#it is because it impedes his recognizability Quite A Bit

[threecowsusingthistoreadcomics]

doodle of a doc design for the Hermit Hat Atelier AU!

This iteration of Doc appears in My First Fanfiction on Ao3:

(edited because Ao3 Told Me it was published while Blatantly Lying)

[cheesecakezyum]

How about some competition? Like there's this character Who is also courting SWK and Macaque's s/o A LOT. How much annoyed and jelous would they be? Bonus scene: They came over just when s/o speak back at the other:"Look, I appreciate your feelings, I really do. But I am already in love with someone else"

Vying For Your Endearment

It continues, it continues. I really liked this idea though! Don’t know how I did thoughh

Didn’t put too much in this because of the fact that I want to keep some info for my fic. Mischief mischief mischief.

I like to think that while the scent of a demon is super pungent to them— when it comes to non-demons its rather faint to barely recognizable actually.

Scenting headcanons are so quirky

I’ll fix anything later we’re on that grind boyssss

Enjoy!

─────────────────

─────────────────

Sun Wukong

♡- At first? It really wouldn’t trouble him too much. He feels unintimidated, especially if the two of you have been courting for quite some time. If it’s around courting season, it’s only expected.

♡- The only thing he truly worries about in the beginning is certain traditions for demons who take interest in a potential mate; worst case scenario is you being kidnapped by this demon, and no way is that happening on his watch.

♡- It’s way more rare nowadays, but that doesn’t mean it’s essentially out of the question! Definitely would keep a better eye on you and take you home more often himself.

♡- If nothing changes though, and he notices that the other suitor just won’t bug off after a week— that’s when it starts getting to him.

♡- Catches you talking to the other demon in public? Definitely the one to impede on the conversation. He’ll just slide on over there, wrapping an arm around your waist.

“Mind if I just borrow them for a bit? Yeahh, thanks!”

♡- If Wukong happens to visit and notices you with any slight smell (Stench, in his personal opinion.) related to the demon— boy are you in for it.

“Let go already! That’s enough!”

“Just 5 more minutes.”

♡- Not just to provide more overall affection but to drown their scent with his own. A threat on his part.

♡- Kind of but not kind of a property thing. He doesn’t want to own you of course! Never. But.. wants it known that you’re being courted by him and him only. Wukong’s personal smell of peaches is rather recognizable as well— so he wonders why such a lower class demon would attempt getting their hands on you. Do they not realize who they’re competing with?

♡- It's nothing but confusing to the monkey king. What do they have that he doesn’t? Why you of all people? Did they have a personal grudge against them with hopes of stealing you away? Why haven’t you just turned them down already?

♡- Don’t even get me started if you mention the demon in question in front of him. Expect a pouting menace.

The monkey king spoke under his breath, grumbling.

“I can do that.”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing!”

♡- Even after an explanation of demon courting by Wukong did you not realize this new demon was trying to compete for your affection. You considered them more of an acquaintance, really.

♡- So when you got the sudden confession of their admiration for you with bold claims of wanting to make you his mate?— yuck.

“I’m sorry. I appreciate your feelings, really! But I already love someone else.”

♡- If he caught you in the act like that, rejecting the demon attempting to steal his place by your side? Fist bumping the air. I mean— cough cough, he never doubted you! Himself too, yeah.

♡- Would act as if he never saw it, brush it off and wait until that poor, poor rejectee finally left you alone to interact.

♡- It’d probably be the first time you told him you loved him as well! I mean, not up front just yet, but still said it! Wouldn’t actually mention it until way later, when you’ve most likely forgotten. It was an in the moment thing!

“You know, I love you too.”

─────────────────

─────────────────

The Six-Eared Macaque

♡- On Macaque’s part, it’s an instant alarm when he’s noticed another demons aura around you. Wouldn’t make it immediately known, but try to pry out as much as he can without sounding desperate.

“So— how was your day? Anything new?”

