Anybody have a chance to demo these, I especially would like to hear some feedback on the classic 3 bookshelfs? I own a nad amp and currently have polk lsi-9's, how would NHT's mate with the NAD as opposed to the polks ? I think the lsi 9's are really good and wonder what NHT would offer if anything at all...
NHT speakers require a boatload of power. They can sound excellent with alot of current but without they simply don't sing. Of all the speaker I've owned I consider the NHT's and Maggies to be the most power hungry.
The NHT Classic 3 is new--I just spoke with a local dealer yesterday and he is receiving his first shipment next week--he was inviting me down to hear them and I must say I am looking forward to it. The biggest reason why I am looking forward to it is that it has replaced the SB3, which was one of the great bargain speakers in the past 10 years. It was no accident Stereophile named it their reference bookshelf speaker for under $1K. The SB3 imaged wonderfully and were much smoother sounding than your Polks, with a much better low end--went deeper and was better defined. All that means is that expectations are high for the Classic Three, which is really a whole new speaker. The Classic Three is a three way speaker, not a two way like the SB3, and its MSRP is $200 higher than the SB3 (I told you it was a real bargain!). As far as mating with an NAD, I can tell you that an NAD with the SB3s was a killer combo--I recommended it many times.
Art is also correct that the NHTs require more power than most other speakers, but it really isn't that bad. Its sensitivity is rated at 86 db, same as the SB3. It is more hungry than most speakers, but it is no where near the Maggies in terms of needing power (sensitivity of 83 db for a typical Maggie). A typical speaker probably has a sensitivity of about 89 db, so you need twice as much power to really drive the NHTs over a typical speaker (such as Paradigm, PSB, or Polk). However, I don't know which NAD you have, but I would suggest that you have more than enough power with any NAD simply because of their 3 db of dynamic headroom as a reserve. The smallest NAD sold today has 50 wpc, with 3 db of headroom in stereo (transient power of 100 wpc), so that should be more than enough power to drive a pair of the Classic Threes.
I will post my thoughts on this speaker after I hear it next week.