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Older news - February 2001

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This is a copy of a letter I sent to the United States Congress regarding Napster:

Dear Sir:

I have a CD collection of over 2,000 CDs. I also have 1,200 laser disks and 800 DVDs. In storage, I also have 1,200 LPs. At the same time, I am also a major supporter of Napster.

I now work in Thailand. My home is in Virginia. Napster allows me to listen to music before I buy. It also allows me to fill in my collections with music that is no longer available on CD.

As an avid audiophile, I would not build a personal music collection in MP3. However, it is a very good format for me to listen to music before I buy.

The record companies have pushed the prices of music up in a way that would not be tolerated in most industries. While CDs are less expensive to produce than LPs, the price for a CD is twice what an LP used to go for.

To enjoy a single song, people are forced into buying albums that often contain mostly trash. MP3 technology allows consumers to do what we all did when we were young--play only the music we want in the order we want it.

I remember when I was young and I had a 45 RPM record player. I would stack up music in whatever combination I wanted. CDs took this away from us. Music companies abandoned the single and created no technology to play one single after another.

Technology has now given this capability back to consumers and the record companies want to kill the technology.

Anyone can go to their library and check out a record, cd or video tape. There is no law against this. We now have the ability to access text on the Internet. Some companies have adapted. Britanica now puts their encyclopedias online for free. They have created a business model that embraces new technology.

The music companies want to roll back the clock. They don't want people to be able to try out CDs before they buy. They don't want people to regain the power to listen only to the songs they want. They want people to pay the inflated prices they charge for CDs. They want people to accept all the filler songs with the hits. They want people to buy music before it has been heard.

I believe that Napster is good for the music industry. It will force them to develop better products such as SACD or DVD-A that offer better audio than current CDs. It will force them to produce products of higher quality.

We all remember how the same industry sued Sony because they felt that this technology led to copying of their intellectual property. Now most of their revenue comes from this technology.

There are several technologies that allow us to copy movies and CDs. The industry has had to live with this for a very long time. They now need to learn how to live with Napster.

Why punish a company that has developed a very valuable technology? Tell the music industry to deal with it.

Michael C. Barnes

Ceramics

I am sure you have noticed there are lots of pictures of ceramic loudspeakers this month. We now have 20 molds and we can make hundreds of ceramics loudspeakers per month. The reason why we have held off shipping the ceramics is that we want the ceramic 4.0s to be very special.

The sound is everything we could have wanted. The Ceramic 4.0s play very loud. They play loud enough to fill a large room. They do not sound strained. They image very well. They don't have deep bass but the bass they do have is natural sounding. You can easily add bass with a subwoofer--don't expect to improve things with a really cheap subwoofer. One of the least expensive ways to get a subwoofer is to find some old loudspeakers and an old amplifier. Run the amp with your AC3/DTS decoder and hook up the old speakers. The AC3/DTS will provide an active crossover at 80 Hz. You could drag out some old speakers, drape a nice looking cloth over it. Set up your nOrh 4.0s on top.

Ceramic 4.0 Dark-Blue (Enlarge)

Wives

I want to thank all the wives and girlfriends out there. It isn't that many women buy our loudspeakers. Most of our customers are men. However, they usually have a hard time talking their wives into allowing them to bring stray loudspeakers home.

So many people have bought our loudspeakers saying that every other speaker could not get spousal approval. They tell me that their wives liked the way our loudspeakers looked and they got permission to buy them.

We highly encourage you to show your wives the pictures of our loudspeakers.

nOrh 3.0

We will start shipping the nOrh 3.0 soon. The first units will be made from the wood drum. We have asked customers what they think. They tell us they really sound good. I believe that the 3.0s will sound better than almost every other small single driver loudspeaker. The nOrh 3.0 will sell for $150.00 per pair. It will have a -3dB point of 75 Hz and has a response beyond 20,000 Hz. Most single driver speakers go from 150 hz to about 12,000 Hz. I can think of one pair that goes for $700 per pair that has response like this.

