Nubert NuVero 60 Speaker Review

[Endibol]

In Germany tax is already included in everything. And for the customs, what I did is just declaring this as a testing sample and provided an honest text on what's on the inside and what's going to happen to it. Worked perfectly fine.



Considering they doubled down on china assembled electronics for their gadgets and active speakers I am not surprised the documentation gets stripped down. I wouldn't be surprised if the assemblers from china provided bad documentations to Nubert, and Nubert in turn just had to make do with the stuff they got. The NuVero series is, fortunately, from better times. Still I'd love to see the new super high end NuZeo measured.

Edit:
I am going to stick to my Nubert system btw. Long term. I considered swapping the whole system for Genelec ONES but it would be a new hassle of a setup. I'd also need subwoofers, a pair of NuVero 170 are basically a set of 4 actual front subwoofers reaching 23Hz at -3dB(!!). Also getting rid of a large hifi system is a project in its own and considering loss of value I'd have to pay about 5-8 grand additionally, and what would I gain from the Genelec ones? A point source speaker with more linearity and narrower disperions, but do I really want/need that? I can get the linearity for free with DSP.

Amir did the listening test on the NuVero 60 and was already happy about the generated soundstage, now imagine what the 8 times larger NuVero 170 would sound like with more thought and material put into them.

View attachment 370429

Amir did the listening test on the NuVero 60 and was already happy about the generated soundstage, now imagine what the 8 times larger NuVero 170 would sound like with more thought and material put into them.

We would only know for sure after Amir having tested it…
But, his back wouldn’t stand it, so I am afraid we will never know

 

[amirm]

I have a question for @amirm about the lack of attenuation of the woofer: Were you able to measure the woofer on it´s own without the midrange playing?

No, I just made near-field measurements (an inch or two away from driver).

 

[amirm]

But, his back wouldn’t stand it, so I am afraid we will never know

70 KG is indeed well beyond my abilities to pack and unpack the speaker let alone testing it.

 

[Great Sun Jester]

70 KG is indeed well beyond my abilities to pack and unpack the speaker let alone testing it

Alrighty then, it is time to take up a collection for a forklift.

 

[tkr]

The latest shifts in managements shows that there are some topics that have to be resolved, also communication has become much worse. For example they suddendly closed their (for many years) well known own onlineforum last year (that's why some of the old users found a new place at lautsprecherforum.eu, like me and anphex).

It is a pity their "nuForum" has been closed before this review came out. Many Nubert-fanboys active at that online community had been outraged at the results of Nuberts ampX on ASR, even posting conspiracy theories about shipping the device to the US being a stunt by competitors or throwing insults at asr and Amir in particular. Comments and explanations from Nubert technical staff had not been too convincing, either. I would have loved to see the reactions to the nuVero 60 faring much better, both from community members and the company.

 

[anphex]

It is a pity their "nuForum" has been closed before this review came out. Many Nubert-fanboys active at that online community had been outraged at the results of Nuberts ampX on ASR, even posting conspiracy theories about shipping the device to the US being a stunt by competitors or throwing insults at asr and Amir in particular. Comments and explanations from Nubert technical staff had not been too convincing, either. I would have loved to see the reactions to the nuVero 60 faring much better, both from community members and the company.

Oh trust me, lots of Nubert staff members are lurking around here. And I think these results are something you can be proud of since the speaker does quiet well for the money unless it's played very loudly.

 

[Verig]

Great to have a review of a Nubert speaker here. Decent performance but unless some of its features are important to you (switches, deep bass) looks like there are better options out there for this price. I've got a Nubert subwoofer and am happy with it.

Thanks @amirm for reviewing and to @anphex for sending it over!

I'd very much count in the wide dispersion and tweeter energy. These are pretty different from most speakers and still perform well. I'm not a fan of trying too much with the bass but then again it has great characteristics for moderate listening levels. Also, the unusual recommendation of no toe-in is pretty nice. Wide and powerful is a sound aesthetic of its own.

 

[anphex]

Welcome home, little one.

Now on to pestering FedEx for a refund on that unlawful customs fee on a re-imported speaker that was my own to begin with. (Not Amirs fault!)

