NHT M5 Monitor

A passive 3 way loudspeaker, which I bought for my home theater system. It's possibly the best speaker I've ever owned.

Why I went looking for it

Somewhere in my internet travels I came across the idea that the centre channel of a home audio system is the most important (aside from the subwoofer). This is because it plays almost all the most important audio - most of what happens in movies happens in the centre of the screen, and the audio is mixed to come from the centre. To do this, the centre should be effective across the 120–20000Hz range, but particularly in the 120–8000Hz range, which covers most of human speech.

Doing this well requires a variety of drivers. For example, the NHT M5 covers a wide range like so:

• A 5" woofer to handle 66Hz–380Hz
• A 3" driver to handle 380Hz–3000Hz
• A 1" tweeter to handle 3000Hz–30000Hz

If you were to make or buy a speaker without a variety of drivers, such as only 3" drivers, it would find itself utterly unable to represent all ranges. Unfortunately, many cheap speakers, and even some expensive ones, are guilty of this.

This promotional poster triumphantly shows a speaker design with 4 drivers that are all the same size. This speaker is marketed as having Dolby Atmos for movies. Without even hearing it myself, I know it would sound awful, being utterly unable to represent low notes and high notes.

Thus I went hunting for a high quality 3 way speaker: one robust box with at least 3 different sized drivers.

How I found my ideal centre speaker

Looking for new 3-way speakers was not promising. The cheapest new speaker with a 3-way design seems to be the SVS Prime Center at $450USD. At that price I was absolutely not interested.

I understand for a good 3-way speaker, the enclosing box must be large and robust enough for at least 3 drivers, together with the cost of all the drivers and internal wiring, seems to jack the price up significantly more than simpler designs.

Thus I moved on to second hand markets.

Doing a search for "3 way speaker" on Facebook marketplace yields plenty of results, but most were far too large, like these:

These designs would surely sound excellent. 3-way designs seem common in older speakers - audio engineers of that age seemed wise. Unfortunately, I needed a much smaller design to use as a center channel.

I switched to searching for "center speaker" for a while, and tried looking for designs that were 3 way. With patience and sheer luck, I spotted the NHT M5 unit, very nearby, for just $80USD. Not really knowing how good a deal this was, I still bought it. Also through sheer luck, the seller had his NHT Verve subwoofer for sale, which I happily bought.

Why I like the NHT M5 so much

This speaker had one vital task - play dialog in movies clearly enough to not require subtitles. In this regard, it passes with flying colours.

It's hard for me to describe why the NHT M5 sounds good. Many audio reviewers use a lot of words that also sound like meaningless gibberish to me. What I can say definitively, is that when I hear something from my nameless Onkyo speakers, then the NHT M5, I always prefer the M5.

The M5 is so much better than my Onkyo speakers that it has presented me with a problem. When listening to stereo sources such as music, audio only plays through my Onkyo speakers, skipping the M5 speaker entirely. When this happens my setup appears to sound noticeably worse. For these situations I have to remember to use the upmixing feature on my Denon AVR-S510BT receiver, which is a free and easy solution until I can spare the budget to buy two more three-way speakers to replace the Onkyos.

Other notes

Being released in 2002, the NHT M5 speakers are very hard to buy today. I occasionally see listings for them online, at modest prices.

• Reverb
• Stereoland
• eBay

The M5 is originally part of a set of 5 speakers and a subwoofer released in 2002, the NHT M5 Evolution. It was highly acclaimed at the time, as this reviewer describes after setting up all speakers:

The M5s were about as free from response blips and dips, and thus from vocal artifacts, as any speakers I’ve used in my studio. For instance, on “Sleep to Dream Her” from the Dave Matthews Band’s Everyday, D. Matt’s unmistakable adenoidal slur sounded full, yet characteristically honky — but no honkier than it should be. This and many other stereo pop vocals had the kind of rock-solid, three-dimensional center image that makes you swear the center speaker must be playing until your ear’s within a foot or two.^[1]

It can be used vertically as a satellite speaker, and can also be mounted onto a NHT B5 subwoofer, making it into a NHT T5 Tower Speaker.

As of 2023, the successor to these speakers seems to be the M7 LCR speaker. The m7 is quite expensive at $900 per speaker, and much heavier at 32 pounds!

At 21 pounds or around 10 kilograms, it's the largest single passive loudspeaker I've ever owned. It has 2 5.25" woofers, a 3" midrange and a 1" aluminium dome tweeter, and has these specs:

It has acoustic suspension, but I do not know what that means.

Came with a grille which I've stored in my garage for now.

The company, Now Hear This, is in California between San Francisco and Sacramento.