Nenuphar

This review first appeared in December 2019 on HifiKnights.com. By request of the manufacturer and permission of the author, it is hereby syndicated to reach a broader audience. All images contained in this piece are the property of Dawid Grzyb or Cube Audio – Ed.

Reviewer: Dawid  Grzyb
Transport: fidata HFAS-S10U
DAC: LampizatOr Pacific (KR Audio T-100 / Living Voice 300B + KR Audio 5U4G Ltd. Ed.)
Amplifier: Trilogy 925, Kinki Studio EX-M1
Speakers: Cube Audio Nenuphar
Speaker cables: Boenicke Audio S3, LessLoss C-MARC
Interconnects: Audiomica Laboratory Erys Excellence
Power components: Gigawatt LC-3 EVO, PC-3 SE EVO+, Gigawatt PF-2 + Gigawatt LC-2 MK2 + Forza AudioWorks Noir Concept/Audiomica Laboratory Ness Excellence/LessLoss C-MARC
Rack: Franc Audio Accesories Wood Block Rack
Music: NativeDSD
Retail prices of reviewed components in EU: €15'900/pr

Two plain boxes. Two 10" full-range transducers hand-made in Poland. Two sets of speaker terminals. 80 kilograms total. Leave €15'900 with Cube Audio and that's what stays with you. Money well spent or sheer madness? Nenuphar asks and answers the question.

Time goes by fast. It's been two years since I reviewed the company's Magus. I still remember what it did at my place and how; and which exact door of awareness it unlocked. Magus proved bluntly that a widebander rear loaded into a folded horn didn't be scary or fussy about hardware and music. It could be the opposite. It was a product purist at its core to please widebander fans and was unexpectedly accessible to those unfamiliar with such minimalist topologies. No other representative of the breed had previously scored as many mainstream points. It's why I kept up to speed with Cube Audio developments since. And the skilled local team didn't stop at Magus. They pressed on in the same unorthodox direction.

This assignment's origins date back to mid 2018. At that time Srajan's two Cube Audio reviews plus my own Magus experience turned this brand's room at our domestic Audio Video Show in 2018 into my N°1 stop. Once there, I glued myself to the hot seat to pretty much instantly grasp what had already been said about Nenuphar in these pages. Back then Grzegorz Rulka informed me that too many orders for it prevented him from making any delivery promises just then. That was perfectly fair.

Fast forward to 2019's High End Munich show where I visited Cube Audio again. Grzegorz showcased his by now famous Nenuphar and a new stand mount called Nenuphar Mini based on the same driver but two inches smaller. Aware of what to expect, I left thoroughly satisfied but visitor comments were the true highlight. It was fabulously entertaining to see widebander aficionados and genre newbies alike all search for hidden subs to be aghast over such performance from a single driver in a rather regular box. I already knew the answer. They heard a product as thoroughly engineered as it was clever.