♡- When it turns out his suspicions are correct, he already knows their intentions. Courting season would give it out immediately. Not just anyone would attempt going for you— but then again, he did.

♡- He’d definitely be overprotective in the aspect that you’re at risk of being kidnapped. Would try to follow you around way more than usual. Going to the market? He’s been needing something actually. Taking a walk? He could use one too!

♡- Basically anything that would keep him closer to you. He respects courting rituals and wouldn’t go against them until absolutely necessary, so he takes the competition. Macaque isn’t letting you get away that easily.

♡- Similar to Wukong, your scent is a big thing to him. If you don’t smell like yourself or even him, man would it irritate him beyond belief.

♡- So coating his scent over the other demon’s will always be the #1 priority when he has you alone. Maybe leave in gentle bite or two for good measure depending on how far into courting the two of you have been.

♡- Macaque also takes it as an opportunity to be more bold with you— overall way more flirtatious. Any opportunity the six-eared demon has? He’ll take it.

“Aren’t you a pretty little thing for me.”

“Let me get a good look at you.”

♡- Whether it be spontaneously cornering you while the two of you walked in an alley, wrapping his tail around you in public when no one else can see, WAY more eye contact. He isn’t going down that easy.

♡- He wouldn’t really be too scared to point the other suitor out to you too.

“What did they bring you today?”

“Next time, just call me.”

♡- I mean, he wants anyone else to know that you belong to him. You leaving is just, something he dreads. Let alone to a low class demon.

♡- Definitely would think it’s someone he’s wronged in the past trying to get back at him. I mean, who would be stupid enough to go for his prize?

♡- So catching you in the act utterly rejecting the poor guys feelings? He wanted to crack up right then and there, but stayed behind and watch the beautiful scene unfold before him.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t return your feelings. I love someone else,“

♡- That last part caught Macaque off guard. You’ve told him you’ve cared about him, but never said loved. Not like that. He was quick to take residence in your shadow once the demon took their leave, and waited for the perfect opportunity to speak up as you walked home.

“Yeesh. Who knew you were so cruel?”

Startled by the all too familiar voice, you jumped and turned behind you, only to see a pair of violet eyes and a cunning smile replace your shadow.

“Macaque?!”

“Really liked that last part, though.”

[kylan-writes]

To Be Loved

A drabble about my Nan (my aro-spec Lavellan) and Iron Bull’s relationship.

Also on AO3 | My Ko-fi 

Nan fidgeted with her hands, fingers clothed in the practical leather gloves she'd changed into after parading into the Winter Palace on horseback in the horrible formal wear they'd worn the first time she'd come to Orlais as Inquisitor. She'd hated it then too. Conducting business in Skyhold while wearing her nice leathers had always been more than enough for her. If she could have it her way, she'd be barefoot like the servants, in nothing but leggings and a plain tunic. But Josephine had drawn a line back home and Nan would be kind to her Ambassador.

Josephine had staved off the wolves of Orlais and Fereldan for a year, doing her best to conduct business at home in Skyhold with Nan making her best effort to be a good leader. Meetings and dinners and politics had perverted her life for months. All the while the Anchor mark was gradually getting unstable. Leliana knew, because there was no keeping secrets from her. As did Cullen out of a sense of fairness for him confiding in her about his lyrium addiction. Josephine had been purposefully kept in the dark to ensure that it wouldn't impede her diplomatic work. Her kind heart had more than enough to worry about with peace keeping. The first to know, however, had been the Iron Bull. He was always the first to know things.

Nan kept fidgeting as she stepped back into the little bar/tavern space where he was sitting. He kept watch on the Chargers with a fond look in his eye that spread his lips into a smile when he caught sight of her.

"Kadan," he greeted as she approached. "Come for a drink?"

"Josie's forbidden intoxication, unfortunately," Nan said as she settled on the stool beside him. She didn't quite meet his gaze when he tried to meet hers. "I will steal a bit from whatever you're having, though."

