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Thread: Whatever happened to NXT Loudspeakers

  1. #41
    Join Date: May 2008

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    Quote Originally Posted by Macca View Post
    Ten or so years ago they were supposed to be the next big thing. Electrostatic levels of clarity without the cost or the deadly voltage. After hearing QUAD ESL 57s I had a crazy idea about putting together a system using NXT satelites and twin subs but searching for NXT reveals nothing except some out of date ads for a Mission home cinema system.

    Way back when I recall HFW reviewing a TDK system with a small sub and two little NXT panels and heaping great praise on it. I also recall Mission doing a big panel speaker with a conventional bass driver. Well they never show up used so either they never sold any or they are so good everyone keeps them forever.

    Seems strange to me that this promising 'speaker technology sems to have died a death. Anyone got any insights into this?
    The technology did in fact appear, albeit briefly, in the audio world in the form of 12 pairs of speakers, each being roughly 6' tall x 2' wide. They used NXT 'exciters' Relevant links include:

    https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=po...w=1090&bih=628

    http://www.hifianswers.com/2017/03/a...g-bass-weight/

    http://www.hifianswers.com/2016/07/a...gn-the-agency/

    It is thought that of the 12 original big pairs (Model #1) 11 remain with their original owners and presumably without evidence to the contrary, still making them happy. Re the smaller units (Model #0.5) we can find no reliable information.

    Some reports suggest that the original designer was Mr. Paul Burton, formerly of Sumo Aria speakers, Sequence Speakers and subsequently of an ill-fated project you can read about at https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=po...w=1090&bih=628

    Mr. Shelly (possibly incorrect spelling of first name?) Katz (the man in the images) did, it seems, claim to be the designer and that Burton disputed this claiming that Katz's involvement was 'a damn nuisance' or something like that. Also we heard that 'he made the things look nice but in so doing emasculated the sound' but we cannot substantiate this.

    The two men stopped working together. Possibly that's why we see nothing these days re the Podium Loudspeaker project.

    For our interest, we have made thorough (or so we like to believe) searches for the enigmatic Mr. Burton - all without success. A pity because he was, as we perceived it, something akin to a design genius, a gentle decent bloke and an interesting subject for an interview.

    From what we can glean (possibly a little uncharitably, it seems) Katz 'tinkles the ivories - a bit and waves a thin stick about'. He might be found via http://www.queensu.ca/bisc/castle-li...ians-residence

    Also FYI https://alumni.surrey.ac.uk/page.aspx?pid=1504

    Reports that he played keyboards for The Stray Katz turned out to be confusion re The Stray Cats. However we did hear that he was, for a while involved the band Sky along with drummer Tristan Fry.

    Finally .... we discover that yes, possibly NXT technology has been / is being resurrected @ https://www.symphonova.com/ Looks to me like a clever idea.

    That's it; nothing more to report.

    Neil
    Last edited by Neil McCauley; 28-04-2017 at 10:04.
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  2. #42
    Join Date: Aug 2009

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    Thanks Neil, not heard of Podium before. Not surprising I suppose if only 12 pairs were sold.
    Current Lash Up:

    TEAC VRDS 701T > Sony TAE1000ESD > Krell KSA50S > JM Labs Focal Electra 926.

  3. #43
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    Quote Originally Posted by Macca View Post
    Thanks Neil, not heard of Podium before. Not surprising I suppose if only 12 pairs were sold.
    I do not know the ins and outs of the situation. But from what I can gather, in summary it’s yet another classic example of a British audiophile start-up that inevitably (well almost) snatches failure from the jaws of victory.

    Conflating the opinions received recently it appears to be a combination of good innovation, reasonable design expertise, managerial incompetence, rash optimism, an ego-driven musician who fancied himself as a designer (Musical Fidelity pulled than one off, but no others spring to mind) endless tinkering with a prototype that was great to start with (said one person to us this morning) and the typical and naive belief that marketing, advertising and promotion are just too ‘down-market’ for the likes of us audiophiles.

    If true then Podium Loudspeakers weren’t the first and they sure won’t be the last to fall into all those traps, and many more that confront the unwary, the inexperienced and the arrogant.

    Finally, and this is unsubstantiated but apparently plausible - we are told that the first hand-built Paul Burton prototype, covered in black and built on an aluminum frame (production ones being built of a hardwood) was snapped up by a serious audiophile oligarch for “big bucks” and he won’t be parted from them at any cost. Nice – if true.

    Neil
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  4. #44
    RothwellAudio Guest

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    Neil Mc, Neil Mc
    So good they post him twice
    ??????


    BTW, I'm so thick I got 80% of the way through the second one before I realised

  5. #45
    Join Date: May 2008

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    Damn! Sorry about that.

