Olympic III only goes down to 35hz. The Amati Futura and the Strad are amazing. But neither integrate well into my room with their port location.
The Nola Metro Gold's arrived today. I listened briefly. As expected, the rear ports activate the room and pull the room into the equation. With the bottom or front port the room is silent, it's there but neither adds nor detracts from the music. The two low frequency drivers are listed as 6.5" in the specs but I measure them as 5 3/4" edge to edge. They measure in the specs to 25hz. Audibly they do that, but the visceral sensation of low frequency extension is not truly there; it is coming from their interaction with the room as opposed to directly from the speakers. Its reliance on the room to augment extension is exacerbated in my room with my nodal issue. The reason it's not as bad as some of the other speakers is that the speaker doesn't extend as forcefully as, say, my Der Muzik's. They have refinement and finesse in the low frequencies and aren't lacking. But they don't punch and have impact like I am after.
The rest is, at least on first listen, rather musical and engaging. The ribbon has shown me no sign of harshness or shrill behavior and the mids are proper, layered and just on the warm side of neutral.
I'll keep you updated on their progress. The amps and preamp were cold.
