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Older news - May, 2002
As we have already mentioned, our nOrh 3.0s were the hit of the Midwest Audiofest. We sold every pair we brought to the show during the first few hours of the first day of the show.
Photos on this website just can't do justice to the beauty of our handmade loudspeakers.
A poster on www.harmonicdiscord.com said:
I just wanted to comment on the Teak 3.0's. I bought a pair for my father (a retired carpenter and expert woodworker) and he was extremely impressed by the workmanship and the sound. The grain on the teak is really beautiful. They look much better in person than on the website. I don't know how you can produce speakers this nice for so little $$$.
We have had many people write us and ask it is possible to make larger Prism speakers made from real teak. We reminded customers that we have a larger Prism that is made from MDF covered with 3mm real teak. The customers who have bought teak have said they don't want veneer. They want real teak.
As you can imagine, the cost of teak is 20 times more expensive than MDF. None-the-less, we have decided that we will manufacture the Prism 5.2 out of real kiln dried teak. Real teak is one of the finest woods in the world. Teak in Thailand is so expensive that every single board is bar coded and controlled. It costs us over $100 just for enough wood to make the wood 5.2s.
While MDF is used for most better loudspeakers, it is by no means the best material. Oak, teak and most dense woods have a lower resonate frequency than MDF. Teak is also very weather resistant and will not rot like most woods.
The Prism 5.2 TEAK is hand crafted out of real teak and hand oiled. Despite the high cost of making the 5.2 Prism TEAK, we are going to introduce them at the same price of the standard Prism 5.2. The price will start at $500.00 per pair.
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Introducing
the new Prism 5.2 TEAK. Special introductory price $500.00 per pair. Video set
with Prism 3.0s available for $750.00.
We are also announcing a new video set. The Prism 5.2 video set will consist of three Prism 3.0s and 1 pair of Prism 5.2s. The price for the video set is $750.00, including shipping. For slightly over $1,000, you can now buy a receiver, DVD player and five loudspeakers.
For this price, you would probably get a cheap system with all plastic cabinets. While some of these systems might claim to offer subwoofers, most of you know that these systems only have one midbass woofer and has no deep bass.
The Prism 5.2 TEAK go down to 48 Hz -3dB and will play
quite loud. The Prism 3.0s are very easy to position on a bookshelf. The Prism
5.2 Prism 5.2 TEAK look like fine art and that is exactly what they are -- functional
art.
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We have had a busy few weeks. Last month, the new crew made their first trip to the United States to the Midwest Audio Fest. Several nOrh customers drove for up to seven hours to visit us. We also met many people who never owned nOrh loudspeakers but had seen us on the web. While we had a great deal of fun, not everything went smoothly. Our shipment did not make it for the first day of the show. We had to go out and buy an inexpensive CD player because our CD 1 didn't make yet. We borrowed a passive preamp and got a chance to play with a $10,000 300B tube amp.
By the second day, we were up and running. We shipped in about 20 pairs of nOrh 3.0 drums and 10 pairs of nOrh 3.0 prisms. We were quite surprised that we sold through all of these. We could have sold more. We also sold all of the nOrh 4.0s we brought. I had hoped that we would have the nOrh 9.0 to show. We only brought the newly introduced mini 9.0. I was quite happy that so many people thought we were using a subwoofer.
The nOrh 3.0s were a hit at the Midwest Audio Fest. We sold out of 20 pairs in one day. They really have to be heard to be believed. Available in teak and marble versions as well.
Many people coming into our room said that our room was the best sounding. While there was no award for "Best Sound of the Show" we did get the "Cool Factor" award and we also got the runner up for "Best Demonstrations". I was quite happy. This was our first show. Most of the other systems at the show cost many more times than ours.
This was also the first time for people to get a chance to see the latest version of Le Amp. While we will are going to make silver as required, the primary color for Le Amp will be black.
Le Amp remains one of the best values in audio. Le Amp has been universally praised by customers and reviewers. Le amp is powerful, fast and detailed.
The nOrh 5.1 has been called the perfect home theater loudspeaker. We recently upgraded the 5.1 using a synthetic marble cabinet to replace our wood cabinet. Read three years worth of perfect scores at the following website.
You can read about the nearly perfect scores the 4.0 received here.
After doing inventory, we found six pairs of light blue ceramic loudspeakers. We will close these out at $300.00 per pair. Quantities are limited. This is a great opportunity to buy beautiful ceramic loudspeakers and save money. Below is a photo of the light blue loudspeakers without their grill.