"It's just a weak Orlesian brew," he explained as he passed her his cup. "Better off sticking with the wines. All their attempts at beer are underwhelming as shit."

Nan drank a couple swallows and her face screwed at the hoppy assault to her senses. "Creators, that is terrible ," she whined as she passed the cup back over. "Who decided making that was a good use of resources?"

"I dunno, haven't seen a label anywhere," he said, glancing around the counter. "Guess that should've been the first hint something was off."

Nan's head tilted slightly to the left. "If you knew it was sketchy, why did you buy it?"

"I still needed something to drink," he justified, taking a few swallows before setting his cup back on the counter before them. Nan sighed but let out a light laugh at him. He smiled at her as she leaned into his shoulder.

"You know I love you, yes?" she said as she leaned into his side.

"I know. I love you too."

Nan smiled and stared straight ahead for a short while, still playing with her hands. He shifted to put a hand at the small of her back and glanced over at her.

"What's wrong?" he asked her, brows downturned in a worried frown.

Nan met his gaze and continued to fidget with her gloves. "Cassandra congratulated me on my marriage proposal earlier. She'd had a misunderstanding with Varric, or he was fucking with her, but I…" She sighed heavily, a little growl in her throat when she did so as she ran a hand through her still recently shortened hair. "I'm not good at this."

"You're doing fine," Bull assured her, giving her an encouraging pat. "You know you can tell me anything."

"I know," she said, calming. "But that's the problem, right? I love you, you love me, we've got a good thing going. So why does the thought of marriage make me so itchy ?"

He looked her over and didn't answer her rhetorical question. They knew why it made her uncomfortable, but neither wanted to address Nan's struggle with romance in this place. She still had days when she couldn't tell if she actually felt love for him, or if she was mistaking her deep respect, trust, and loyalty for love. She couldn't tell if they might be the same thing or not. She couldn't tell whether or not she was a broken person for struggling to define her feelings for the relationship that she and the Iron Bull had been in for three years. How could one possibly define love in a way that made it easily recognizable, so that one could say, "Yes! That's what it is," and know for certain?

Marriage meant a promise of love that Nan didn't know she could keep.

Bull placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and squeezed. Nan relaxed under his touch, feeling nothing but safe when he was near. She reached to lace her fingers with his and closed her eyes and she regrounded herself.

"I don't think I'll ever want to marry you," she said carefully, looking as though the words physically caused her pain.

"I'm okay with that," he assured her. She looked at him with wide eyes shining with unshed tears. He smiled.

"You are?"

"You're my Kadan," he said steadily. "That's a choice I make every day, and I know you do the same when you call me vhenan . We don't need to be bound to it for this to have meaning."

Nan breathed a sigh of relief and put a hand to her chest as though to still her palpitating heart. "Creators, I'm a lucky woman to have you for a partner."

He smiled fondly at her, leaning over to kiss her forehead, placing it in the center of her swirling violet vallaslin. "You know, if you had been planning a proposal, I wouldn't have said no."

"I'll keep that in mind," Nan chuckled, his comment just making her feel more comfortable being with him, knowing they were unbound by traditions and could make of it whatever they desired. "Thank you."

He cocked his head to the side slightly, looking between her smile and her eyes. "For what?"

"For your patience. I… I am grateful, truly, for your willingness to love me and trust me." She shifted out of his touch and swiveled on her stool to face him properly. Nan held his gaze with a seriousness he usually only saw when she was performing as Inquisitor. "Whatever happens with the Exalted Council, whether the Inquisition can carry on or not. No matter how far apart life takes us, I hope that you'll come back to me."

