Nubert NuVero 60 Speaker Review

[anphex]

Nice that @anphex brought up the Kef R11. As a matter of coincidence, I'm coming closer to the point where I'll have to replace my nearly 30 year old speakers, as the foam surrounding the MTM is now heavily crumbling.

I had set my mind (more or less) on Kef R11 Meta, to be paired with a subwoofer (I already have). But then I noticed Amir's remark about narrow dispersion.
And now I was reminded of this nuVero series. Which apparently has a much wider dispersion. Two different types of speaker.

The thing about my situation is that my system is against the left half of the long wall. So the left side wall is at ± 140 cm and the right wall is at 5 m. A bit of an imbalance in terms of reflections, visible in REW measurements.

So I was wondering whether to go for narrower dispersion with Kef because of the imbalance in reflections, or go for the wider soundstage the Nubert offers.

Any thoughts you might want to share? Especially my German neighbours.

The vast minority of hifi fans have a perfect room and simultanously perfect placement options for their speakers. You usually have one exact spot that works for your listening position. From there you have to make do with timing and volume offsets, DSP and some room treatment. Of course you can rebuild your whole room, but when is this really an option?

See my room. Speakers couldn't be placed worse in terms of acoustics but it is still really nice and I improved as much as possible with REW-FIR-EQ,, thick curtains, hefty couch and 4x 5cm deep acoustic images.

 

[dzerig]

With 3 peaks at the step response, is the sound going to be softer and less defined with busy passages? I can't understand what that means.

 

[Salt]

Thank you so much Amir!

I sent this in with the financial support of a kind german hifi community (lautsprecherforum.eu).
It's a small fortune to ship this ~20Kg speaker around the world.
Many Nubert speaker fans were interested in this "undressing" of this speaker to have a core reference measurement on how to regard Nubert speakers in the future.

As it turns out, this measurement is very close to what most people expected and pretty alright. In my case they are used as surround speakers and I think due to the high frequency dispersion it's an pretty ideal use case.

As for main speakers I have their big brothers (or rather fathers?) the NuVero 170 who also come with the same high frequency boost that is pretty controversial but can be EQ'd away. The sound signature is the same but they have a far deeper bass extension and very low distortion levels.

What surprised me is the rather high tweeter distortion as Nuberts devs usually claimed that the "ScanSpeak 2608has an insanely good distortion behaviour won in several listening tests". Now I wonder if this sound is kind of a tube simulation and that's why it won?

In the end I am going to have a long deliberation whether I swap those to Genelecs in the long term or I'll stick to them.


Again, thank you Amir. This helped me a lot!

Rumours are going that even in Germany there are Klippels around

 

[pseudoid]

Thank you for the review @amirm and a big thanks goes out to the German member willing to absorb the shipment costs on our behalf.
Which one of Nubert NuVero60s is the 'designated' Left (or Right) speaker?
What would be the ramifications of switching L/R in the setup; especially since they are recommended not to be canted toward the listener?

 

[Salt]

Never heard of this brand - probably a local german none...

//

Perlisten ... never heard of this brand (except on ASR) ... // probably a US none ...// or uninformed none one ...//

 

[Salt]

Nubert, as well as Teufel (der über jeden kommt, der Böses spricht), would not have done it the way until now if they had not given quality for price over decades, so cannot be wrong to give their customers what ever is their likes.
Even wireless speakers were available years ago, probably first in market.

 

[Vladimir Filevski]

With 3 peaks at the step response, is the sound going to be softer and less defined with busy passages? I can't understand what that means.

Step response is typical of a conventional-build 3-way speaker - no softer or less defined than loudspeaker with perfect step response. Human hearing is very forgivable for those non-ideal step responses.

 

[somebodyelse]

To ask the more audio tech savyy people here: didn't this review confirm that BMR are superior mid range chassis in three- or more-way speakers?

This and the Philharmonic BMR show that the BMR drivers can be good midranges, but both appear to use them in the range where they're still operating as a conventional pistonic driver.

 

[René - Acculution.com]

Not clear the oversized baffle claim pans out (at least not based on Amir's measurements). Wonder if @René - Acculution.com would concur?

I have actually shelved an article that goes in to this, as the designs I made were based on very recognizable loudspeakers, and the result made me nervous to publish before talking these companies first, and I haven't had time to do it yet.

 

[IamJF]

Now imagine that sweet spot extended all the way to 20kHz
View attachment 369328
View attachment 369329

You didn't show the vertical plots of the Sierra ... here you are:
And these are really bad ...

You see 2 problems - how a tweeter with long vertical dimension behaves. All of them. Very strong fall off and uneven fall of at high frequencies. These frequncies are missing in the room, the speaker sounds different at close distance and far distance.
And the behaviour of wide tweeter distance - you get a huge chancellation at 20° but already 10° is pretty uneven with a -6db hole over from 2-7kHz. That's serious and the reason I still prefer small tweeter distances.

