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Before this review published, its subject already saw itself mentioned in our pages when reader Dr. Christian Goldmann requested commentary on how the nuLine 34 might perform with a subwoofer. If you ask me, that information won't be forthcoming anytime soon since my first impression focused exclusively on its truly unexpected extension.

Based on a true story by Kiwi dub/reggae fun makers Fat Freddy's Drop gifted its track "Ernie" with an ultra-deep bass line which makes the album routine (and routinely dreaded) hifi show material. I'm very sorry but except for infrasonic fetishists with very large spaces, I can't see why anyone else would possibly want a sub with the nuLine 34. This speaker also needs an electronic bass EQ box about as badly as Lionel Messi needs a primer on soccer tricks. It mines similarly deep to KEF's R900 tower whose mettle on this point I had earlier heaped honest praise upon and as such goes decisively lower than Burmester's luxurious €3.480/pr B10. The 48Hz claimed for the Nubert are perfectly legitimate.


The same song otherwise beckons with a wonderfully delayed piano intro, fat woodwinds, synths, top-notch percussion work and somewhat sloppy vocal enunciation which probably never was the prime rationale for the album's massive popularity. I simply grabbed it as a broadband challenge for the Nubert. Given its very modest sticker and how I'm used to far pricier fare, I was deeply suspicious of just what type of compromises I'd have to put up with over the coming weeks. But there was to be no talk of putting up. The NuLine 34 acted decidedly mature and far from compromised. Au contraire. First impressions were most promising indeed. No pleasing colorations, no dramatic departures from linearity, no spiked treble, no disturbing timing anomalies. Sonically everything was in the green. To boot the enclosure was chic and flawlessly finished. What was that sticker again?

This gets us smack at why this report was handed in well after the sun had set on both the editor's and manufacturer's patience. To put it plain, the box sounded much better than price predicted. Very much so. So much so in fact that my entire concept of achievable price/performance ratio in the speaker sector was shaken to its very core. I thus needed to be extra certain lest I overlook some cleverly hidden weakness. No matter, I failed to find one. The more time I spent with the nuLine 34, the more its performance vanquished me. Relative to price, I thus have nothing—and I really do mean nada, niente, nichts—to complain about.

But I despise 'everything's peachy' reports. They bring to mind Austrian writer Robert Musil's Man without Qualities trilogy. The reader expects something more descriptive, never mind my publisher. So I won't stop here and tease out various aspects including where the box might depart from the theoretical ideal. Our 5-year old son recently discovered Hui Buh the castle ghost. As is common for kids his age, audio books that cut his mustard are listened to on endless repeat. This had me climb through "The cursed secret passage" for the 7.564th time over the nuLine 34.
 
The scary passages of this reading are accompanied by plenty of loud low bass which the small monitors replicated with such aplomb that chance visitors were in plain disbelief that they didn't have help. With some room gain I'd say I enjoyed butch output to just about 40Hz. This was all the more impressive because such expansiveness wasn't bought on the cheap with ill-defined mud. The bass in fact was noticeably cleaner than that of many wildly costlier and bigger speakers. I know this not only because of Fat Freddy'd Drop but also Terakraft's "Awa Adouina" from their CD Kel Talasheq. This cut floats on a gorgeously rollicking swinging bass line which I could follow wonderfully with the Nubert. Even hip-hop bass à la "I've got that tune" from Chinese Man's The Groove Session was digested without any congestion when pushed to higher room levels. The newly found reach of the nuLine 34 should really be a source of great price for its developers.

Equally impressive relative to enclosure size were its macrodynamic chops. As indicated earlier, for my needs the Nubert played plenty loud without peppering the audition with distracting distortion. I managed to hit limits only with the Chinese Man cut which has caused far more expensive speakers to stumble before. Should you overdo the clockwise in volume, the Nubert simply shuts down in the bass but does so even then without any obvious protest.