Nola Boxer S3 Bookshelf Loudspeakers

In 2010, I declared, "If you're looking for a pair of standmount monitor speakers and you have about $1500 to spend, buy the Nola Boxers." The quality of sound at that price made the recommendation a cinch. Many other reviewers and audiophiles reacted with the same enthusiasm, so it's not a surprise that Nola continues to offer the Boxer as the entry into their prestigious line of loudspeakers. Moreover, the entire Contender series offers a sampling of the high end at a reasonable cost. Indeed, my Nola Contender floorstander speakers have been delivering fine music for hours on end, and I'm equally as sure that there are plenty of original Boxers out there, still delighting their owners without a hitch. Given this accomplishment, you'd think that Carl Marchisotto of Nola would be content to rest on his laurels. Rather than spending all his time designing the premium speakers for which he is renowned, however, Marchisotto continues to explore materials and design to improve the Boxer model. The Boxer S3 is the latest culmination of this attempt to bring the Boxer in line with the performance of Nola's pricier offerings.

At $3500, the upgraded Boxer S3 is more than double the price of the original. The Boxer S3, as reviewed, is now in the price range of a fair number of fine monitors (and more than a few excellent floorstanders, too!) But even at its current price, the Boxer S3 is nowhere near the cost of the Nola flagships. At just a shade under $450,000, the world class Nola Grand Reference VI Gold speaker sets a standard of excellence unmatched by all but a few loudspeakers. Naturally, nobody really expects the Boxer S3 to possess even a sliver of the Reference VI's magic. Human nature being what it is, however, plenty of us secretly hope that the Boxer S3 can approximate this top flight performance on smaller, cheaper scale.

Yeah, that's not going to happen.

If you want top dog performance, cash out your hedge fund investments or play the lottery like the rest of us. A far better move is to judge the Boxer S3 on its own merits, against speakers of similar size and price. That way, instead of crying the blues about missing out on a rich man's fancy, you can appreciate the changes made by an iconic speaker designer. In this attempt, Marchisotto is determined to elevate his product over the endless desert of pedestrian mini monitors.

The Boxer S3 features solid new cabinets made in the USA, and is available in Gloss Black or Gloss American Cherry (the latter being the color my review model). The color and finish of the review sample was exceptional. This was no surprise to me, as superb fit and finish are traits for which Nola speakers are rightly famous. At 15.5 inches high, 8 inches wide, and 11.5 inches deep, the Boxer S3's are hardly massive, yet they command a stately place on stands or shelves. The recommended seating position for the listener is ear height from woofer axis up to between the woofer and tweeter axis. Sitting at tweeter axis is too high, 26" stands do the trick nicely. I had the speakers firing straight ahead, as recommended, but as I have a small listening room, I also preferred toeing them in for nearfield listening. The low mass 6 1/2 inch bass / mid driver is new to the S3, and Nola says this driver allows it to deliver deeper, cleaner bass, with better integration with the tweeter. The high resolution silk dome tweeter is also new, and reportedly offers a smoother response than previous Boxer iterations. Marchisotto points out that the Boxer S3 employs new crossover features, Mundorf OIL capacitors, and all Nordost silver wire. There is also a standard Boxer model, the Boxer 3, which is the same speaker without the upgraded crossovers or the Nordost silver wire for $2500 a pair.

When listening to the Boxer S3, I was relieved to hear many of the elements that so endeared me to the original model: a generous soundstage and equally excellent imaging, highly precise tonal accuracy, and a wonderfully realistic midrange. What's changed from the original speaker then? Well, not much, and…everything. By that, I mean that the essentially winning character of the original Boxer still remains, but the improvements made to that sound is so dramatic that you would be forgiven for arguing that it's a different speaker, entirely. It's like watching a movie when you're nearsighted, putting on your glasses, and then noticing how much you hadn't noticed before. Same movie, different experience. Who wouldn't like that? Well, I guess that depends on how well you were enjoying the movie before you found your glasses. The same reasoning holds here for the quality of recordings. The Boxer S3 exposes the listener to the best attributes of a truly high end product. As such, while it sounded very nice when paired with my inexpensive Peachtree Audio iNova integrated, it fully expanded into bloom when paired with the stellar Audio Research VSi75. Still, I was able to coax highly engaging sound from the Glow Audio Amp Two, an inexpensive, small, low watt amp reviewed here previously. Of course, I refrained from pushing the Amp Two very hard, but it does illustrate that the Boxer S3 doesn't have to be paired with the very best. The Boxer S3 is, after all, relatively easy to drive, rated at 90 dB @ 8 ohms sensitivity. Still, moving upstairs to the level of the Audio Research VSi75 certainly doesn't hurt, either…

