Audio Nirvana Drivers

In November 2018 I purchased the Audio Nirvana Super 8 Plus Alnico horns and built some very custom (veneered) Japanese Tamu Ash 2.8 cabinets (with down firing ports). My background is building custom cabinets, and it has always been on my bucket list to build a pair of speakers. I did a lot of research and spoke with Audio Nirvana owner David Dicks a few times. David said that he never had experience with someone building the 2.8 cabinets with down firing ports, so it was uncharted territory what kind of bass they would produce.

After sending David pictures of the completed speakers, David told me they were some of the most beautiful speakers he had seen.

Of course, what matters most is how do the speakers sound. When first turned on, compared to my Silverline Grandeur II speakers, the Audio Nirvana speakers sounded thin and lifeless. Where was the detail?

What I discovered is these speakers need a lot of play time to break in and produce a good balance of sound through the audio range. I can put my head at the bottom of the speakers and hear the bass they are producing.

My Super 8 Plus speakers will never come close to getting as low as my Grandeur II speakers, but they have a balance of sound that appeals to me. I don't "feel" the treble or bass missing on most music, it just sounds real. Because of the depth of music these speakers reproduce, I can immediately tell a well produced recording from an average to poor one. When it's a well-produced recording, these speakers draw me into the music like no other speaker I have ever owned.

I meant to state that I can put my head at the bottom of the speaker cabinets and hear the bass they produce. At the bottom of each of the cabinets are two 3" round ports, 1" in length. There is a clearance of 1 3/4" between the base of the cabinet and the wood platform below it. This is where the additional bass is generated, which is very audible close up. 

Yes they can sound OK and are very efficient but there are problems. Low bass is obvious. To get anything out of them you have to use reflex enclosures. You could get around this by crossing to subs at 100 Hz and put them in sealed enclosures. Then there is the high end. Their marketing supposes that most of us can not hear over 16 kHz. Then they use as an example that FM radio rolls off at 15 kHz. I am 65 years old and just tested my hearing and I make it up to 18 kHz. Then there is the beaming problem. A 15" driver is going to start beaming at around 1000 Hz getting progressively worse as the frequency rises. By 15 kHz which has a wavelength slightly under an inch, if you are not exactly in front of the driver you will not hear it. Both channels have to be pointed exactly at your ears. You might as well use headphones. So these speakers will work well for someone with a low powered amplifier who listens to back ground music. Serious listening is difficult at best. A driver has to be smaller than the smallest wavelength you want it to produce if you want the driver to disperse. If you want an efficient speaker I would go with horns. The advantage of horns is that you can control the dispersion and not bounce sound all over the place but create a condition where you have a broad listening area. Honk, Honk:)

I have the 12 in ferro's in the 5.6 ported cabs. dont listen to these armchair engineers... the sound is great and the beaming is hardly the problem some here say. i am using a a set amp  w 8wpc and i use a sub crossed over at 45 just becuz i had one and i use them for movies too. have tried various cabs and baffles, these drivers are a bargain and deliver slam and great mids. the lows????? get a sub if thats your hangup.. for this price what speakers would get you to 25 hz anyway? might as well use headphones??? haaaaaa. another expert with no listening experience heard from.

I use audio nirvana 5” classic drivers which are 93 dB in a smallish big front ported box with subs tuned below 80hz with excellent results.