Speaker Fight – Anarchies vs. Nova Hits

For the first time since I’ve been into designing and building speakers I have two pairs of passive systems that can be setup and compared directly to each other in my basement man cave.  So while I have them available, that’s exactly what I’ve done!

The contenders

Nova Hits

These inexpensive 2 ways were built without a specific application in mind other than making a good stand mount system to hand down to my adult stepson. It’s fitting that the cabinets that traveled with me as I became an adult now be transformed into his first set of real speakers.

These are a good and compact stand mount 2 way speaker.

• 50W RMS continuous power handling, ~100W amp is good
• 8 ohm nominal impedance
• 45-20kHz response +-3dB
• A bit less than 85dB sensitivity
• $158.68 component cost total as of August 2025, drivers and crossovers

Head to the Nova Hits post to get all the details on the build.

Anarchies

These compact stand mount 3 ways were built to provide extended range and greater midrange clarity than your typical 2 way build.  They were also built with consideration of how they’ll interact with the room by targeting wide dispersion and smooth off axis response.

These are much higher end than they’re component prices would imply.

• 60W RMS continuous power handling, ~100W amp is good
• 6 ohm nominal impedance
• 35-20kHz response +-3dB
• A bit less than 85dB sensitivity
• Approximately $400 in component cost total.  $238.32 in drivers as of August 2025, crossover parts approximated.

Head to the Anarchies page to find links to all the details on the build.

Subjective thoughts

Switching speaker cables between the 2 systems I did some basic listening comparisons.  I don’t have a quick A/B switch, so the comparison has a little time gap that allows my brain to absorb some of the differences without noticing.  Immediately, the similarities pop up.  These have about the same sensitivity, so the perceived loudness is the same without reaching for the volume knob.  The tonal balance is also the same with no frequencies popping up as extra bold or lacking.  Minor differences include slightly more mid bass punch from the Nova’s and extra buttery smoothness in the upper mid and high frequencies from the Anarchies.  Of course, as soon as any songs request some content in the 30Hz range, the Anarchies immediately let you know they can do that while the Nova’s just mock the content with silence (or some port noise if it’s not hidden by other frequencies).

I’ve been listening to them both periodically, and if I’m not paying attention it’s actually very easy to forget which system is connected.  Multiple times I’ve had to trace the speaker cables with my eyes to remind myself which one I’m listening to.  That speaks highly to the design tools used to create these speakers.  Funny enough, when you use the same measurement techniques and software tools to get to the same flat response target, you end up with speakers that sound about the same!  Honestly, I’ve noticed this at the DIY audio gatherings I’ve attended as well.  We’re all targeting flat responses generally, so they all sound appropriately the same with the most obvious differences appearing only with certain song passages or at the extreme ends of the spectrum with deep bass or crispy highs.

Sine Wave Abuse

One of my favorite things to do with speaker systems is fire up a nice clean sine wave source and sweep the low frequencies simply listening for how the speakers handle it.  I don’t use a mic or any other measurements for this, just my ears and brain listening for distortion and swings in perceived volume.  I’ve found that doing this will highlight the very narrow peaks and nulls we all have in our listening rooms due to unavoidable room acoustics. It will also locate rattles or construction issues with your cabinets, and various loose things around the room that you may not notice under normal listening conditions.

The Anarchies do very, very well with low frequencies.  The 2” precision ports are super clean, no whistling or chuffing even when pushing the power uncomfortably high.  The output down to 30Hz is simply clean and sounds awesome.  They don’t compress your head like large cone speakers or a true subwoofer as these are a pair of 7” woofers and the laws of physics will not be denied.

The Nova Hits are very strong as the frequency drops down to 50Hz, below that a noticeable whistling starts happening from the ports.  Even though these share a 2” port diameter with the Anarchies the flare is minimal on the outside and there is no flare on the inside. Additionally, the port is curved albeit slowly and there is a ridge where the PVC elbow joins with the straight portion installed in the MDF baffle.  That makes the port less efficient than the straight and large flare setup in the Anarchies and you can hear the difference as the sweep drops into the 40’s and below.  Ultimately with normal music content this deficiency isn’t noticeable, which is another reason why I love the abuse of loud singular frequency testing.

Objective Measurement Comparison

What kind of engineer would I be if I didn’t do measurements with my reference microphone and the easily available tools for acoustic measurements?  I’ll tell you… a bad one!  For comparison, I used this measurement setup to run a quick comparison.