Closeout on light blue ceramic 4.0s. Quantity limited
The nOrh 9.0 and 7.0 kits are going very fast. We still have a few cabinets. Once these are gone, they might not be available again for quite a while. This is your best opportunity to own a high quality marble loudspeaker. We are selling the nOrh 9.0 marble kit (doesn't include drivers) for $1,200 and the nOrh 7.0 kit (not including drivers) for $1,000.00.
Sure, it doesn't have anything to do with the current quality of the product or the fact CDs cost more now than they did 10 years ago, it's because of piracy. Yeah Right.
The music industry, in its usual lack of introspection, has declared that their business is suffering primarily from a global recession and piracy. Their claim is that their business is down about 5% and that their sales are now a measly $33.7 billion USD. If the music companies think that this loss of revenue is due to piracy, how do they explain ticket sales for the top 100 concerts dropping 7 percent, to 34.4 million. If that were not enough to send a message to the executives running the music companies, how do they explain the drop of 7% in the people listening to music radio stations?
What is happening is that music companies have been trying to find formulas that will sell 8 and 10 million copies. To do this, it requires very heavy promotion. MTV and other music video stations narrow this field down to just a very few acts that get a chance to compete.
So what happens when these heavily financed and heavily acts fail? I believe that this is what is happening to the music industry. The fact is, the current method of music distribution is too costly and is a relic. Downloading music over the Internet has been surging while traditional music distribution is failing.
I am not advocating piracy. I personally don't believe that most of what is being distributed today as music entertainment is worth the bandwidth to download and would take up too much hard disk for me to store.
EMI Records recently paid Mariah Carey $28 million USD to terminate her $90 million USD contract for five albums after the poor performance of her Glitter CD. Mariah Carey is certainly talented and she is also very beautiful. However, does anyone really believe that the reason the album had disappointing sales was due to the fact that so many people pirated it?
Michael Jackson has a contract for an undisclosed amount with Sony. Michael's recent album has only sold 2 million copies worldwide. So far, no singles have been released from that CD. Michael's sister Janet has a contract with Virgin for $50 million USD but she hasn't had huge hit for some time.
REM was booked for $80 million after their Automatic for the People sold 8 million copies. Their latest CD sold 3 million copies.
I believe that music companies should use the Internet to promote their music. Allow people to download a song or two or listen for free. Most people who collect music would be happy to buy a CD if it were reasonably priced. That doesn't mean that the music companies can simply charge whatever they want.
I have over 2000 CDs, 1,200 laser disks and about 1,500 DVDs. My music buying has slowed down because it is getting harder and harder for me to find something I like.
I learn more about music from the Internet than I do anywhere else. I used to read music reviews in audiophile magazines such as Audio Review, Stereo Review and High Fidelity. Where are these magazines today?
I also get recommendations from customers. When I do, I like to check out their recommendations on the Internet. I will download a song or two to listen and if I like the sound, I will buy the CD.
How is the music industry responding to all of this? They are adding anti piracy technology to their CDs that will render these CDs unplayable on some personal computers, some car stereos and some portable music listening devices. There has already been some consumer backlash as many college students use personal computers for most of their music listening.
Undaunted, Jorgen Larsen, chief executive and chairman of Universal Music International, told reporters the company will release more copy-proof compact discs as it did late last year with the "Fast & Furious" movie soundtrack. "Because of the incredibly low number of consumer complaints we've received, I would say that on most major pop releases we would put in place copy protection," Larsen said.
I believe this attitude will backfire. When people find out that commercial CDs won't play on their equipment, they will be more inclined to download music and use this downloaded music rather than purchase titles.
It is ironic that the music industry is only trying protect the richest musicians and doing so little to promote new acts. I believe that this inability to surface new talent is the main reason for the decline in sales for CDs, lower attendance for concerts and smaller audience for music radio.
Last month, I had a chance to go to the United States and Australia. I was able to look for music and movies that I could not buy in Thailand. In the US, I really didn't see anything I couldn't get. I did buy the latest Jimmy Buffett album, Far Side of the World. I didn't expect much. I have bought all of his albums and CDs for more than 20 years but for the past 15 years, I have only listened once or twice to anything he has released.