We suggest that the 3.0 would work great as a replacement for speakers that come with mini systems, or an upgrade for the left and right speakers that come with these subwoofer/five satellite speaker combinations.

I use a pair of threes with my computer. I use the Cambridge Soundworks four channel multimedia system that goes for about $100.00. I don't use the little speakers that come with it for the left and right. I replaced these with the 3.0s. I use it to listen to TV when I use my ATI All-in-Wonder card or when I play MP3s.

Multiamps

We are shipping Multiamps. We still have them in stock. We are running out faster than I expected. The Multiamp continues to get praise from our customers.

CD 1

The CD 1 sold out of its first production but more units but we ordered early so there should be no break in shipping. We are getting nothing but praise for this unit. Most people are writing that they didn't know a CDs could sound this good.

ACA -- Preamp

We got the first few units out and the rest are going out this month. I believe that the three best products we make are the CD-1, nOrh 9.0 and the preamp. I don't believe these products have peers--even among the most expensive products available.

Prism

The 5.2s have been going out and once again, we are getting nothing but praise back. Most people are surprised how good the fit and finish is. Once again, these speakers meet with very high spousal approval--particularly because they are small.

The 6.9s are done and will ship this month. Christmas, the Thai elections and Chinese New Year slowed us down but for now, we should have clear sailing and produce plenty of units. The 6.6, 4.1 and 6.1s will also ship this month. We will post reviews on the review page.

Marble

We have added on two more marble factories. I am told we will have 30 pairs of nOrh 9.0s very soon. This should fill every backorder. Demand for the 9.0 is very high. The only comments we get on the 9.0 is that it is the best sounding loudspeaker they have ever heard. We get the same comment from people with 7.0 who haven't heard the 9.0s.

Wood

We are still shipping wood 4.0s and 5.1s. For now, there is not shortage of these. We are adding nOrh 3.0s to this mix and the first nOrh 3.0s will go out this month.

Future

We have many new products planned. We are only two and a half years old but we have produced more new products than almost any high-end audio company that I can think of. We will continue to produce new and interesting products.

We will have a larger ceramic loudspeaker next month. It will be a ceramic version of the 6.1. This loudspeaker will be more efficient than the 5.1 and have an overall smoother sound. It will have a sensitivity of 90. The sound will be very smooth and dynamic. It will use a 6 1/2 inch version of the woofer we use in the 4.0 and 5.1. The price for this loudspeaker will be $700.00. The -3dB point for the 6.1 ceramic will be 48 hz. It will use a 1 inch dome tweeter with a horn shaped face plate to make the system very smooth and efficient.

The 6.9 drum will also be available. We hope that this month we will have completed our synthetic marble project. Our plan is to have a 6.9 mounted in a synthetic marble drum. The -3dB will be 38 Hz.

The product that most customers ask us to build is an integrated amplifier. While we don't have a definite plan, I would believe our next project will be an integrated amplifier. The next thing people have asked us for is a DAC that will work with their DVD player. They would like to see the same DAC as is in our CD player. Once again, this is something that we are considering.

I have ideas for more loudspeakers. However, I am quite content with the models we currently have and I don't see us changing anything for the rest of the year. We will look for holes in the product line and do our best to create innovative products to fill those holes.

Web site

We are getting 340,000 hits a month. Some people on drop by once a month. I would urge you to check us out more frequently. We are trying to create a place with lots of information on audio and video. Sometimes, I will add pages during the middle of the month and then change the whole page at the end of the month. From now on, we will keep recent newsletters online.

Audio

I get lots of questions. If I think the answers are useful, I will try to put them on this page. One of the questions I get a lot is what DVD player to buy. Many customers are confused by DVDA and SACD.

