Over on CE PRO - a fellow member is getting bashed because they had harsh criticism of the sound of Noble Fidelity speakers. Have any of you personally heard them or use them and do you think they are worthy of the "ceiling speaker of the year" award they received?

I do not want to hear from anyone associated with the sales or marketing partners of Noble - only integrators

Has anyone a/b'd them with Revel or Monitor B&W upper end Sonance or Speakercrafts in the same price range?

I've been told by people defending Nobel speakers over at the CEPro blog ...I'm a bitter Troll, have "painted on ears" and have no business being in the business, my ears are dead (even though I started out designing speakers in 1972), and have sold the likes of: Apogee, Infinity IRS, Quad Eelectrostats, Magnepan, Vandersteen, Spendor, Harbeth, B&W, Wisdom, Monitor, Focal, Rogers, Thiel to name a few.

I shouldn't have been so harsh in my initial acessement, but it was not only myself. I heard them with a group of coworkers who had similar reactions.

I'm putting on my Kevlar vest.

C'mon Stan, you even admitted that the line 'worst sounding speakers ever' was a bit of an oversimplification and overstatement. That line is what caused the fangs to come out. :)

Jerry Del Colliano, and whoever Damon might be, went way overboard with their attacks on you.

I respect that you retracted the 'worst' line, and offered to give them another listen.

Greg Ford offered to arrange another demo where you can have more time with them, so I hope this works itself out. Whether or not they are a fit among the numerous great lines your employer carries is another discussion. I think that as you spend some time with them, you will come to the same conclusions as I have: These speakers are quite good, which is a notable accomplishment considering that they are competing in a crowded category against a staggering number of (mostly) garbage products.

Yo, Rick. I admit I was too harsh and direct in how I worded my reaction to the speakers, but to be called a "bitter little troll" by the publisher of Home Theater Review or whatever the hell the rag is that guy Jerry, published was a little surprising and not totally called for. THAT was what set me off... THAT, and I wasnt the only guy with the same opinion. Now all these guys who are probably getting free speakers to review, are piling on.

I respect you Rick, and I'm sure Greg is a great guy and all. I'll look forward to hearing them in an actual real-life install.

Thanks.

You will probably like Greg too. He's odd. Like us. :)

Someone on the comments section mentioned that the line is not very deep, meaning that he does not have a Sonance-like array of 4", 5", 6", rounds in all sizes, squares in all sizes, 2-way rectangles in all sizes, dual-mono in all sizes, MTM LCRs in all sizes, etc....

That *IS* a valid criticism of the line, and one of few valid criticisms IMO.

Greg once told me WHY this is the case.
He flat out refuses to release a dozen different application models unless they can be voiced to offer dead on performance compared to the reference models, and that includes off-axis performance so that they still sound similar once the room acoustics are factored in.

Who else cares THAT much about the 'family sound' in an architectural speaker line? There are some others, but we know that you can count those people on one hand.

He said something about wide variances in comb-filtering aberrations in the other sizes of MTMs that were designed and mocked up, and just not being up to his standards.

Bruce, as a fellow designer of speakers who has been neck deep in actual product development scenarios like this, I know you can appreciate stories like these.

Actually Rick, I think that makes sense to not have 100+ SKU's. There are some speaker lines that just off WAAAAY too many models, making it hard for the retailer and confusing for the end user / shopper.

The more I read about Noble the more intrigued I am and probably might have jumped the gun. I'm pretty good at that though...

That was me that mentioned the lack of solutions.

I doubt this brand cares more about their line than Totem or Wisdom. Like most they find stuff at each price point.

I just don't think they will achieve their goal with 4 products. Just doesn't work. Ask all the others that made 30+ skus

Does anybody out there carry these speakers? Seems like all of the favorable comments were from people in the industry and no end - users?

I think one or two of the guys here use them. I remember looking into them in the past. I think the users were for
Canada.

When that fellow, Jerry-was bashing me (Editor of Home Theater Review), he mentioned he once purchsed some speakers from the White Van guys!

If he has such refined tastes, how the heck did that happen?

If you were selling Thiel when the SMC1 was a current model, care to PM me with some feedback on them? Also, the smaller sub is on its way to a client and any info about proper setup would be appreciated.

His comments in the thread are totally uncalled for, and he shows a grand level of stupid with that admission....


Doesn't sound like he thought about what he wrote before he hit the submit button..



As an aside, I heard a demo of some B&W Nautilus speakers some years back, and they too, sounded perfectly awful. This was in a very controlled booth at CES as well.

It can happen.

I've A/B'd their 'entry' level 8" (750 or 900 retail can't recall); VERY good sound, and a pleasure to listen to loud or quiet.

I would say they are definitely not voiced accurately (not a Flat response curve)...but flat doesn't usually sound good; and in turn IS why they sound as good as they do.

They are better then the entry level VP62 Sonance's but not really a direct comparison (6" 2 way with a 400/pr retail). In comparing to the VP82's, the Sonance's I feel definitely do better from a movie/impact (and voice) perspective, but the Noble's I think blow them away if an enjoyable music listening session is the goal.

Haven't done an AB between them and others; but would recommend checking them out if the price point fits well in your business model (it doesn't for us, too high end).

Bruce (and everyone),
Please note the new requirement for posting opinions on speakers.

You must include the detailed results of a recent auditory scan from an accredited ENT practitioner or University research facility.

Your hearing must be shown to be above average in all categories, and not degraded more than 5% from any previous scans in any categories.

Thank you,
The Internet.

Ha ha ha Yep.

Well, as we all know evaluating speakers is a very personal and subjective thing. I cannot rely on specs or measurements, as I've sold many speakers that "measure" well, but that is not the full deal. Different speakers are voiced differently, and while not measurable - there are tonalities that cannot be "measured" colorations, sound staging issues etc.

It's like choosing a GF or a Wine or Cigar. What may be music to one's ears can sound like A$$ to the next guy's ears.

My apologies for starting up a sh*tstorm over at CE Pro yesterday, but in retrospect I hope that what occured will inspire more of us to investigate the line and see (and hear for ourselves). Please don't let my two bits worth sway you in any way, and hopefully Noble can do a good job of market placement and sales in a very crowded market.

Being in speaker sales, it never ceasess to amamze me how people have different likes or dislikes about speakers being presented to them...

ALl in all, it's all good, and I would suggest you check out these speakers for yourselves!