheaper model.

I've been told that the new NHTs are basically, if not completely, ground up designs with all manner of cool new features. The main ones being that communication system that tells the amp which channels need to be on (and other things), the motion sensor based front panel display, the EQ function for NHT speakers, past and present, and the 3 HDMI 1.1 inputs that can handle DD/DTS. They supposedly were able to build this thing in a mere 8-10 weeks and get it all but ready for production. They claim shipping by March, we'll see, but if they can pull this off, it shows what Vinci can do for NHT. And, really, what they could do for the Xd digital system, in terms of advancing it and lessening the price of it.

Despite the unusual interface and knowing nothing about it, I was able to walk up to it, press a few buttons and switch to the input and surround mode I wanted within 15 seconds. And it was a completely full functioning prototype. It will be interesting to see them try to fit into the somewhat crowded market on this. But for NHT owners, the factory tweaked EQs for existing models could make the big difference in performance.

It sounds like the EQ is only for NHT speakers.

Too bad if it doesn't do room EQ; fixing speakers' small intrinsic deviations from flatness are nothing compared to what the room does.

Noah, I believe you can use it as room EQ if you like, but the unit comes with EQ presets for the NHTs. Not totally sure how it works, though

The new pre pro seems to have a lot of great features.

What were the cosmetics of the pre pro like? Do you feel it looked cool and substantial enough to set it apart in the crowded market place?

I know this sounds silly but lets face it....Estetics make a difference. Why buy Adcom when you can buy Parasound Halo? I know that may not be a true apples to apple comparison but machined face plates and cool leds give pride of ownership and bragging rights

I know this sounds silly but lets face it....Estetics make a difference. Why buy Adcom when you can buy Parasound Halo? I know that may not be a true apples to apple comparison but machined face plates and cool leds give pride of ownership and bragging rights[/quote]
I agree with that statement fully except I bought the Parasound 7100 so I contradicted myself. The 7100 stills looks better than the Adcoms though. J.H.

Aesthetics? Well, it's not going to match Halo or NAD Masters, that's for sure. It did have, as I told them, a "black hole" effect on the line. It was like black on black. The curved front panel is nice, but like a black car, you can't really see the lines. I think I just about had them convinced to do a dark titanium gray. We'll see. I pushed pretty hard for that rather than the black. It would look very nice in titanium, at least, nearly as nice as some of the others.

Good push on the alternate color choice. It sounds a bit Spinal Tap with the black on black.

I posted a link to pictures and the press release in the 2nd post in this thread. Look for your self.

Cheers.

Guess what, kiddies! The Controller manual is up on line:

http://www.nhthifi.com/manuals/curre...-userguide.pdf

The cool thing about this is that it reveals two things that I *really* like about this. One, it does composite and s-video to HDMI conversion (no component to HDMI, but I don't think that's very useful anyway) and the other thing is that, instead of typical "inputs", it uses a matrix configuration where you choose one of ten virtual "inputs" that you can name yourself and then assign *any* video, *any* audio. So, you could have a "DVD-A" input that uses HDMI for video and 7.1 analog input for audio. Then have "DVD-V" that uses HDMI for both. And as I understand it, then you can prioritize the inputs so that your top 3 or 4 are more easily accessible. Lots of really cool stuff in this. I'm replacing my NAD T-series stuff with it because I want the HDMI and NHT EQ.

I was, however, wrong about the room EQ. Rather than that, it has the speaker EQ and the auto calibration. The auto calibration will also factor in group delay and such, so it would be more accurate than measuring by hand, in theory.

Perhaps they could make an alternative software program that allows for room EQ. They didn't much like my idea for EQ memories for other companies' speakers, I wonder why.....

Anyway, all and all, the package is massively slick for a very reasonable price with lots of cool little features aside from the bigger main ones. I am personally choosing it over NAD's Masters series because of the more powerful HDMI and the assumption, hopefully valid, that it will make my otherwise good sounding NHT L5s sound even better and cleaner with the EQ, especially considering their onwall placement.

The product manual states that "The Controller has every current NHT speaker and
subwoofer model (and some older models too) factory pre-programmed." But the manual doesn't list out the "older models" supported.