The Iron Bull gave her that familiar fond smile. The one that was slightly crooked, higher on the side without an eye to look on her, while the subtle creases around the other softened and looked over her face. His gaze traced along her softly angled features, along the dark violet knots that he'd long since learned were how she honored her patron goddess, Ghilan'nain, and settled looking between her copper brown eyes that were noticeably large and elven. He reached out and cradled her cheek in his hand, his thumb brushing gently across her light olive skin. She kept her gaze on him but relaxed under his touch.

Whether she could feel love or not seemed irrelevant when Nan responded to his touch with such peace and safety, and he felt the same in her hands. When they didn't care what the conversation was that they were having, be it beers or religion, they just wanted to enjoy the other's company. When they trusted the other with their lives in battle and fought seamlessly together. When they made each other happy enough to smile and laugh at simple things. And yes, the sex was good, but even that dynamic they'd created was built on Nan's trust in him to bring pain and pleasure in equal measure at her pace, and help her to be a person again when her legend took over.

Bull didn't care if it was love that bound them. He cared about Nan. Nan cared about him. That was all that they needed.

"I'll do what I can," he said.

Nan smiled and nodded. "I couldn't ask for more." She gave a tug to the strap across his breast and pulled him close for a kiss. She didn't care who watched. For just a sweet moment, this was all that mattered.

[bixeapage]

NHT C3 Bookshelf Speaker Review

The NHT C3 is a compact 3-way bookshelf speaker with a dome midrange and acoustic suspension cabinet. The C3 replaces NHT’s best-selling Classic Three. NHT claims the C3 offers a modest sound quality improvement over the Classic Three, along with improved serviceability and sturdiness.

Three-way bookshelf speakers are rare. Adding a dedicated midrange can provide dispersion and distortion benefits, but adds complexity and cost. SECRETS recently covered two other 3-way bookshelf speakers: ELAC UniFi UB5 Slim and Bryston Mini A. These three speakers take three different approaches to the midrange in a 3-way: large dome (NHT), concentric cone/waveguide (ELAC), and small cone (Bryston).

I have owned a pair of Classic Threes for years. I currently use them as rears. When NHT offered their C3 speakers for review, I was eager to see and hear if they could best an, ahem, Classic.

Highlights

NHT C3 Bookshelf Speaker

3-way design with dome midrange

clear and neutral sound, balanced just a hair midrange-forward

Acoustic suspension (closed box) bass

low diffraction cabinet design

exceptional measured performance

Introduction

NHT stands for "Now Hear This," and has a special resonance for audiophiles who came of age in the late 1980s and early 1990s. NHT’s original lineup, from Model 1 to Model 3.3, were instantly recognizable by their slim baffles set at 21 degrees and anti-diffraction foam strips.

NHT BOOKSHELF LOUDSPEAKER REVIEW SPECIFICATIONS

CONFIGURATION:

3-way acoustic suspension design

DRIVER COMPLEMENT:

6.5” aluminum cone woofer, 2” aluminum dome midrange, 1” aluminum dome tweeter

FREQUENCY RESPONSE:

55Hz-20kHz

SENSITIVITY:

87dB/2.83V/1m

IMPEDANCE:

6 Ohms nominal, 4 Ohms minimum

RECOMMENDED POWER:

50-150 W/channel

DIMENSIONS:

13.75” H x 7.5” W x 10.125” D

WEIGHT:

16lbs

MSRP:

$499 each ($998/pair)

Company:

NHT

SECRETS Tags:

NHT, NHT C3, loudspeakers, bookshelf loudspeakers, speaker reviews 2018, polar map

NHT has mostly used acoustic suspension (sealed) cabinets. See the "Design" section below for more about this design choice. NHT’s founders, Ken Kantor and Chris Byrne, have moved on, but NHT continues their legacy of distinctive, affordable high-performance speakers.

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NHT’s currently offers three tiers of freestanding speakers and a custom installation range. The C3 speaker reviewed here is NHT’s flagship bookshelf speaker.

Design

The NHT C3’s looks like an updated Classic Three at first glance. NHT straightened the walls and replaced curves with sharp angles. It was a successful update.