 

[Rick Sykora]

You didn't show the vertical plots of the Sierra ... here you are:
And these are really bad ...
View attachment 369659


View attachment 369660

You see 2 problems - how a tweeter with long vertical dimension behaves. All of them. Very strong fall off and uneven fall of at high frequencies. These frequencies are missing in the room, the speaker sounds different at close distance and far distance.
And the behavior of wide tweeter distance - you get a huge cancellation at 20° but already 10° is pretty uneven with a -6db hole over from 2-7kHz. That's serious and the reason I still prefer small tweeter distances.

At least @staticV3 is grinning about it AND used the updated spin from Ascend (your posted data is before Ascend redesigned the speaker)...

While the RAAL may be somewhat vertically challenged, have heard it sounds very nice. So, a buyer may choose that compromise to get that sound quality. I have not heard it, but since I know at least 2 respected designers that incorporate it, might be willing to make the same compromise.

 

[lashto]

had a pair of Nuveros around 2010. NuVero 4 IIRC. Only two drivers but looked pretty much the same: asymetric tweeter, extra-wide baffle, very well built and bigger/heavier than a typical bookshelve.

Also sounded the same as the review states: surprinsing amount of bass, some extra treble-spark, big soundstage, clear, detailed and linear. Pretty much what you'd expect from a well engineered german product.

Looks like very little has changed, only the prices are quite a bit higher. Considering the extra driver and 10+ years of inflation it seems ok. I would still recommend them.

P.S.
many thanks @amirm and whoever sent those. Would be great to see more EU speakers tested, there are easily 20+ brands which have no coverage here .. and that's only counting the big brands.

 

[dasdoing]

I think that most people that don't tow in their speakers also don't have them 30 degrees out. generally, these setups are very steep triangles when I see them

 

[lashto]

I think that most people that don't tow in their speakers also don't have them 30 degrees out. generally, these setups are very steep triangles when I see them

Many/most people keep their speakers straight. Not only 'lay' people but also many audiophiles and even some audio pros. Some do not know any better, some think it looks better, some speakers truly sound better straight ... the Nuvero guy is into something IMO.

I actually kept my Nuveros straight because they did look 'better'
They also seemed to sound better. But I did not read the manual, did not know it was recommended and thought it was my imagination (i.e. lying to myself about the better sound because I prefered the looks).
Actually was quite surprised that the ASR measurements seem to confirm my better-sound impressions.

Here's a 10+ years old measurement of my NuVero 4 (manufacturer's IIUC). Mine stayed on the "neutral" setting.

 

[lewdish]

Curious how exp was the shipping for this & how heavy were they?

 

[Paffi]

Curious how exp was the shipping for this & how heavy were they?

We paid around 300€, I think the shipping costs back were 250€. Let's give more details by @anphex

 

[lashto]

We paid around 300€, I think the shipping costs back were 250€. Let's give more details by @anphex

According to their website, the Nuvero 60's weigh 16kg (speaker only) and ~19kg packaged.
And uhaa, €550 is a lot of money to just get em measured. Plus the usual headaches & risks of trans-atlantic shipping.
Thank You!

 

[Grotti]

had a pair of Nuveros around 2010. NuVero 4 IIRC. Only two drivers but looked pretty much the same: asymetric tweeter, extra-wide baffle, very well built and bigger/heavier than a typical bookshelve.

Also sounded the same as the review states: surprinsing amount of bass, some extra treble-spark, big soundstage, clear, detailed and linear. Pretty much what you'd expect from a well engineered german product.

Looks like very little has changed, only the prices are quite a bit higher. Considering the extra driver and 10+ years of inflation it seems ok. I would still recommend them.

P.S.
many thanks @amirm and whoever sent those. Would be great to see more EU speakers tested, there are easily 20+ brands which have no coverage here .. and that's only counting the big brands.

To your post scriptum: we desperately need a "European Amir" in addition to ASR to cover all those local brands. At least to push them into science based engineering or to sort out the snake oil.

Sorry for being of topic: back on track now

 

[anphex]

Shipping there with DHL: 150 €
Shipping back with FedEX: 250 € (Amir took the fast lane out of kindness, which is totally okay with me and regular price would have been about 210 € already anyway)

So in essence 400,00 € flat, kind of painful, but I still don't regret it. Knowledge is just another part of hifi equipment .

Speaker was supposed to arrive today but it didn't. Another weekend without surround .

Funnily enough, Fedex is still very optimistic about their schedule

Edit: But yes, we desperately need an ASR testing branch in EU. I know at least two very dedicated and knowledgeble persons, issue is they don't have an NFS. But that's basically the only thing they lack.

 

[amirm]

For some reason, shipping from EU to US is much cheaper than shipping from US to EU. The $256 was with my commercial account discount. Without it the quote was $900! Even non-express was something like $400.