Does anyone know where you can find this list? I have an NHT speaker set up (2.5i's, center-one, super-zeros, SW3), and am curious to know if this new controller would "auto" configure to these legacy NHT speakers?

The Controller supports SuperAudio, Evolution, Architectural, Classic and Xd. It doesn't support the older Music or VT series (or anything that had formica finish). Too bad, because I think that would attract a lot of people. But on the flip side, if you can afford the new electronics, you could probably upgrade the speakers a few generations anyway. It would be nice if they could offer up a program for the older models. I assume it would be possible to download in. But for now, those are what are supported. IOW "older" means SuperAudio.

John,
I was able to obtain the manual from Jeff a while back as I am sure you may have as well. As I looked through it and noticed the menus, they looked very familiar. I did a little more digging. Since Vinci is building this for them, many may be interested in what this prepro really is. Most know Vinci supplies their cores to quite a few high end companies but the one I found most interesting is the Halcro Logic prepros. NDAs caused a deflection of questions but the back panels are very similar. That Halcro stuff is out there on price. NHT did say that because this prepro may have a lower MSRP than many using the Vinci core, it did not mean it was a dumbed down version. Quite the opposite. It should be the most up to date, full featured and comprehensive model from Vinci. Being owned by them does have some benefits. Especially for the end user in the price category. Ultimately, what I am trying to say is, expect performance well beyond the price here. Especially with NHT speakers.

Howdy...anybody played with one of these yet?

Hope to get it out of the box this weekend. Too bad there are no EQ opportunities for non-NHT speakers, though.

Kal

We've got our first one coming in the next day or two (so they tell me) that we'll be setting up at a customer's house next week. 4.2 Xds, Controller with an InFocus projector and a SilverStar. Sweeeeet

http://marketnews.ca/news_archive_detail.asp?nid=1468

Hopefully you'll get the chance to try it out with some NHT speakers?

Unfortunately, no. I had the Xd a while back but no longer and I cannot afford the time/space for them again. Besides, I am not certain there is any real EQ in it but that the settings for known NHT speakers are automatic, thereby optimizing setup for them. After all, the Xd has the EQ already. We'll see.

Kal

Seems a little negligent on NHT's part to not send out something with them (Classics?), considering their optimizations for NHT speakers are one of the main selling points. But maybe they want it reviewed as a preamp on its own merits.

Possibly but I would probably refuse additional speakers if offered. No room for them nor time for them.

Kal

NHT wants to sell these to *everyone*, but the added little bonus is some EQ tweaks and fine tuned setup with NHT speakers. From what I gather, Vinci Labs sees the demand for their OEM services dwindling over the years, leaving the biggest avenue for growth to be through their own brand of product. The unit, features-wise, is more than competitive with anything in its price range from what I've seen, so it can sure stand on its own merits. All they need to do is *ship* more of them. I have at least 15 pre-sold at this point.

As usual, NHT's marketing department either didn't get the memo or is doing a horrible job of passing the word along. That or I'm dense, which may also be a possibility.

Matthew, you're under the mistaken perception that NHT has a marketing department or knows anything about the subject. If their products were remotely average, they'd have been out of business a long time ago, but they're one of those few companies that manage to succeed exclusively because they *do* make a good product.

They had a very cool opportunity to buy the Fosgate and Hafler names for very little money. Then they could have sold NHT branded electronics with the EQ curves through NHT dealers and a sister version through "Fosgate-Hafler" to other stores without the EQ. Oh well.........

I suppose I should have changed "marketing department" to "whoever is responsible for their marketing". I knew it was a weakness, but you always hate to see your friends fall into their same old destructive habits...

So has anyone actually used one of these yet? And how about the new 5 channel amp that goes with it?

I have used both but, so far, only briefly. Besides, my real comments are reserved for publication. But I will tell you that there is no EQ. I don't know how that idea started.

Kal

"NHT speaker DSP processing" listed as a feature on NHT's web site. I was under the impression that this was EQ, specific for each supported model of NHT speakers (SuperAudio, Classics, Evolution if I recall correctly) to fix some of the more eggregious peaks and dips. But maybe I misunderstood.