DVD technology is evolving. While things are changing, it is the most exciting home electronic technology ever. DVDs offer the most cost effective way to acquire a personal movie library. I collected over 1,200 laser disks before DVDs came out. I am now rebuying much of my collection on DVD.

My first DVD player was a Sony 7000. This unit was about $1,000 and received very good reviews. I used this unit for a couple of years. I tried to use it as my audio unit and my DVD player. I replaced this unit with a very cheap Taiwanese unit. My Sony started getting confused by some of the newer disks because the protection on the disks had evolved. I found my new cheap player would play more disks and the picture looked just as good as the much more expensive Sony. The new cheap unit had more features and it played MP3s. How did it sound? It sounded like a cheap CD player. When I play movies, this doesn't matter. DVDs are recorded with 24 bits so these sounded fine on the DVD player. I used our CD 1 to play music instead.

Therefore, for someone just getting started in video or needing to replace their DVD player, I would suggest look for one of the Asian built units that include MP3. Most of these use the same chips. The one I have uses the C-Cube ZiVA4 chip. This is a great chip. The picture looks great and there are lots of special features. I really like the MP3 feature. I can burn a disk with 10 hours of music and let it play all day long. I play my CDs on the CD 1.

Some of these cheap units also have the AC3 decoding built in. You might be surprised that many of the decoders use the same chips that are in the cd player to do the decoding. These chips include C-Cube, Zoran, STB and a few others. For many applications, you won't need an external processor unless you still have a collection of video tapes or laser disks.

DVDs are changing. There are technologies that will make the DVD the center for all media coming to the home. This includes web browsing. You will soon see DVD players that feed streaming audio and video around the house. They will allow for web browsing through your TV. Some units will include games. You should buy an inexpensive CD now knowing that the technology is evolving.

As for DVDA and SACD, I think I will stay on the sidelines. I will wait an see which format wins. Personally, I believe that both DVDA and SACD is more a reaction to MP3 than a answer for a better sounding format. Both DVDA and SACD add lots of protection so that the disks can not be copied.

Another question I get regards discrete components versus integrated circuits for amplifiers. I believe that both are required. Today, it is possible to build a better preamp using op amps. Op amps have been used for years in preamps. The op amps today are far better than what was available several years ago.

For power amplifiers, the answer is not as clear. Anyone who understands ICs know that with lasers, you can make every component exactly like every other component. It is therefore easy to get very consistent results with power ICs.

The drawback with ICs is that there is a limit to how much power you can generate. Today, the TDA 7294 is still the most powerful chip amplifier (not counting switching amplifiers) available on a chip. We use this chip in the Multiamp for 100 watts per channel.

If we were to build something more powerful, we would have to go to a discrete amplifier. Discrete amplifiers can be built to support just about any power you want.

The rules for building a good IC based amplifier and a good discrete amplifier are pretty much the same. You need to make sure you have an adequate and fast power supply. The main reason why some amplifiers don't sound as good as others is because the power supplies are not designed sufficiently.

Therefore, the simple answer is that it makes sense to use ICs for lower power applications and discrete components for larger projects.

I get lots of questions about subwoofers. I believe that a lot of people don't understand what subwoofers do and how to use them. When buying speakers, you should look at your total budget before deciding you need a subwoofer. If you have a budget of $2000.00, you are always better off to buy the best $2000 speakers you can and forget about a subwoofer. Good speakers that cost $2000 probably don't need a subwoofer.

Cheap subwoofer add more distortion than bass. It is better to listen to your main speakers without a subwoofer first and hold off buying a subwoofer unless you are sure you can actually improve the sound.

A good subwoofer is going to cost at least $800.00. Anything cheaper than that is not going to be very good. Even at $800, many subwoofers don't sound very good. I believe that the best advise I can give for people looking to buy speakers is to not factor a subwoofer into their budget until after they have listened to their main speakers for a long time and they have enough money to get a good subwoofer.

Sincerely,

Michael C. Barnes
President
nOrh Loudspeaker Company, Ltd

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