When playing digital files using the excellent Auralic Vega G1 streaming DAC as the source, and pairing the speakers with the Audio Research VSi75, the Boxer S3 produced a stunning rendition of Edvard Grieg's composition "Two Melodies Op. 53" as performed by the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra featuring Iona Brown. It couldn't have been easier to close my eyes and allow the Boxer's imaging and tonal accuracy to treat me to this selection's splendidly complex interplay of stringed instruments. In this system, and featuring this recording, the Boxer S3 was simply in its element, presenting the scale and timbre of cellos and double basses with gravitas while simultaneously conveying the lightning strokes of violins in ascendance. Truly a breathtaking performance, and a fine illustration of the Boxer S3 at its most impressive.

Just as impressive, albeit somewhat more surprising given the S3's compact enclosure, is the forcefulness of the lower frequencies in "Madchen Mit Plan" by German electo-pop duo, 2raumwohnung. You're probably smoking an f6 cigarette in a Dresden cafe if you've ever heard of either the song or artist, but just imagine a wispy blonde female singer singing about who-knows-what in German, while a brooding, dark eyed Munich Mysterio man accompanies her with his synthesizer o' plenty. It's great fun, but the main point is that the Boxer S3 showed impressive depth when filling the room with truly solid and articulate frequencies of an unnaturally deep register. Would one need a subwoofer? I didn't, but then, I have a pretty small listening room. I'd hedge that most folks would feel that the S3's have more than enough bottom end for a small to medium sized room. For mole people needing subway rattling bass, either buy a couple of subs or look into floorstanders.

Spinning records on my Vyger Baltic M turntable and employing the Channel D Lino D MC phono preamplifier, The Boxer S3 continued to fully articulate nuances of recordings. Reflecting again on the differences between the Boxer S3 and the model I originally reviewed, it was apparent how much more information the newer version conveys. Hearing things like the overabundance of reverb applied to the orchestra in "Good Night" on Giles Martin's anatomizing remix of the Beatles' White Album makes me appreciate the Boxer S3's superior level of performance at a relatively affordable price. As an aside, listening to this remix appeals to me on a Beatlemaniac can't-have-enough, forensic level, but kudos to Bob Donnelly of Impex Records, who steered me towards the much better Beatles Blue Box. Superbly dynamic sound, and definitely the one to have for sound quality, no matter what the original Parlophone crowd believes. Smart man, Bob. Anyway, the S3's excellent midrange enables Lennon to belt out the Blue Box version of "Glass Onion" in full warmth and force.

Again, the S3 delivered all the joys and occasional terrors of a truly audiophile grade product. For example, the Boxer S3 has no trouble presenting to the listener the pseudo picado guitar licks that merrily accents the background in the chorus of "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill." Similarly, the blend of voices heard on perennial audiophile favorite "Because" from Abbey Road fully justifies the effort (and additional cost) to upgrade to this new Boxer S3. Less welcome, however, is the Boxer S3's illumination of the hash that surrounds the "No Reply" vocal refrains in the track of the same name. These vocal edits were patched in, and it's hard to appreciate the S3's accuracy in presenting this jarring vocal edit when given the full audiophile treatment. Face it, some of our favorite recordings sound better blasted from a three inch car speaker than from anything in our listening room. On those types of recordings, don't expect the Nola Boxer S3 to fall on the grenade, because you're on your own. Fortunately, these speakers have tremendous upside scalability, so partnering the Boxer S3s with superior equipment and recordings will amply reward the listener. Just be warned, you should leave your bootleg punk cassettes in the car.

In all, the Nola Boxer S3 is another exceptional offering from a heavyweight speaker designer intent on providing high quality sound at a reasonable cost. At its best, the Boxer S3 can provide moments of truly mesmerizing musical performances. At its current price, the Boxer S3 does not offer the same universal affordability as the original model, but the sonic improvements in every area that matters makes it a fine choice for those who just want more.

Specifications