 

[Dougey_Jones]

Feel like Amir went a little hard on an objectively outstanding performance here.

 

[anphex]

I am struggling a bit now. I WANT a change in the long term: a coaxial system.
This is NOT because I think my Nubert system is bad now, I just always wanted to go for point source at some point anyway and now that we're having great performing options the time has come.

Current contenders:
1. Genelec ONES
Pros:
- incredible performance in all areas
- integrated DSP and amp

Cons:
- expensive
- not very pretty, even in pure black or white
- gets its super performance partially through DSP
- need a stand


2. KEF R-Series
Pros:
- great performance for the money
- look very pleasing in almost all finishes

Cons:
- early rolloff of the low end
- very high crossover for the tweeter at 2,9khz leaving too much band in the mids, my worry: drawbacks in transparency
- made in china and partially a cheap interior


3. KEF Reference Meta Series
Pros:
- incredible performance in all areas, probably the best passive speakers for the money in the world right now
- high build quality, heavy speakers
- mid-tweeter crossover at 2,1 Khz

Cons:
- expensive, even more than Genelecs ONES


In all setups I will get two subs from the same series.

Price ranges for 4.2 surround systems
1. Genelec ONES and stands about 15.500 €
2. KEF R-Series about 8.000 €
3. KEF Reference Series about 20.000 € (for the surrounds I'm gonna stick to R-Series since, come on, somewhere HAS to still be sanity)


Do you have any more suggestions for point source speakers?
Did I overlook something in my ranking here?

 

[Doenerkunde]

Do you have any more suggestions for point source speakers?
Did I overlook something in my ranking here?

MoFi Sourcepoint series. Erin seems to have ordered the 888 florstander, so a CEA2034 should be released in the near future. He already has measured the bookshelf models (Sourcepoint 8&10).

 

[anphex]

MoFi Sourcepoint series. Erin seems to have ordered the 888 florstander, so a CEA2034 should be released in the near future. He already has measured the bookshelf models (Sourcepoint 8&10).

Can't imagine those going very low while having low distortion. Also they look kind of underwhelming for the price. I mean they cost about the same as a Genelec 8341. I expect A LOT of a passive two way speaker that is made out of a mostly rectangular, wooden case and show no real innovation apart from buzzwords and a weird baffle.

KS Digital would also be a contender if those speakers didn't look so rustic.

Edit: Just saw the actual measurement from Erin for the MoFis. Okay, that's GREAT performance right there for the size.

 

[Salt]

The new model by @sigbergaudio looks very promising.

 

[Ziltoe]

If you can afford all of the three options you've mentioned I would go for the Genelecs.

Looking at your cons regards the Genelecs:

- expensive - well, you'll get an outstanding speaker
- not very pretty, even in pure black or white - can't be discussed
- gets its super performance partially through DSP - isn't this a pro argument? Even without DSP they are "performing" extremely well?
- need a stand - you really consider this a con? There are many in the market looking cool and won't stretch your budget significantly

 

[C. Cook]

Whoa, that's a three-way speaker with two BMR drivers. Very interesting. Edit: my bad, the woofer is a traditional driver, but the middle one sure is BMR.

Isn't BMR trademarked/patented (or something) by Cambridge Audio, or am I thinking of something else?

 

[Postkrunk]

Isn't BMR trademarked/patented (or something) by Cambridge Audio, or am I thinking of something else?

The Balanced Mode Radiator was patented by NXT, and the patent is currently held by Tectonics. I wonder if it designs speakers for CA.

 

[anphex]

If you can afford all of the three options you've mentioned I would go for the Genelecs.

Looking at your cons regards the Genelecs:

- expensive - well, you'll get an outstanding speaker
- not very pretty, even in pure black or white - can't be discussed
- gets its super performance partially through DSP - isn't this a pro argument? Even without DSP they are "performing" extremely well?
- need a stand - you really consider this a con? There are many in the market looking cool and won't stretch your budget significantly

Good points. At the end of the day it boils down to price. It's probably a close battle between Genelecs and KEF Reference. The KEF Reference are probably the "last passive speaker I'll ever buy". The Genelecs have active parts that probably will need repair/replacement in 5-20 years.

