 Polish products are ongoing better manufactured and sound better and better. As the described in the last two months (in the lead articles) example of the Krakow based company Ancient Audio shows that in high price levels Polish products not only compete but demolish products from other countries. But hi-end has its own rules, and the less expensive devices – different ones. The low price levels, especially in the loudspeaker area, are being ruled by Chinese, Taiwanese products, for quite some time now. Also propositions from big fish like KEF or B&W Bowers&Wilkins can be found. Examples can be the tested in the last month Bowers 685 and 686 or the iQ3 from KEF. )
In Poland one can find low priced products from ESA or for example Audio Academy, but even those companies aim for a slightly higher price level. The truth is, that it is very difficult to make a loudspeaker cheaper than 2000zł that can compete with the named cert. And to make it is not all – it has to be sold. And here starts the trouble. It is not enough to propose something comparable to the competition in terms of sound and make quality, but you have to come up with something special. For long time there was nothing like that on the radar. A forerunner was the model Phoebe II from Audio Academy (that cost now a bit more than during the test and thus fall out of our category) and – most of all – the model Siesta from Pro-Tonsil, but only with the tested M-100 from the company Nexton it comes to a direct head to head comparison of bookshelf speakers from Great Britain and from Poland. Mr. Adam Skarżycki, the constructor of those mini-speakers, did not hide his pride, when we took the speakers out of the box. And this is OK, as the M-100 are beautifully crafted. The natural veneer is of very high quality and all details have been taken care of – starting with the user manual, through the boxes to the cramps made from Supra cables. Even more – 30 pair of the loudspeakers are ready, so the pair I got for testing was not especially prepared for testing, but exactly the same as the ones that will be available in the audio shop. The enclosure is only a part of the equation. Do you remember the loudspeakers Ketsu from the company Eryk S. Concept? (I remind you of the test of the splendid monitors Nuvo HERE). In those loudspeakers drivers manufactured in Poland were used. It turns out, that we have manufacturers in Poland, that offer inexpensive, technologically mature drivers. It gets better – the client proposes special solutions – starting with the diaphragm material, through the suspension and finishing with the voice coil solutions, that are often on a very high technology level. That is the case in the M-100. Both drivers were designed in Nexton from scratch and profit from the many years of experience gathered by Mr. Skarżycki in foreign companies (unfortunately we cannot name those). The tweeter with a solid cast front and a soft impregnated dome has a strong magnet and copper rings improving the linearity of the magnetic field – something called the Faraday rings in the literature. The same rings can be found in the mid-woofer. And this is characterized with a yellow, resembling a honeycomb diaphragm, made from Kevlar with some addition (I forgot the name of it). Maybe in the future the speaker will be painted black. SOUND )
The direct rival of the M-100, in terms of the price and purpose and also the sound, is the 686 from B&W. A bit on the side but being also a reference point are the floor standing Siesta from Pro-Tonsil and the Celestion F28 (and the F38 too). And my remarks about the M-100 will reference to those speakers. On the other hand, the M-100, in adequate surroundings, treated in appropriate way, sound just phenomenal. In the narrowed field of application they sound in such a way, that only the AudioWave 141 SE, so loudspeakers carrying twice the price, are able to provide something more. Namely the Nexton offer a splendid tonal balance. Let us stay here for a while. The designer of a loudspeaker has to consider a bit more than only the assumptions for the product, he has to take into account the real world, including devices that will cooperate with that product. This is not a comfortable setting, as it narrows the maneuvering field, but emerging sooner or later. And the lower one goes in the pricelist the more it has to be taken into account. Then if a speaker sounds well with many different amplifiers and sources, it evens out their timbre a bit. So in the model 686 as well as the in the Pro-Tonsil the upper bass and lower midrange are a bit boosted, I mean that in absolute terms those frequency ranges sound stronger. It can be heard well in comparison with more expensive speakers like the Harpia Dobermann. And - unexpectedly - only such refined, tonally clean product is a good reference for the M-100. Apparently, in the latter the designer abandoned the rule of sacrificing the quality of the sound in absolute terms for the real life performance. This allowed for an incredibly clean, perfectly balanced sound, with beautiful, detailed, splendidly resolving treble and a significantly low (taken into account