My wife quickly pronounced her preference for the C3’s "clean lines" over our Classic Threes’ "blobby curves." The Classic Three is so curvy that it requires rubber-tipped aluminum rails to sit flat on a stand!

Angled facets flank the C3’s midrange and tweeter, providing some diffraction control and visual character. Closer inspection reveals that the facets are three separate triangles, not flat planes. I associate this level of cabinet detailing with more expensive brands, such Joseph Audio or Avalon Acoustics.

NHT offers the C3 in one finish: hand-polished gloss black with 7 coats of lacquer.

While gloss black is NHT’s signature finish, I think the C3 would look great the sycamore veneer from the Kantor era. A matte white finish would also suit these cabinets. The C3’s grille attaches with pegs that fit into the driver flanges.

NHT also updated the C3’s midrange and tweeter. The C3’s domes have individual faceplates, which makes driver replacement simpler and cheaper compared to the Classic Three’s ovoid mid-tweeter flange. The aluminum dome tweeter is now a 1" unit. The foam is gone. NHT specifies crossovers at 817 Hz and 4750 Hz, no orders provided. The new dome midrange thus plays a little higher than the Classic Three’s midrange did.

Like NHT speakers past, the C3 has a sealed cabinet.

Most speakers today have bass reflex cabinets.

The main advantages of going sealed are as follows: the box acts as a spring to prevent over-excursion; 12 dB/oct. low frequency rolloff; no colorations from port resonances. Bass reflex speakers offer higher efficiency just above port tuning. However, they roll off at 24dB/oct. below port tuning, do not protect the woofer, and can have midband pipe resonances. Below is a representative model of a 6.5-inch woofer in closed and vented boxes of roughly the NHT C3’s size. The closed box is blue and the vented box is pink.

Setup and In Use

I auditioned the NHT C3 alone and with subwoofers. Oddly, NHT does not provide placement recommendations in the box, and their website does not have a manual for the C3. I placed the C3s on 30" tall subwoofer-stands, which put their tweeters at ear height. The speakers were 11.5 feet apart, and the distance from each speaker to the listening position was 13.3 feet.

Like the Bryston Mini A and Monitor Audio Silver 1, the NHT C3 is fairly inefficient. Still, three relatively lower-powered amps (ELAC EA101EQ-G, MartinLogan Forte, and Parasound Zamp v3) powered them satisfactorily. Obviously, my reference ATI AT4007 had no trouble driving them.

The treble was a little hot with the C3’s fired directly at the listening position. I found the best treble balance at a very NHT-appropriate 21 degree toe-in. I use Howard Massey’s SpeakerAngle iOS app to ensure symmetrical toe-in. By contrast, the Classic Threes sound best in this room firing straight ahead. As with the Classic Three, rotation had very little effect on midrange/bass tonality or imaging at the listening position.

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NHT’s C3 speakers had no immediately obvious sonic signature. Their midrange and treble are substantially neutral. It took much listening to identify their subtle highlighting of details in guitar or vocal accompaniments as a slight forwardness. Image stability and dialog intelligibility held up very well when I stood up in the sweet spot. Run subless they sound lean, some might say "fast." Their shallow closed box rolloff made subwoofer integration easy.

Iron and Wine “Beast Epic”

I think of Iron & Wine as a modern Simon & Garfunkel, Cat Stevens, or Jim Croce. Like those men, Sam Beam is a skillful melodist with a warm, soothing voice that meshes well with acoustic guitar. He also has their knack for lyrical storytelling. "Beast Epic" is best enjoyed as a continuous rinse of music, not atomized tracks on a playlist.

So vinyl was the natural medium. The NHT C3s’s neutral, clear sound let the record wash over me.

