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More relevant is Kernel Streaming support which some digital lacks. Engaging this API or application programming interface in Foobar/JRiver & Co. is definitely audible. It tends to sound finer, less raw and altogether more civilized than standard DirectSound or even WASAPI. Kernel Streaming vis-à-vis the nuPro A-300 increases in importance because there's no accompanying driver whereby to circumvent the sonically suspect Windows mixer. Whilst the usual driver installation falls by the wayside, pure plug'n'play didn't always happen (with two Windows 7 machines only one managed) without first setting my media player accordingly (which the included manual describes properly to involve no witchcraft).

Both speakers are identical but the left still operates as master. The advantage is obvious. All adjustments are made only once, not twice. The slave is automatically sync'd. Nubert adds that this also optimizes group delay for better time coherence. In the first place digital drive is possible only with a single wire. Depending on distance between the speakers, the included 3-meter umbilical could be short but up to 5 meters won't pose any issues as per Nubert's engineering. With analog drive and if desired, one could wire up each box separately. On drivers the 25mm silk dome tweeter is new and once more a collaborative effort between Nubert and their usual supplier of many decades. The 18cm Polypropylene mid/woofer is a standard Nubert part familiar from existing models. Via the remote-adjustable menu there's ±12dB bass EQ. The mid/treble range too can be tuned but in exclusively linear fashion to avoid response aberrations. Also menu driven are subwoofer-inclusion settings; channel balance; signal-sensing on/off; preset recall; and display off. To trigger any of it merely requires aiming the wand at the left speaker. Connecting to wall AC is via 'shaver-type' cords. Those are two prong on the wall, figure 8 on the speaker. Also included in the delivery are a USB and two S/PDIF cables.


Before my ears got serious, I put about a week of constant play on the Nubert nuPro A-300. Since I didn't pay attention, I can't report on break-in or 'wake-up' changes. I'll simply intone typical boiler plate that most hifi kit benefits from a few days (some actually takes weeks) of 'casual noodling' before it comes on song fully. With Nubert's direct selling I can easily envision expectant reception that cracks into the cartons, sets up, lends a rushed ear, packs everything back up and returns it just as hastily. With a return privilege that's too easy. Why bother with any getting to know if it doesn't thrill right off?

Aside from required patience to set anything up, hifi isn't fast food despite Nubert's door-to-door delivery. Served cold isn't the ticket either. Especially winter deliveries where contents might as well pop out a refrigerator want 'thawing' to eliminate condensation. But enough foreplay. Time to roll up pant legs and step into the test waters. One of the first albums to travel from my JRiver'd laptop to the A-300 via USB was 2011's Thread of Life from Magnus Öström, Swedish ex drummer of e.s.t. "Weight of Death" packs a powerful warm bass foundation overlaid with reverberant organ and piano sounds whose timbre and arrangement could nearly stem from a multi-tracking soloist weaponized with a Korg M1. Except that this artist is so lyrical of melody and atmosphere that my penchant for excess and kitsch responds with clockwise turns on the volume. And such opulence and fill nearly shocked a bit with the Schwabian boxes. This started in the low bass.


Obviously bigger boxes like my Spendor SP100R2 develop more shove and pressurization aside from merely making low notes audible. Given that the Nuberts would fit into the British sound furniture four times over; include active electronics; and sell for a mere fraction but warrant this connection... that speaks volumes to their power. In short, these minis do true low bass! This could develop outright snarl on bass runs from fellow Swedish math-rockers Alarma Man's "Cabin in the Sky" (music which this quartet describe as "hit in yer face by a cactus and realizing you like it").

No joke, the nuPro A-300 presses so far south of the bass border that a blind audition could easily suggest a pair of floorstanders. My trusty Quadral Megan VIII work horses for example merely hint at what the A-300 still cover in full. Even when the passive Hanoverians strap to the mighty Audionet monos, they're completely outclassed by the small actives on bass authority. With all that depth plumbing my testers didn't give up on control but instead played it dynamic and rhythmically snappy.

Still digging ex Sex Pistol front man Jonny Lydon's oily lazy pipes, the repetitive bass beats on eights from PIL's "Order of Death" could be counted like pearls on a string. On Black Sun's "Neon Red Sign" from Brit dub steppers Kode 9 I not only watched the progressively descending bass sequences without fading but also without giving up on taut definition.