Separate components or all-in-one package? In some fields, this is the question that separates the devotee from the dilettante. Would a chef dice onions with a Swiss Army knife? Would a serious angler tie his lures to a Pocket Fisherman? Would a true Elvis Presley fan settle for 30 #1 Hits? I think not.

Nowhere will you find more proponents of components than in the world of audio. Where the average person would use a single audio product, an enthusiast will use at least five. A custom installer I know recently built a system that employs 10 separate components in lieu of a single surround-sound processor. Why separates? Flexibility, enhanced performance, added control and, perhaps, the desire for exclusivity.

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NHT’s Evolution U2 subwoofer comprises two speaker enclosures, the X1 crossover and the A1 amplifier. (Click image to enlarge)

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NHT, a 15-year-old company whose products are revered for quality, technological innovation and sheer practicality, has taken a common one-box product—the subwoofer, a speaker designed specifically for reproducing bass—and broken it down into four components to create the Evolution U2. On the surface, U2 does nothing more than an ordinary subwoofer would do. It accepts an audio signal from your surround-sound processor or receiver, it filters the audio signal so nothing is left but bass, and it amplifies that bass-only signal and reproduces it through a speaker. But this is like saying a Wüsthof-Trident chef’s knife does nothing more than a Swiss Army knife.

Click here to see the lab measurements.

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The advantages of a component subwoofer are not subtle. U2’s benefits start with the simple fact that it employs two W2 speaker cabinets, a design choice that yields three benefits. First is the potential for more-consistent sound—when a jazz bassist plays a scale, for example, the volume of the notes remains fairly even. The performance of any subwoofer depends on its location in a room; the resonances of the room amplify some bass notes and strangle others, thus making the sound uneven. Using two subwoofers placed in different spots helps cancel these effects.

Second, the 15- or 18-inch speaker cones in large subwoofers move relatively slowly, often producing sluggish, boomy bass. The two 12-inch cones in the U2 system, however, move more quickly. Last, two small subwoofer cabinets are much easier to conceal than one large cabinet.

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The X1 crossover offers bass-tuning controls far more extensive than those found on most subwoofers or in most surround-sound processors. (Click image to enlarge)

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The other two boxes in the system are the X1 crossover, which performs the filtering function described above, and the A1 amplifier, which provides 250 watts of power for the two W2 cabinets to share. The X1 permits your installer to tune U2’s performance to near perfection. Most subwoofers have two or three knobs and one or two switches for sound adjustment; the X1 has five knobs and four switches, permitting much greater control. Combine this flexibility with X1’s professional-style balanced inputs and you have a component that would be welcomed in the finest recording studios.

When I connect U2 into my home theater, I am delighted to find an additional advantage to the A1/X1 combination. Both components power themselves up automatically when they receive an audio signal from your surround processor, a common subwoofer feature. But A1 adds a nice flourish: a set of five tiny lamps on its underside that light up when A1 turns on. Stack A1 atop X1 and the lamps illuminate X1’s controls. The look harkens back to the glory days of hi-fi, an era when softly lit power meters and tuning indicators were all the rage. Before I know it, a Led Zeppelin CD finds its way into my DVD player and I’m back in 1972. It almost makes me want to buy a water bed.

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Professional-style XLR jacks on the X1 (top) and A1 (bottom) ensure maximum signal quality. (Click image to enlarge)

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I quickly realize the advantages to a component subwoofer are more than theoretical. This modest little rig does not even flinch when I play my most demanding material—action movies and hip-hop CDs packed with deep, deep bass that push most of the subwoofers I test to their limits (or beyond). The spaceship passing overhead in Chapter 3 of Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones—a clip that makes all but the most muscular subwoofers distort—sounds perfectly clear with U2. I feel the explosion of Queen Amidala’s ship in my chest; it reminds me of the way it felt to stand in front of the huge bass guitar amplifier stacks that ’70s rock bands used.

Despite its rippling muscles, U2 has the precision of a surgeon. It captures the subtleties: the slap of a bassist’s right hand against the strings, the growl as the strings grind against the fingerboard. I have a couple of subwoofers that sound even more defined than U2, but only by a small margin.

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Each speaker enclosure houses a 12-inch aluminum-cone woofer in a sealed enclosure. (Click image to enlarge)

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True to the promise of dual subwoofer cabinets, the system’s performance is remarkably even as I move around the room. No, the sound is not perfect from every chair—achieving that requires more subwoofers and the services of an acoustician and a construction crew—but no matter where I sit, the bass never booms noticeably and never disappears. I have not achieved such consistent performance from a single subwoofer cabinet.
Yes, the component subwoofer concept does work. From a modestly constructed and refreshingly compact system, NHT delivers sound that compares favorably with that of any subwoofer I have heard.

DESCRIPTION
Powered subwoofer system. Adds extra bass to systems using small speakers.

COMPONENTS
Two 12-inch aluminum-cone woofers in separate cabinets, active crossover and 250-watt amplifier.

CONNECTIONS
X1: Stereo analog line-level RCA and
balanced XLR inputs and outputs, stereo line-level RCA and XLR subwoofer outputs, RCA and XLR inputs for LFE, RCA output for LFE, external trigger input on block connector.
A1: Analog line-level RCA and balanced XLR inputs, five-way binding posts for speaker output, external trigger input.
W1: Five-way binding posts for speaker cable.

DIMENSIONS
X1: 2.1 x 17 x 11 inches (hwd).
A1: 2.1 x 17 x 11 inches (hwd).
W1: 14 x 14 x 14 inches (hwd).

PRICE/CONTACT
PRICE: $1,400
CONTACT: 800.648.9993
www.nhthifi.com