The dome midrange and tweeter highlighted the Beam’s fret work at the beginning of "Thomas County Law" without hardening it. The multilayered vocals on the song were soothing and lush. The NHT C3’s slightly emphasized the pop of the bongos in "Call it Dreaming," but otherwise smoothly conveyed the richly layered sound buried in the grooves and placed the musicians across our front wall. “The Truest Stars We Know” also sounded great, though the lowest notes were heard rather than felt in 2.0-channel mode.

Mahler Symphony No. 5. Minnesota Orchestra Osmo Vanska conducting

I had not listened to this symphony in quite a while, so when I saw this new interpretation on TIDAL I was curious. From the first bars, Vanska’s interpretation proved quite different from the hyper-dramatic Bernstein/Vienna Mahler 5 I grew up with. Comparatively, Vanska almost dissects the symphony.

For example, compare the second trumpet solo in the first movement, starting at around 5:27 on the Vanska and 6:10 on the Bernstein/VPO. Bernstein’s is a cyclone, Vanska’s a sonorous trumpet solo. Still, I think it is a recording to digest rather than rejecting because it’s unfamiliar. BIS offers it in 5.0 channel SACD, so guess what was recently added to the library!

The spacious and clear recording suits Vanska’s interpretation. The NHT C3’s threw a slightly flatter soundstage than my reference, but every bit of the recording’s width, separation, and dynamics came through. The NHT C3s pulled off the rich low brass sound captured in the recording. The treble range was open and clean, and the treble "bite" sounded a little more natural than on the Classic Threes.

Joy Division Unknown Pleasures (2007 remix)

Joy Division was a late-1970s/early-1980s post-punk supernova that morphed into New Order after singer-songwriter Ian Curtis’s death. “Unknown Pleasures” was their brooding, stormy debut album.

The NHT C3 speakers played “Unknown Pleasures” with clarity and detail.

Curtis’s baritone-ish voice projected clearly, without the syrup an overripe upper bass can cause. The NHT C3’s clarity and neutrality suited the album’s opening track, “Disorder,” especially well.

The C3’s provided excellent separation between each part and effect, and slightly greater clarity than the Classic Three. Augmented with subwoofers, the NHT C3 deftly executed the "huge wall of sound playing through a tin can" spatial paradox of "New Dawn Fades," and even subless Peter Hook’s bass line had enough heft to propel the song. The apparent size of the wall of sound was just smaller. The C3’s slightly forward midrange drew my attention to the electric guitar noodlings accompanying Curtis’s vocal entrance, but not distractingly so.

Pearl Jam 2016/04/11 Tampa, FL

Pearl Jam sells “official bootlegs” on their website in multiple formats. The highest-resolution options, lossless 24/96 “ALAC-HD” or “FLAC-HD,” cost about $20. Not a bad deal for 90-120 minutes of music! On Black Friday they had a half-price sale, so I picked up this show and a few others containing my favorite rarely-played Pearl Jam tracks.

One such track, “Red Mosquito” from No Code, convinced me that the NHT C3’s could really rock out. Matt Cameron’s kickdrum came through with nice punch and some tactility even without subwoofers, and his high-hat decayed crisply.

Mike McCready’s audacious slide guitar work soared unfettered into the room from those two metal domes. “Come Back,” from their oft-neglected – except at SECRETS! – eponymous “Avocado” album, is one of the few pure ballads in the Pearl Jam canon. It is one track where I would have preferred a more laid-back presentation than the NHT C3 provided. Pearl Jam closed the concert with a cover of Hendrix’s “Little Wing." I have not heard Pearl Jam play Little Wing as a standalone song before, though they’ve often played parts of it in the outro to their traditional closer, “Yellow Ledbetter.” Through the NHT C3’s, you could almost hear the crowd being brought gently back to earth.

On The Bench

Fair warning: this section is necessarily quite dense. If you skim this section, pay closest attention to the following three measurements: on-axis frequency response, CEA-2034A listening window, and the polar map.