the size of the enclosure), fleshy bass. The treble is slightly better than in the otherwise very good Bowers, better than in the Celestion and ways better than in the tested some time ago Usher S-520 (we wrote about the mediocre performance of this frequency range in the Usher, but then there were no loudspeakers in range, that would be significantly better in that area). Even more – the Siesta, splendid, universal, etc, have a tweeter classes worse than the one in the Nexton. Mr. Koserczyk, the constructor of Pro-Tonsil could go around this limitation by applying the tweeter in the way he did, but I do ask: how is it possible, that a small, unknown company, like Nexton, prepared in Poland – from the start to the end – a tweeter much better than the one manufactured by Tonsil, a giant in the field of speaker production?! It is just splendid – in absolute terms. With a tweeter of that class the Siesta would be unbeatable! I know that Tonsil is working on a new tweeter, but it will be very hard to reach the level of the speaker applied in the M-100. )
Back to the topic: the Nexton are an uncompromising design, and this means that they will not be easy to put in a system and it will be easier to get bad than to get good sound out of them. The first limiting factor is the very low efficiency. My Leben CS-300, a tube amplifier and with low output power (12W), but very stable in terms of the current capabilities, did not manage to drive the speakers, even at low volume levels there was clipping. It seems, that 40W (true watts) are the absolute minimum. Such power is offered by the C315 amplifier from NAD http://nadelectronics.com/index , that sounded very pleasing with the loudspeakers. But the more the better. Low power came out most when reproducing voices – Suzanne Vega from the disc Nine Objects Of Desire (A&M Records, 540 583 2, CD) and Norah Jones from the disc Not Too Late (Blue Note Records/EMI, 82035, CCD) had an immediately harsh upper midrange with the Leben, pointing to the rising distortion. With the NAD and stronger amplifiers such an effect was not observed. It could be heard even better with male voices, when some of the bass should be added to the midrange. Such a test disc is for me the Greatest Gospels Songs Perry Como (RCA/BMG, 367978, CD), where the big, warm voice of the artist was very well recorded in many pieces. The speakers can reproduce it in a very attractive and thorough way, without sharpening but also without thinning, if the electronics allows for this. High power will however not translate into a high level of sound. This is actually another limitation, or better a thing that has to be taken into account while choosing. The M-100 cannot play very loud. In that aspect the Siesta, the Celestion and also the Bowers are more to the front. The mid-woofer from the Nexton sounds very clear, it keeps better the original timbre, has a more thorough attack, but has no big dynamics. Rooms with a size of 15-18m2 are the absolute maximum. The stroke of the diaphragm is big, but there is no compression common for cheap transducers. In the Bowers and the Celestion the peaks are a bit flatted, what allows to play significantly stronger. The Nexton are much harder to handle in that aspect – on one hand they reproduce impulses, and music is built upon impulses, splendidly – quickly and clean, but cannot work at the volume levels liked by the other mentioned constructions. But if we are true to the rules mentioned earlier – a good, strong amplifier, not very big room and if we won’t torture them with hard rock, we get a sound that is characteristic for much more expensive loudspeakers, like the splendid (in that aspect) constructions from Harbetha HL-P3ES-2. It does not mean that we will be unhappy with for example electronics: the recordings on the disc Téo&Téa J.M. Jarre’a (AERO Productions/Warner Music France, 699766, CD+DVD) sounded splendidly – mostly due to the clarity and dynamics. Unfortunately we cannot hope for smoothing out the flaws of the recording. That is why the sampled words “Téo and Téa” in the piece with the same name, had quite strong upper midrange, that sounded not very pleasant. This happens also because the energy of that subrange is high, there is no effect of the “hole” between the performers. With well recorded discs, like the newest edition (first time in a carton!) from Mobile Fidelity, the disc Invitation Milt Jackson Sextet (Riverside/Mobile Fidelity, UDSACD 2031, SACD/CD) the cymbals were reproduced especially well, there was the attack, sustain as well as long reverb, also the vibraphone was shown nicely, vibrant and strong. You should not expect large virtual sources, the Siesta and the Celestion are better in that aspect, but this is just the physics – a large loudspeakers plays with big sound. So the stage created on the single All This Time from Sting was brilliantly drawn, but had not that weight as for example from the 685 from Bowers. Talking about space we have to say, that the pairing of the speakers is very good, and the phase is not distorted, as the guitar sounding in the title recording was directly behind my right arm. The beginning of the 90ties, it was the time, that Sting recorded in the analog domain and mixed using the QSound coder. The most prominent usage of the latter is on the Roger Waters disc Amused To Death, but it is worth to mention, that Sting did also have his page in its history. Anyway, the intentions of the sound engineers were reproduced very well here. )
