The company that started life as Now Hear This, but later decided to go with their acronym, has decided to cease business as they've known it, effective this coming Tuesday, March 31, 2009. I first became aware of NHT when Corey Greenburg put them on the map in the mid nineties in his Beavis and Butthead tinged review. I had a pair of towers from them, the 2.5, and loved them to death for a while. Lots of "there there" as they used to say.

But then they got into something, maybe above their heads, maybe above the heads of their fans too. Tons of money for small digitally driven speaker systems which entailed lots of out of the box thinking. Too much of a $10,000 solution looking for a $1,000 problem perhaps. Whatever. It never really took off, though the reviews were favorable. It was sort of like when Volkswagen wanted to sell an upscale SUV at BMW SUV prices (although Porsche didn't have trouble selling an upscale Volkswagen as a Porsche, but I know Porsche owners, and they're expected to be easily swayed).

Pan to the late 2008 economy and the bust to follow. Besides the gone fishing sign, there is a sale on some inventory which, if you're a customer, you'll want to see as the prices are far below what you'd have paid previously. Time to stock up. Wisely, NHT have taken themselves out of play for the time being. Here's hoping that they'll be back some day, with another set of $500/pair speakers that will blow our collective socks off. In the meantime, kudos to the remaining crew for sticking around to warranty any of their warrantable products. Good company. Bad times. Best wishes from all of us.