I wasn't expecting much from Far Side of the World. As I put it on, I was absolutely blown away. This is the best Jimmy Buffett album in a very long time. In fact, it is one of the most enjoyable albums I have bought recently. Seeing how other familiar acts such as Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney and others are releasing unexciting music, it is a great pleasure to see someone such as Jimmy Buffet, who has been around for quite a while, release an album that is this fresh and this entertaining. I am not saying that someone who doesn't like Jimmy Buffet would find this CD entertaining. What I am saying is that if you enjoyed the great music Jimmy Buffett made in the late 1970s, you will enjoy this album.
One of our customers in Perth, Australia has been giving me music suggestions. He asked me to check out a group from Germany called Kruder & Dorfmeister. Here in Bangkok, I could not find anything from this group. However, a similar music was available a French ground called St. Germain. I don't know how to classify this music. In Australia someone referred to it as Chill-Out music. I don't know if this is the official classification of this music or not.
I found St. Germain's "Tourist" on Blue Note label interesting. I have played it many times. It makes a nice demonstration CD and it is interesting throughout. DJ-Kicks by Kruder & Dorfmeister is probably an acquired taste. It isn't that anyone who has listened to it disliked it. It is more that the music draws you in. There are many CDs in my collection I like much less than this. I have listened to the CD about four times so far so I would say it was worth the price.
When I bought the Kruder & Dorfmeister CD, the salesperson at the store suggested I also buy The Very Corporation, The Mirror Conspiracy. I was hesitant to invest any more money into this new format for me. However, listening to the CD on the headphones in the store suggested this CD might be interesting. In my opinion, that particular CD is the best of the batch. It is an excellent demo disk and is quite good musically. The website for the company selling this CD is here.
Finally, I would like to suggest one more CD. This one is Cassandra Wilson's "Belly of the Sun". I have purchased all of Cassandra Wilson's previous CDs. They are all quite good but I find this one the easiest to listen to of her collection. Cassandra Wilson has a wonderful voice and everything she sings is interesting.
It is easy to tell when I have a new product. Each new product gets me interested in listening to music again. I have little time for listening. Sometimes I forget just how much I enjoy music. I spend more time working or using the Internet. When I am forced to evaluate a new product, I rediscover just how much I enjoy audio and I have fun going out and trying new music as well.
Last month, we completed our marble subwoofer project. Many people have been asking about marble subwoofers for months. This was a very difficult project. The difficulty is carving out solid stone is slabs and making it look good when you put it together. It would be easy to line up the slabs so that the edges are rough. Creating a finished look was very challenging.
We have made many improvements on our subwoofer design. The marble subwoofer is 10 liters larger. It is a folded prism transmission line design. The photo below shows how we divide the rectangle into two prisms.
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Internal and external view of nOrh marble subwoofer
The marble subwoofer also has the port on the bottom. This makes it much easier to position the subwoofer. We believe that this position for the port is the best. The top has a very finished look. It is ideal to be used as a speaker stand. The marble subwoofer is the most rigid cabinet we have ever seen. We did an experiment. Remember the scene in Jurassic Park when the T-Rex is moving and its footsteps create waves in the coffee.
We put a glass of water right on the subwoofer while it was playing loud. Do this with almost any other subwoofer and you will see the waves created as the energy inside the subwoofer energizes the cabinet. The marble is so inert that the water doesn't show any signs of activity.
Photo of the Marble subwoofer with Ceramic 4.0 and Le amp
The nOrh marble subwoofer is another example at the extreme measures we take to make the very best loudspeakers available. While other companies are selling cabinets that are made of MDF covered with plastic or thin veneer, we are handcrafting loudspeakers from real stone and ceramics. We do this not only because these loudspeakers look better, they sound better too. Our best selling loudspeaker is the ceramic 4.0. These loudspeakers are handcrafted works of art that also happen to be the best sounding loudspeaker in its price range. Review after review put the nOrh 4.0 above all other low-cost loudspeakers. Combined with a subwoofer, the nOrh 4.0s can provide performance of systems costing many thousands of dollars. The 4.0s are ideal for home theater and audio. The ceramic finish will not fade.
Last month we also introduced our granite racks. These are added to our existing marble racks. Our racks not only look beautiful, they also isolate your components better than metal or wood racks. Our marble and stainless steel systems will always look good. There is nothing that bothers me more than to see an expensive piece of wood furniture get scratched up from audio equipment. Nothing beats pure stone for durability.