    Must be age-related at my end.

    Neil
    Well, hello.

  6. #46
    Join Date: Aug 2009

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    I've removed the duplicate post.

    I have an issue of Hi-fi World with a review of Mission's effort, which IIRC is largely positive. My thinking has always been that there must have been some underlying issue with it or it would have caught on in at least a small way. I suppose the need to marry a conventional bass driver with the NXT panel to get wide band performance could be the problem.
    Current Lash Up:

    TEAC VRDS 701T > Sony TAE1000ESD > Krell KSA50S > JM Labs Focal Electra 926.

  7. #47
    Join Date: Jun 2015

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    Were the podium speakers NXT panels or a copy? Not sure how many of my Arcaydis speakers were made, probably around the same number as the Podiums, the seller mentioned 18 made at £3800 a pair but that came from the people who bought the name, not the maker himself.

    Sent from my NEM-L51 using Tapatalk

  8. #48
    Join Date: May 2008

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    Quote Originally Posted by Lawrence001 View Post
    Were the podium speakers NXT panels or a copy? Not sure how many of my Arcaydis speakers were made, probably around the same number as the Podiums, the seller mentioned 18 made at £3800 a pair but that came from the people who bought the name, not the maker himself.

    Sent from my NEM-L51 using Tapatalk
    Neither.

    Podium used a proprietary ultra low-mass honeycomb-core panel, a bit like a resin version of Aerolam (as used in the original Pink Triangle chassis) so i am told with up to nine NXT drivers ('Exciters'. apparently) in a vertical line down the centrer line. There was no crossover. Never heard of Arcaydis; sorry and so cannot comment. Oddly though, it seems that the Podium Model #1 retailed around £3.8k.
    Well, hello.

  9. #49
    Join Date: Dec 2011

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    I heard the Podiums briefly at one of the Heathrow shows and was impressed. I got a bit more involved when, I did a lot of the publicity photography for them, at that point Viv and I had The Old Ammunition Factory( a photo studio we built in the cordite store of an old hand grenade factory in Hounslow. It wasn't posh, but it was cheap and man, was it secure). Howard Popeck and Shelly Katz brought them over for the shoot and as I had a TEAC 300 system in the studio, we disconnected the little Tannoy D100s I used there at the time and hooked up the Podiums. They were quite amazing, despite being flat panel open baffles, in the fairly large, (550 sq. foot, with an 18 foot high ceiling) room, they had plenty of bass depth. They must have been extremely phase coherent as the imaging was, to put it mildly, amazing. If you stood between the speakers and even a foot or so behind them, you could still perceive a stereo image IN FRONT OF YOU!!! The overall balance of the things was pretty good too.

    I think Shelly's ideas on marketing were, in my opinion a bit of the wall and doomed to fail. He was talking about send prospective customers brochures that IIRC, would have cost almost £10.00 pounds each, a ridiculous amount, thousand could have been given away at shows etc., without a single sale. Sad as they were a great product.

  10. #50
    Join Date: May 2008

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    Quote Originally Posted by PaulStewart View Post
    I heard the Podiums briefly at one of the Heathrow shows and was impressed. I got a bit more involved when, I did a lot of the publicity photography for them, at that point Viv and I had The Old Ammunition Factory( a photo studio we built in the cordite store of an old hand grenade factory in Hounslow. It wasn't posh, but it was cheap and man, was it secure). Howard Popeck and Shelly Katz brought them over for the shoot and as I had a TEAC 300 system in the studio, we disconnected the little Tannoy D100s I used there at the time and hooked up the Podiums. They were quite amazing, despite being flat panel open baffles, in the fairly large, (550 sq. foot, with an 18 foot high ceiling) room, they had plenty of bass depth. They must have been extremely phase coherent as the imaging was, to put it mildly, amazing. If you stood between the speakers and even a foot or so behind them, you could still perceive a stereo image IN FRONT OF YOU!!! The overall balance of the things was pretty good too.

    I think Shelly's ideas on marketing were, in my opinion a bit of the wall and doomed to fail. He was talking about send prospective customers brochures that IIRC, would have cost almost £10.00 pounds each, a ridiculous amount, thousand could have been given away at shows etc., without a single sale. Sad as they were a great product.
    Hello Paul. I directed Howard to this post. He says 'Hi Paul' and agrees with everything you say re Podium and Mr Katz - and 'thanks' He tells me that his perception, with the benefit of hindsight was that when it started, the speakers totally trumped Katz's ego and as things progressed, the balance switched about face with ego predominating. He has very fond memories of the sound though, especially the black prototype pair.

    He still remembers that image on your wall of the close-up of the hand and strings of the double bass player!
    Well, hello.

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