By that time my SWSpeakers Swöxx samples were en route. I'd learnt how easily the designer sets the master/slave channel assignation in the Hypex configurator software. Our source stack lives on the right sidewall so I requested that Jacob set my right-channel sample to master. Now a maximally 2-meter long AES/EBU cable could connect it. Only a 3-meter stretch to the left channel would have to run across the throw rug. If I received a left master instead, I'd have a 5m+3m crossing. 110Ω 5V AES/EBU is good for 150 meters. Cable length is no performance issue. This was only about having proper lengths on hand and a clean install. It seems sensible to not make that two cables just because the source stack happens to sit on the wrong side of the room.
If you enter the 98 analog, you still need one digital cable for attenuation data between master to slave; plus analog input cable to each speaker. If your source sits between the speakers, those analog links replace the usual speaker cables. Regardless, that unsightly digital cable between the boxes remains. The closer to the front wall those sit, the less that's any decorator concern. It becomes one if you have them 3+ meters out in the room as we do. Now you may want a 10-meter digital cable to run along the front wall's floor board then angle it right behind the speakers so they virtually hide it from view.
Visuals matter. One can't praise wired actives for their lower box count, smaller enclosures and higher performance then forget about how they will visually set up. Wire haters have WiFi and power cords. WiFi haters have power cords and signal cables. Surely the latter warrant some routing luv? For how trade shows deal with it, at left is a photo of the €10K/pr Heavenly Soundworks Five17 exhibit from the Jason Victor Serinus T.H.E. Show 2021 coverage for Stereophile [copyrighted photo used by express permission]. The rather wide stand-up banner conceals most of this cable. At home you won't have a banner. The farther from the front wall your active speakers set up, the more cosmetically challenging that exposed cable could become. So it really does warrant some strategizing.
Now it's also fair to point out that the Nobilis Sonum 98's perhaps three biggest competitors are other Dutchies: the nCore-powered Kii 3, uCD-powered Grimm LS1 and Pascal-powered Dutch & Dutch 8C. Do your own due diligence in our archives to sort out which best conforms to your needs and expectations. Today is all about the new Noble & Noble. With a competitor's banner still fresh on our mind, it makes an excellent point which also applies to the Nobilis Sonum 98. Forget about component mismatching or never catching synergy. With the 98, these variables have been locked in. Call it peace of mind or an end to upgraditis. Short of futzing with digital sources, power cords and digital cables, there's nothing you can do to or for the Noble & Noble. The wheel stops. Old hamster is finally getting fat on verdant pastures.
Greener grass? Before I describe the 98 in action, it's fair to confess to expectation bias from my last nCore speaker assignment, the Kii 3. For all its engineering excellence and demonstrably clever cardioid dispersion, one aspect I'd not loved as much was the dry slightly over-damped global gestalt. Though it had obvious bass benefits, I found it a bit less persuasive as frequencies ascended. I hold the same bias against Purifi's next-gen nCore amp. Would it trigger once more with Rob Meijst's design decisions? Or could dryness be tuned out of nCore? In his June 2021 review, HifiPig's Stuart Smith didn't think so. So I'd pay particular attention to that, too. If you're curious to learn more about the embedded DSP power of this Dutch OEM platform, here is the complete 3.3MB PDF. That software is password protected in the Nobilis speaker so owners can't access it.
"The Noble & Noble loaners are nearly ready for shipment. What are we waiting for? We decided that a better wooden crate wouldn't hurt for shipments to and from reviewers. And yes, we will see to it that the right speaker becomes the master. In fact that's already done." Ask and ye shall receive. By then my Swöxx review had published [photo from it above]. To me that encounter proved conclusively that driver/cabinet and filter choices can make nCore's electronics behave very different from the Kii 3. That experience now replaced expectation bias with a big question mark. How had Noble & Noble tuned their again very different ingredients of drivers, cabinet, loading and DSP filter settings? Just as Sabre DACs differ sonically because of disparate power supplies, output stages and I/V stages, so nCore active speakers clearly aren't predestined for any one sound in particular. Memo received. Beliefs wised up. Slate cleaned.
Though Noble & Noble were now ready, our household was just about to move counties from Mayo to Clare. Jacob had a Dutch reviewer chomping at the nobili-bit. So my lot detoured to him to keep the journeyman pair busy. That gave me time to not just settle into the new digs but to get their two new sound rooms ship shape.
When Jacob signaled ready shipment for the second time, 'twas not only all systems go. His loaners would arrive truly well cooked. In fact they'd been in a few reviewer rooms already and were the very pair Stuart Smith had reviewed. That's a big win for any reviewer without a separate bunker where speakers may burn in at high volumes without causing any sound leakage.
"We've now added two more profiles accessible from the seat. F1 on the remote is neutral, F2 has the tweeter +1½dB, F3 attenuates the tweeter by -1½dB. The full owner's manual is here. We're still working on our own custom remote. Above is a prototype to show the form factor. It won't lay down flat but always return to an upright position by itself. Every current owner of our speakers will get one. For now any programmable remote can be adapted with standard Philips RC5 code. See below."
Once I removed four hex bolts from one of the UPS'd Ply boxes with metal-rail edge protection, I appreciated the cleverness whereby the inner cardboard box had been engineered to make for possibly the easiest speaker unpacking ever. Because this is, for the bandwidth claimed, a really stocky speaker—svelte or petite might be a marketing man's preferred verbiage—it made sense to start my auditions in the smaller upstairs room. Here the usual residents are a pair of 40Hz high-passed sound|kaos Vox 3awf 3-way monitors and a 40Hz low-passed sealed Dynaudio S18 sub. Including the electronics to drive our lot, a bit more money departed than moved in with the Dutchies. All those needed was a digital transport. If a pair of them cleans out your till like a bodega cash grab, I recommend the €400 smsl SD-9 as an SD card reader. It's what I appropriated from a bedside headfi. It does WiFi and Bluetooth for the microwave crowd but my radiation-challenged brain uses it only on SD cards. The included 3m coax cable bridged the distance between the speakers and Noble & Noble will happily make that a 10m length if you ask.
The threaded receiver between the front footers is for the 7th-side floor-coupling spike.
Weirdly the integral Soundcare isolation footers offer no leveling provisions. "Rob Meyst feels that adjustable feet always slightly subtract from audio quality" explained their Paul de Groot. Unless floors are perfectly even or we shim any offsets, our noble speakers will wobble as they did for me. I found the non-adjustable argument peculiar to put it mildly, particularly at €20K. Don't shoot the messenger.