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Granite Audio Racks are both durable and beautiful
Pan with marble Rack
Our best selling loudspeaker, the black nOrh 4.0
One of the questions I get all the time regards what format should customers standardize for their music collection. Many of us had built up a substantial collection of records before CDs were introduced. Some of us had also collected 8 track tapes while others had collected cassettes. Two new competing formats have now entered the scene. These are SACD and DVD-A. Both offer the promise of 24 bit reproduction. One would think that one of these standards might be the definitive format.
Before either of these standards have gained substantial market share, a new technology is about to be introduced. This technology is called Blue-ray. The Blue-ray disc enables recording, rewriting and playback of up to 27Gb of data - nearly six times that of current DVD formats, on a single-sided, single-layer 12cm disc using a 405-nanometre blue-violet laser.
Blue-ray disks will be contained in their own sleeve, similar to a floppy disk. This will protect the disk from fingerprints. This new technology will be adopted for music, video and computer storage.
I don't know what implications this new technology has for audio. The problem with SACD and DVD-A is the existence of two incompatible standards is splitting the market and scaring off potential adopters. It is possible that both SACD and DVD-A will fail to capture enough market so that when Blue-ray is introduced, a new format will make both SACD and DVD-A irrelevant. I don't know that this will happen but it is something that has stopped me from personally building a collection of SACD and DVD-A music.
What I have done instead is buy DVD concerts and videos. These are available for many musical styles. I have found the audio quality on many of these disks simply outstanding. I don't have to worry about the future buying anything on the DVD format as DVD is the most successful electronic consumer product ever.
I get a lot of questions about home theater. Many people ask me if they should have the same loudspeakers all around. There is nothing wrong having all the speakers the same unless all the speakers are not good. It is important to consider that not all of the loudspeakers are doing the same job. The left and right loudspeakers are doing the most work. When you listen to two-channel music, you will using only the left and right. It makes sense that the left and right front loudspeakers be given the most consideration.
The center loudspeaker is used almost exclusively for dialog. This makes it easy to use alternate soundtracks on DVDs. The sound effects remain the same but only the center channel has to be changed. The center channel must play loud enough to keep up with the other loudspeakers and it must represent voice clearly.
I have used the nOrh 3.0s in home theater systems where the left and right loudspeakers were much larger and much more expensive. The end result was surprisingly pleasing. The little 3.0s kept up at all times and the sound was very good. Adding three 3.0s to a good pair of left and right loudspeakers is a very good way to upgrade to home theater.
People who use the nOrh 4.0s tell me they have never heard anything better for center. Because the cabinet is so inert, every single word is easy to understand and easily rises above all the sound effects so it is easy to understand the dialog.
The 4.0s also do a really good job for rear channel. The only downside to the 4.0s is that they do not play deep bass. If the home theater system has a subwoofer or if the left and right loudspeakers have sufficient bass, then this is not a problem.
The SM 5.1s are a good choice for a budget home theater system. Using these for the left and right and using 4.0s for the remaining speakers works just fine. For more bass, you could go with the SM 6.9s. The SM 6.9s have been universally praised.
If you have a very low powered A/V receiver but you want to enjoy dynamic sound, we offer the nOrh SM 6.1 or the Prism 6.6. These are highly efficient speakers that will increase the excitement for budget systems. In my bedroom, I enjoy a 40 wpc A/V receiver with three 3.0s and a pair of Prism 6.6s. The system works amazingly well and cost only about $1,500 to set up.
We have moved the pages about nOrhTech here.
Our future customer? (Enlarge ~400 KB)
I always enjoy getting photos of nOrh products in customer homes. This customer wanted to make us aware that he had a daughter who might want to put her little fingers into the drivers. He asked if we could make up a cloth covered grill to use until his daughter lost her curiosity about the marble 9.0s. Of course we can do that.
Whether your audio needs are purely music or you enjoy home theater, nOrh loudspeakers are a great choice. Our loudspeakers are handcrafted, use high quality components, use inert cabinets and use cabinets that simply sound better than traditional loudspeaker cabinets. Read reviews or go to Harmonic Discord. You will see the nOrh loudspeakers and electronics have been universally lauded by people who have heard them. If you are skeptical, order a pair of 3.0s. They don't cost much and they will prove easily that our cabinet design works.
Please don't hesitate to write us if you have any questions. We have many pages on our website that will give you even more information about our products. Please feel free to take your time and read our website.
Sincerely,
Michael C. Barnes
President
nOrh Loudspeaker Company, Ltd.
