News - June 2005

nOrh is now 7 years old. We are all a little older and hopefully a bit smarter. For this month's newsletter, I decided to go back and read our website from 1997. Some of you might have heard of a project called the Way Back Machine. An archive has been set up to record websites so that it is possible to see the changing face of the web. Clicking here will take you back to 1997 and allow you to see our website as it looked in 1997. Our website featured a photo that was taken with the then "state of the art" Sony Mavica which could store a 640 x 480 image on a floppy.

The nOrh 5.0s sold for $500.00 but this didn't include shipping. Today, we sell either the SM 5.1 or the wood 5.1s for $500.00 shipped to anywhere in the US. Please check for other locations. When one considers that the rate of inflation, cost of oil and cost of shipping have gone up about 20% since 1997, it is amazing that we still offer the same price.

The same webpage shows our nOrh 6.0. The nOrh 6.0 was superceeded by the nOrh 6.1. The pricing for the nOrh 6.0 was $700.00 in 1997. We have been offering the wood version of the Classic 6.1s for a special price of $600.00 shipped. The newer wood speakers are much improved in the past seven years. We now bake the wood for a month. Our finishing is much better than our original speakers and of course the performance is even better.

One of the most striking examples of what a great value nOrh Loudspeakers continues to be is the pricing for the nOrh 7.0s. At that time, we made only a handfull of the nOrh 7.0s. The nOrh 7.0s used the very expensive Scanspeak drivers and because we bought them in small quantities, the cost to build them was very high. Today, the Scanspeak drivers are even more expensive. The US Dollar has dropped about 30% against the Euro so Scanspeak drivers are so expensive that only the world's most expensive loudspeakers use them.

In 1997 we sold the nOrh 7.0 for $2,100.00 and this didn't include shipping. Today, we sell the Classic 7.0s for $995.00 and this includes shipping or we have the Synthetic Marble 7.0s for $2000.00 -- including shipping.

How is it possible that the 7.0s are less expensive today than they were 7 years ago? The main reason is that nOrh was never set up to be a money making company. Our goal was to win respect respect and put people to work. Quite frankly, until going back and looking at our previous web pages, we had forgotten that we lowered the prices of the speakers and we have struggeled very hard to continue to send out our speakers even though costs have continued to rise.

The nOrh 7.0s are an amazing value at the current prices. I doubt that there are any loudspeakers under $5,000 per pair that use these high quality Scanspeak drivers. The nOrh 7.0 received many outstanding reviews and given the rising costs of high quality components, oil, labor and the declining US dollar, the 7.0s are a far better deal today than they were 7 years ago.

Writing this month's newsletter certainly proves that the price of our Classic 7.0 wood loudspeakers is priced way too low. After this month, we certainly have to raise that price. Imagine, 7 years ago, we sold the same loudspeaker for $2,100 and didn't include shipping and now we offer the same loudspeaker for $995.00. I will have to take care of that by next month.

NorhTec

NorhTec is not affiliated with nOrh loudspeakers but was founded by the same people who founded nOrh. NorhTec has had amazing success. Last month, NorhTec received orders for over $1.6 million USD and is working on a partnership to deliver about 30,000 small computers for used for a retail application. NorhTec designs custom computer solutions using building blocks that allows NorhTec to build small, fanless and energy efficient industrial grade computers.

One of the areas where NorhTec has seen a lot of interst is in adverstising. We have build a variety of solutions that allow computers to be used for advertising and informational purpose in elevators, on trains, in vans or cars. Today, I saw Lek working on a prototype system to go into an elevator. It was a flat 12.1 inch LCD system that was powered by one of our fanless computers.

Loudspeakers

I personally listen to my pair of nOrh 3.0s almost constantly. My personal SE 9 and nOrh 3.0s are always on when I am working in front of my computer. The tonal quality of the nOrh 3.0 is almost identical to the nOrh 4.0. The major difference between the two speakers is power handling.

The photo below shows our most popular loudspeaker. It is the wood nOrh 4.0. The nOrh 4.0 has stunned listeners for many years because of its stunning looks and great sound. The nOrh 4.0 is hand carved from a solid log. The nOrh 4.0 features Vifa drivers -- not some cheap unknown Asian driver. The crossovers are very high quality, yet the nOrh 4.0s still sells for only $400.00 shipped to the United States. Most loudspeakers sold for $400 are chip board covered with contact paper. The drivers are no-name Asian drivers and the crossovers are very basic using cheap electrolytic capacitors.

The nOrh 4.0 is ideal for small rooms or ideal to be used with a subwoofer. Some of our customers tell us that a pair of nOrh 4.0s and a decent subwoofer sounds like loudspeakers costing $10,000 per pair. Several reviewers have said that the 4.0s are the perfect surround sound speakers because they are very detailed and articulate. As a center speaker, the 4.0s create very clear dialog that is easy to understand. Because the nOrh 4.0s play loud and handle lots of power, the 4.0s will keep up with virtually any left and right loudspeaker.

Another astonishing loudspeaker is the nOrh 4.1. Pictured above is our real Teak 4.1. The 4.1 comes with small stands that allow the 4.1 to be angled towards the listener. It is also possible to simply place the nOrh 4.1s on a table. I use the 4.1 for my main center speaker. It fits perfectly on top of my TV.

The mini 9.0 kit is probably nOrh greatest loudspeaker value

A few years ago, the marble 9.0 was proclaimed to be the best two-way loudspeaker. The marble 9.0 was carved from solid marble. We used the ScanSpeak Revelator tweeter and woofer. The marble 9.0s were extremely difficult to manufacture. It took 800 pounds of marble to carve out a single loudspeaker and half of the cabinets would break before a single cabinet could be completed. It took a full day for a stone smith to carve a single nOrh 9.0.