To achieve good sound coherence you have to experiment with the placement of the speakers. If you look at the photographs, you will see, that the tweeter in the M-100 is a bit off-axis. Not as much as in the tested some time ago, very pleasant loudspeakers Reference 3A Dulcet, but it is there. Unusually, but just like in the Dulcet, the manufacturer recommends to setup the speakers with the tweeters to the sides. I tested both settings, and really, it seems that the recommended setting is better. I spent some time trying to find out the best twist for the loudspeakers. I believe the best combination of the coherence and stage depth was achieved with the loudspeakers twisted a little to the middle, but with the axes crossing behind the listeners head. The distance to the back wall is not critical, but closer to a solid surface the bass was stronger. I mentioned electronics: with clear conscience I can recommend the mentioned NAD, as well as the more expensive model, then the Carat A57. The usually recommended Cyrus 6 vs2 can prove to be too weak. It is worth of trying, as in a small room he can be the king. One should also listen to the A70 from Arcam. I would be careful while picking a source, as the speakers do not like a bright midrange. You can choose from the NAD, Xindak C06, and as the best choice the D/A converter Audionemesis DC-1 (maybe already in the version with the increased output level). As to the cables – it is best to see for your self. Let Supra be the starting point. And one more thing – the company states, that the tweeter is the acoustic center of the speaker. It is fully confirmed, as sitting lower, somewhere in the middle a hole is created and the clarity goes down. I can even say, that you can sit higher than the tweeter for good results, so stands lower than usual will be needed. BUDOWA )
Nexton M-100 is a two way stand mount speaker, vented with a bass-reflex placed on the back. As I mentioned in the beginning the loudspeakers are very thoroughly manufactured, with attention to detail. Especially well looks the natural veneer, covered with high quality Italian transparent varnishes. The speakers are available in many finishes, without additional cost. The speakers are based on drivers made in Poland, according to specification supplied by Nexton. The treble is handled by a soft dome tweeter, with 28mm diameter. The front of it is made from a thick aluminum plate, that makes the dome look like placed in a short tube. The rest of the frequency range is handled by the 130mm mid-woofer, with a diaphragm made from Kevlar woven with another material I forgot the name of. The two materials make a characteristic drawing – yellow background and black “net” on top of it. The magnet of the speaker is really mighty, with nicely looking caps. It is supported by a solid, cast spider. It has to be mentioned, that in both speakers Faraday rings were applied. The placement of the speakers resembles a bit the setting in the Canadian speakers from Reference 3A. The similarity is not only in the fact, that the companies produce the speakers themselves (the mid-woofer in case of the Canadians) but also by the placement of the speakers in the front baffle – the tweeter is off-axis and the manufacturer recommends to place it outwards. On the back there is a double wire terminal and a bass-reflex vent of small diameter. The wire terminals are solid, gold plated, but they are not screwed tight easily, because they are placed close together. So it is best to use banana plugs. The company supplies a cramp made from short pieces of the Swedish cable Supra Classic 4.0, the same that is used for internal wiring. And this means that the place for the spades is taken… I mentioned details – the cut-offs for the loudspeakers are done really thorough, and the speakers themselves are mounted with real screws. The insides of the cabinet walls are glued with bitumen mattes and quite tight dampening material, there is also artificial wool inside. The cross-over is screwed to the wire terminals. But what a cross-over this is! Two very large boards, one for each speaker. In the low frequency section there are two very large coils, wound with thick wire and four large polypropylene capacitors from the Danish Jantzen Audio. The capacitors for the treble section were supplied by the same company. There is also a third coil there. Most of the time, even if the speakers are mounted with screws, the cross-over isn’t. In the M-100 it consequently is. The wires are soldered. The loudspeakers are equipped with grilles made from an acoustically transparent material. But it is better to take them off while listening. And also the loudspeakers are so beautiful, that it is a shame to spoil them with the grille.
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