• REW running on a Surface Pro 8
• Focusrite Scarlett Solo interface
• Yamaha RX-A550 AVENTAGE receiver, stereo mode with all processing bypassed
• Dayton EMM6 microphone with calibration file loaded
• Mic positioned at listening spot in my basement room
• About 80dB SPL at the listening spot using the REW speaker cal limited pink noise output at -12dBFS

Once everything is plugged in, it only takes a minute to run the sweep and save the measurement for analysis.

Frequency Response

The All SPL output in REW does a quick comparison between the 2 systems.  These are ungated measurements with 1/6 octave smoothing applied, and no adjustments to any levels were made.  The red trace being the Anarchies and the Nova Hits in green.

Right off the bat, you can see how closely these 2 systems match each other.  Below a few hundred Hz the room takes over and the peaks and dips follow each other.  In the mid and high frequencies though, the speakers should show their differences but these systems end up tracking each other within 2dB almost everywhere.  Notable differences include:

• The low frequency advantage of the Anarchies shows up with content below 40Hz, +7dB at 35Hz
• The Anarchies also have more energy in the 1.2 to 2.5kHz range, peaking at a 7dB boost at 1.8kHz where the Nova’s are down a bit at the same point

The bass extension difference is obvious and only appears when you play a track that uses it.  That content is actually not super common, so only a few of my typical tracks highlight this difference and only because I know that bass is supposed to be there.  The midrange differences on the other hand don’t really tickle the brain much.  Even with less than a minute to get up and switch the cabling between systems, the brain will adjust the perception and the difference is normalized.

Distortion

Using the same sweep measurement, REW is capable of displaying a distortion measurement.  In my opinion or understanding, this specification doesn’t affect the immediate perception of how the speaker sounds but has a great affect on how pleasing the speaker is to listen too.  This is especially noticeable in the midrange where our hearing is the most sensitive.  Higher distortion can lead to a speaker being fatiguing to listen to for long periods or perhaps exhibit a harshness that is hard to describe but can be annoying.  The measurement involves detection of harmonic content relative to the fundamental frequency of the sweep.  I’m running a 48kHz sample rate for my measurements, which has a 24kHz upper frequency measurement limit making distortion detection a bit limited.  For example, a second harmonic is then limited to only 12kHz, a third harmonic only 8kHz etc.  That does limit the usefulness of the distortion measurement in the upper frequencies.

The Anarchies show a low and smooth distortion across the whole spectrum.  Even though these are not particularly expensive or high end drivers, the measurement indicates that all drivers are operating well within their capabilities.

The Nova Hits do show an elevation in distortion as the tweeter takes over just above 2kHz.  There are a couple contributing factors there.  First, the tweeters being the basic low budget DC28 offering from Dayton audio at only $25 a piece as of August 2025.  These are not by any stretch high end tweeters, so a little higher distortion could be expected and to top that the drivers used in those were purchased more than 20 years ago and have had a lot of use / abuse since then.  However, the ND20FB-4 utilized in the Anarchies are only $13 a piece so if price is any indication those should have been lower quality.  This may be a measurement limitation as the ND tweeter only kicks in above 5kHz where I’m running out of the ability to detect distortion using my current measurement setup.  The 2kHz area in the Anarchies is handled well by that RS100-8 midrange, which is a known good value at $37 a piece.  Those little drivers are still cheap but well reputed in the DIY groups for great performance per dollar.  Regardless, the elevated distortion in the Nova Hits above 2kHz is real and can be perceived with a little extra harshness and listening fatigue when you put some really midrange heavy content and pay close attention.

Conclusions

As you would expect, the more expensive and complex Anarchies beat out the Nova Hits in the end with the extended bass output and lower distortion.  That’s not a surprise at all, but how close the competition is and how similar the Nova Hits sound is surprising.

The voicing and character of the two speaker systems is amazingly similar and in most music where there is no significant deep bass below the mid-40Hz range one would be hard pressed to hear immediate differences between the two sets.  The distortion difference will only creep in when listening at higher volumes for extended periods of time. This analysis is limited to these 2 speaker systems designed with similar goals and tools. I don’t have any mid to high end commercial speakers to plug in and do a comparison right now. My Dynaudio BM15 studio monitors are a 4 ohm nominal set, making it a little risky to measure using that Yamaha AVR that isn’t specified to run a 4 ohm load.  It would probably survive a couple of sweeps, but I don’t think it’s worth risking damage.  Additionally, those BM15’s are meant for near field studio monitoring so they may have some design disadvantages in a larger room scenario. So take this analysis for what it’s worth, some good thought exercise for the audio nerds in the world and nothing more!