 

[Paffi]

Just nail it: Kef Blade 2 (meta)

When a passive Speaker is good as an active one, I always would choose the passive speaker. Durability and open to any System / DSP you want to attach.

Mofi Sourcepoint 8/10
ME geithain (analog active, so easy to repair and open to every dsp / preamp, but one has to like the look...)

 

[Ktacos]

Nice to see more BMR's out there, probably my favorite mid driver. I have a diy tebm46 with beston rt002 MTM and it's my favorite so far, like it more than the "cinetor evo" clone I made. This seems like a fairly average implementation though.

In regards to the woofer filtering, does klippel somehow compute nearfield without drivers bleeding into each other? If so that's amazing, but I figured the woofer nearfield might have some mid range in it because the filtering looks pretty poor otherwise. Can't tell if the BMR is just a little rocky from the baffle or from the woofer running into it.

I think wide controlled dispersion is where it's at. Tried everything under the sun with various controlled dispersion widths and anything under 70 degrees sounds constrained.

 

[anphex]

Soooo yeah I went and did it. Okay, not actually already buying those speakers but I gave a listen to all my KEF candidates.

KEF Probehören

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A big bummer for me was that their listening room didn't have meaningful acoustic treatment. They didn't even care about bass modes and told me that they wanted to aim for a regular, basic living room experience most people have. I kind of agree, but I'd rather think that people who buy speakers for +10k would at least use bass correction and a few more absorbers/diffusers. It wasn't bad but these speakers were heavily throttled by the room I could tell.

We started off with listening to the Blades 2 Meta. As for the sound I can't find a better word for it than "weird". It was as if there was no on axis sound at all, it was like there was no speaker at all. It was just free floating music in the room. Did I like it? I am not sure, since as mentioned above the room was pretty random and what I heard was not really enough to make me buy 26.000 € speakers without the right to return them. Was this sound good? Oh yes, it was stellar, but I wasn't in awe as you would want to be on this price range.

Then we switched to the Reference 3 Meta. I liked those way more. I can't really explain why - maybe more "direct" sound? They sounded just more fun, had nicer bass (maybe less distortion due to the higher weight: 33 Kg vs 51 Kg?) and their Uni-Q driver was placed on average couch-sitting-ear height. The resolution was absolutely stellar as far as I could tell in that room.

Finally after my request the store owner brought a pair of R7 Meta. Compared to the R-Series these are considered already pretty large but still notably smaller than the Reference 3. I didn't expect such a downgrade when pressing play on the prior listening test songs but yeah, it was a downgrade. It wasn't bad, those are actually really solid speakers having all the KEF qualities, but the bass, sweet spot and resolution couldn't be compared to the Reference series.

If I had to choose right now I'd take the Reference 3. BUT I still have to test the Genelec 8361 for completeness.
Thing is, right after coming home I ran the listening test songs on my NuVero 170. Firstly, the bass is unmatched even by the Blade and Reference and secondly I remembered that the Uni-Q driver had this 99 % absorption thingy for the treble, so I just whipped out some leftover acoustic wool and put it behind all my BMR and Tweeters (there was some already but you could place 1-2 sheets more behind them if you wanted too, dunno why Nubert didn't fill this up. I think it's kind of an improvement in resolution but could be full placebo. Anyway, the longer I sit here and listen (currently as I write this post) I see less and less reason to switch to KEF right now. I'd rather save the money and get 2 nifty subwoofers instead.

But there is a moderate chance that I wake up tomorrow and yell "BLADES". This is what hifi is all about.

I will report back after listening to the Genelecs. And to make it clear: if I had had the money back then and the KEFs and AudioScienceReview would have been available from my start I would have gone straight to the Reference 3.

Edit: One thing that stood out: the owner showed me "Roger Walters - The Ballad of Bill Hubbart" where at the beginning there is a dog barking and a phone call that, when using the right setup and ideal speaker alignment, should simulate "rear sound" which worked extremely good on the KEF. I couldn't get this effect to work on my NuVero 170 yet ...