Research indicates that a few measurements dominate our perception of speaker sound quality. These measurements are: bass extension, on-axis frequency response flatness and smoothness, and off-axis frequency response smoothness. Other measurements, such as distortion, correlate poorly with perception. Accordingly, my bench sections focus on frequency response both on and off-axis, the latter through polar maps that are a huge pain to make but graphically illuminate previously mysterious aspects of speaker sound in rooms. I also measure impedance to determine how hard a speaker is to drive and confirm the speakers were not damaged in shipping.

Aside from impedance, I measure after listening to avoid biasing my audition. For this review I took frequency response measurements outdoors, except obviously the listening room response. All frequency response measurements are 1/12-octave smoothed.

Impedance

Let’s start with the NHT C3’s impedance curve.

The peak at ~70Hz indicates the box tuning frequency. The minimum impedance is just under 4 Ohms between 100 and 200 Hz. The NHT C3 is not difficult to drive. The two samples show excellent consistency, with just a small and irrelevant difference in the impedance peak around box tuning.

The NHT C3 has a single set of binding posts, so I was unable to measure the woofer and midrange/tweeter sections separately. The frequency response of the whole speaker is below, on axis and at 15, 30, and 45 degrees off axis.

The most obvious takeaway from this set of measurements is that the NHT C3 is just superbly flat overall. The most notable deviation is a small but broad plateau starting just above 1kHz and going to 5kHz. Many speakers, such as the Bryston Mini A, are slightly depressed in this region. As expected from the impedance measurement, the -3dB point is about 65Hz. Bass rolloff is the expected 12dB/octave. The tweeter’s resonance falls at about 24kHz, which is very good for an aluminum dome.

I initially thought the dip and bump from 300-500 Hz was a measurement artifact. However, they both show up in the listening position response (below), and the measurement height was different from the listening height. So I believe they are real. Measurements of the Classic Three (below) show similar behavior.

Given the broad dispersion of a 2" midrange dome and no foam to mitigate edge diffraction, I was curious to see if there were measured diffraction effects that were not apparent to me in listening. Nope: the facets work! The curves were remarkably similar.

The next graph shows the listening window response. While in previous reviews I calculated the listening window according to the Canadian NRC method, starting with this review I will use the CEA-2034A standard. The CEA-2034 listening window response is an 8-point average: on axis; -10, 10, -20, 20, -30, and 30 degrees off axis horizontally; -10 and 10 degrees off axis vertically.

That is one of the tightest listening window responses I have seen. There is a slight but broad midrange hump, which may account for the slight forward bias observed in listening.

For a more finely-grained view of the NHT C3’s horizontal sound output, let’s look next at the polar map.

The absence of small flares above 500Hz indicates substantially resonance-free performance, which correlates with two of the C3’s best attributes: clarity and detail. Like the Bryston Mini A, the NHT C3 has roughly 120-degree coverage all the way up to about 7kHz, where the pattern narrows due to the tweeter dome diameter. Even in the top octave, the C3 maintains 60 degrees of coverage. That is excellent for a 1" dome.

The NHT C3’s slight midrange elevation causes the bulge in total sound output visible from about 1.5kHz to 4.5kHz. This bump is small, but the extra energy shows up in all angles because the speaker’s coverage is so even.

The next graph shows the averaged response at my listening position for the left speaker, right speaker, and both combined.

Both speakers’ response at the listening position matched very well. Bass extension goes down to 50Hz, which surprised me. I perceived them as bass shy without subwoofers. Because of the C3’s shallow closed box bass rolloff, they can excite room modes that a vented speaker with a similar cutoff cannot. The midrange elevation appears in these measurements, but otherwise the midrange and treble smoothly decline as expected from a good speaker in a reasonable room.

Normally I strongly recommend limiting any EQ or automated room correction based on listening position measurements to the modal region and below. However, due to their broad and smooth response the NHT C3 is the rare speaker that may benefit from correction above the modal region. If you use the C3’s with a parametric EQ or room correction system such as ARC, Dirac Live, or the Audyssey MultEQ App, try raising the maximum EQ point all the way up to 5kHz or so and see if you prefer the sound. You may not, but it is worth trying.

