Thanks to @hardisj for another speaker review!
The Noesis 210HT is a 2 way loudspeaker equipped with two 10” woofers in a sealed enclosure, combined with an ultra high-end compression driver fitted on a large, wooden horn with a 60 x 60 coverage pattern.
Retails for US$2000/each.
Review:
Preference score (according to Erin): 2.4 (5 with sub)
Erin's conclusion:
Discuss!
The Noesis 210HT is a 2 way loudspeaker equipped with two 10” woofers in a sealed enclosure, combined with an ultra high-end compression driver fitted on a large, wooden horn with a 60 x 60 coverage pattern.
Retails for US$2000/each.
Review:
Preference score (according to Erin): 2.4 (5 with sub)
Erin's conclusion:
Video review:Listening was conducted in my living room at 4m using the Parasound HINT-6 for power. I would have taken them up the stairs into my home theater room but didn’t have anyone around to help me and I didn’t want to bother my wife with that. My living room is a decent size with open floor plan that extends into the hallway, kitchen and dining room.
I’ve had a couple people suggest that the tilted-up HF response could be useful for behind-screen placement. That’s a worthwhile consideration. However, I don’t think the screen would provide enough attenuation. Certainly not for me. I use a DIY screen for my HT and when I tested it some years back, it didn’t result in more than 1-2dB of attenuation, max. I did a quick google search to see what data is available for more popular screens and it looks like that still holds true. Now, a combination of toe-out / in + a screen with enough attenuation might work to provide what is needed but I doubt it would be enough. Especially not 3-5dB of attenuation (a screen with such attenuation would be a terrible design). I wouldn’t rely on the screen to be enough on its own if you wanted to aim the speakers on-axis.
- Average sensitivity is about 92.5dB @ 2.83v/1m.
- Some pronounced resonances in the midrange were bothersome and the constant directivity of the horn paired with the narrowing directivity of the woofers (or, rather, likely they’re center-to-center spacing) results in a “bright” sounding treble in-room. Looking back at the horizontal SPL and the estimated in-room response, you can see what I mean. The EIR has a downward slope from ~150Hz to 1.5kHz and then shows a slightly rising trend above this frequency up to about 10kHz. This combination lends itself to sound different ways to different people because the frequencies are relative to each other. Personally, I would describe this EIR as “bright”, if I am being succinct in my description. However, with a touch of EQ and a proper HF shelf-filter, this speaker is a beast with tons and tons of output, great detail and excellent imaging.
- Excellent directivity means ability to use EQ at will to shape the sound to your liking.
- Great imaging / focus but not much stage width … or not as much as I like. Toe-out (facing speakers out into listening room) can improve width some with little effect on imaging focus.
- Turning them off-axis also helps remedy the bright sound they had in my room. But this should be played with as different people may prefer a different HF tilt and the trade-off with imaging.
- Crazy loud. Easily fills up my large open-plan living room with sound and no mechanical noise when used with a proper crossover (I landed on 90Hz). I was getting to >110dB at 4m (with hearing protection).
- Heavy.
Discuss!