NOLA Boxers in my space

So I picked up a pair of new NOLA Boxers undemoed because a) the price was right and b) they were piano black instead of that (for me) kinda garish cherry.

For years, it's been my blasphemous contention that speakers are going to be right as long as everything upstream is right. So I'd rather have an excellent front end and okay speakers, than great speakers hitched to an okay front end.

I have been gradually downsizing my system, and had Carver Amazing Platinums for almost 20 years, so am intimately familiar with the magic of that big sucker. Got the NOLAs, put them on some Dynaudio stands (the Stand 3, their most attractive one), and sat down to listen.

Rest of the system, by the by: First Sound Reference passive, PS Audio 250 Delta monos, Sony XA20 ES CD player. Didn't have a chance to hear them with my (now gone) Maplenoll Ariadne, but have a Thorens 2030 coming that I am very interested in hearing with them. (Will be putting a Grado Reference Sonata on).

I don't do a lot of audiophile talk but tonally, they were almost identical to the Carvers, which kinda didn't surprise me. The Carvers had a much bigger image, of course, because they're the size of a door, right? But once you remove the extremes from consideration (the Carvers go higher up and down), the heart of the music is, tonally, the same. This is good, because it means that the speakers aren't adding a lot to what you hear, just doing the window thing.

Even brand new (I still have less than 20 hours on them), imaging is pinpoint, actually better than the Carvers, which tended to present immense pictures that weren't all that precise, like Gerhard Richter, for you visual arts nerds. Image specificity is very good, and there isn't any of that box sound that I used to find so annoying in box speakers. The soundstage just sits there as the speakers vanish.

And this is, mind you, in a room that isn't at all set up. I just unboxed them, plopped 'em on the stands, placed them about 6 feet apart and firing straight ahead.

I don't really believe in audiophile recordings, but one disc I live a lot is "Flight of the Behemoth," by Sunn ))), and the track "Mocking Solemnity" in particular. It's a monstrous thing, as Sunn believe in the power of high-volume, low frequency sonics, presented as a big, multilayered, glorious drone. Most importantly, their stuff has bass galore.

No, the NOLAs weren't the equal of the 4 12-inch woofers per side on the Carvers, but there wasn't any real LACK of bass either. The sense of the song's immensity was present, along with the glorious atmospherics. Ran through some favorite jazz and classical discs, and the tonal qualities were preserved. And Bjork, in particular "Pagan Poetry" from "Vespertine" is a lush tapestry of sonic artifice. There's all kinds of stuff going on, and the NOLAs lay it all out there, while making Bjork's voice sound as glorious as it should. No tizz, no glare, no teeth-gritting artifacts.

These little babies strike me as very musical and neutral, which doesn't surprise me. I know that (retail) $1500 is cheap in audiophile land, but you can design an excellent two-way bookshelf speaker for that price. NOLA have certainly done so. For me, they're keepers.

Just wanted to put something up, for folks who might be wanting to know how these things work in the real world. Thanks for reading.