As discussed above, the dip-peak from 300-500Hz measured outdoors also appears in the room measurements.

While the horizontal off-axis response is considered perceptually more important, the vertical off axis response matters, too. The next chart shows the NHT C3’s response from 30 degrees above axis to -30 degrees below axis, in 10-degree steps.

I did not find the C3 to sound much different standing vs. sitting at the listening position. The measurements confirm the C3 has very smooth response above axis. The notch that develops at about 4.5kHz may indicate the midrange/tweeter crossover point. NHT later confirmed to me that the midrange crosses to the tweeter at 4750 Hz.

While I did not find the NHT C3’s grilles audibly consequential, the below graph indicates they have a measurable effect in the upper midrange and treble.

Lastly, given NHT’s comments about the C3 being a minor sonic update to the Classic Three, I decided to measure one of my Classic Threes concurrently with the C3’s. While SECRETS has not measured the Classic Three, at least two other publications have. My Classic Three measured similarly to those published measurements.

The first graph compares the listening window of the Classic Three and C3.

No question, the C3 has smoother and flatter response than the Classic Three. My listening window measurement of the Classic Three shows less top octave than the published NRC listening window. This difference is because the CEA-2034A listening window measurement covers a wider horizontal angle, and the Classic Three’s tweeter has surprisingly narrow radiation in the top octave.

The next graph is a “split polar map.” It shows the horizontal radiation of the C3 on top (-90 to 0 degrees), and the horizontal radiation of the Classic Three on the bottom (0 to 90 degrees).

While both speakers have objectively excellent off axis performance, two differences are interesting. The Classic Three has wider coverage from about 600Hz to about 1.5kHz, and basically the same coverage over the next octave. Thus, the Classic Three does not share the C3’s overall midrange output bump. Perhaps NHT revoiced the woofer/midrange crossover? NHT suggested to me that this difference in lower midrange directivity may result from the different cabinet shape. Additionally, and surprisingly, the C3’s 1" dome tweeter puts much more sound into the room above 7kHz than the Classic Three’s .75" dome tweeter.

Conclusions

THE NHT C3 are great speakers to build a system around. Even more so with subwoofers.

Likes

Neutral, clear sound

Elegant cabinet

Spectacular measured performance

High value for money

Would Like To See

Magnetic grille attachment

Some cabinet finish options

NHT’s C3 bookshelf speakers really impressed me. They look great, sound great, and measure superbly. And in true NHT tradition, they accomplish all that at a very reasonable price. While I liked their predecessor Classic Threes enough to buy a pair for myself and deploy them in several systems, I believe NHT is too modest when they claim the C3’s sonic improvements are "relatively minor." The C3 is better in every measurable way, and I never preferred the Classic Three to the C3 in listening.

For my tastes, the NHT C3 requires subwoofers for optimum performance. Fortunately, their sealed boxes and relatively high cutoff match the assumptions in AVR bass management tools. Thus, integrating subwoofers with a pair of NHT C3’s is less painful than usual. A new system could start with a pair of C3’s and add subwoofers later. Starting with great speakers is generally a more satisfying system building approach than starting with subwoofers. For a compact 2.1-channel system with very high performance potential, consider a pair of NHT C3’s with two identical subwoofers and an ELAC EA101EQ-G or MartinLogan Forte to integrate the speakers and subs. Such a system would punch well above its weight, cost, and ease of setup.

Based on my audition, audiophiles who resist subwoofers may be better served by NHT’s C4, which appears to be a floorstanding C3 with two supplemental 6.5" woofers. It has about the same footprint as a C3 on a stand. But if you’re less of a basshead than I am, or you’re willing to add subwoofers, the NHT C3 bookshelf speakers will provide a wide open window into your favorite music.

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