We continue to make a synthetic marble 9.0 as well as the mini 9.0 kit. The mini 9.0 kit uses that same Revelator woofer as the nOrh 9.0s but substitutes the tweeter with the more affordable ScanSpeak 9800. The combination kit and the lower price of the ScanSpeak 9800 make this one of the most impressive and affordable high end loudspeakers available. Despite its small size, 10 liters, the mini 9.0 is flat down to 45 Hz (+/- 3dB). Because the mini 9.0's bass is not as extended as the nOrh 9.0's +/- 3dB at 33 Hz, the mini 9.0 will handle more power and play louder.

The Mini 9.0 Synthetic Marble in White

nOrh's synthetic marble loudspeakers are available in a variety of colors to include, green, white, pink, black and red. Each synthetic marble loudspeakers is completely unique. The synthetic marble loudspeaker looks very much like real marble because 50% of the material is real marble powder suspended in a gel coat base.

Synthetic Marble 9.0

Some of you might wonder why nOrh promotes kits. Here in Bangkok, we have to pay 26% import tax and then 7.5% VAT added on top of that. The Revelator speakers are expensive for us to import and given the high cost of the Euro, it really is much more cost effective to let our customer buy the drivers and install them. We are not trying to save on the labor. Labor here in Thailand is very reasonable. The fact is, we do almost all the work. All our customers have to do is attach the clips from the crossover to the drivers and then screw them into the cabinet. More information is available on our DIY page.

Customer comments:

nOrh is quite proud of the performance we offer for our very inexpensive but high quality components. The SE 9 has been selling now for three years. It has proved to be a very reliable, cost effective and high quality audio component. The SE 9 is quite unique in that it is designed as a high-end component - not a cheap tube amp. There are many cheap tube amps out there. Most of them use no-name Chinese tubes, plastic sockets, cheap components and low quality volume controls.

The SE 9 uses Electro Harmonix tubes, ceramic sockets, platinum coated switches, Alps volume control, high build quality, hand wound transformers and quality components.

The price of the SE 9 combined with the nOrh 3.0s is about the same price as a department store mini component system.

I use my SE 9 in my office constantly. I spend most of my day in front of a computer. While I am working, I like to listen to music or streaming raid. The SE 9 is a great amplifier to put in an office or study. It is an ideal amplifier for a dorm or small apartment.

Until recently, our new ACA 2b (pronounced ACA tube), was pretty much ignored. Recently, we have been getting more orders with a lot of rave comments. The ACA 2b is a great preamp even though it is one of the least expensive preamps available. The ACA 2b has fantastic drive and not a hint of harshness. Many people write us that music they once thought was harsh, now sounds smooth because the ACA 2b is so transparent.

ACA 2b

I've ordered an aca2b preamp some weeks ago and I want to give you some positive feedback on it. The amp sounds great! I think it sounds much better than the German, English, Swiss and American $$$-gear I've bought over the last 15 years.

I've changed the Sovtek tubes and installed JJ e88cc tubes which are cheaper than the Sovteks, here in europe. These tubes improve everything of the aca2b (deeper and wider soundstage, deeper bass and they bring much(!) more detail). I don't know if they are available in Bangkok, but you should try them (and sell your aca2b with these tubes).

There's just one thing I don't like on the aca2b: there are only 3 inputs. In my opinion 5 or 6 would be better (and so much more expensive in the production).

Now I'm waiting for a norh poweramp which will fit the aca2b. :-) Personally I would prefer a push-pull design with ~15w of power.

SE 9

Last Thursday I received the tube amplifier. I am very pleased with the way you have handled the forwarding: two working days from Thailand to The Netherlands, excellent service from UPS.

I was even more pleased when I first connected the SE 9 to my home system only for testing. The amplifier will be used in the study on a pair of small speakers which I will design/built the coming months, it's a hobby. Key words will be: high efficiency and flat impedance in a small package at an attractive price. The whole set will be a gift for my wife's birthday.

I connected the SE 9 to a pair of Magnepan MG 1.6 which I use in the living room. These magnetostatic speakers have low efficiency (1 Watt for 86 dB), but a tube friendly overall impedance of 4 Ohms. I didn't believe my ears: although it won't play very loud, the sound was full and rich, also on low levels. Compared to my transistor amplifier (Arcam FJM A32, 2 x 150 Watts/4 Ohm) the sound was more "fluid". That is quite an achievement considering that the Arcam costs about four times more than the SE 9 and has a good name for sound quality.

Imaging was fabulous and the sound did not come from the speakers, but seemed to come from the entire room. A dipole system with a good amplifier is something special! Again I must thank you for producing such sound and built-quality against a reasonable price. If I sell the Arcam one day, I seriously consider a SE 18 as the amplifier for the living room.

SE18

I have reported many times that my main amplifier is now the SE18. My previous six amplifiers over the past 30 years have been 200 watts per channel or higher. 30 years is a long time and I am not sure if my choice now reflects a new maturity, changing taste of music, new priorities or whether I would have been happy all these years with a single ended integrated amplifier many years ago.

I suspect that if I had bought an amplifier similar to the SE 18 30 years ago, I would have never gone the route of high powered solid state amplifiers.

My last amplifier was a 250 watt per channel amplifier that cost about $7,000.00. The amplifier consumed 2,000 watts of power when used in the Class A mode. The amplifier had to sit on the floor because it was too big and too heavy to be placed on a shelf. Of course, the $7,000 amplifier was not very useful without its companion $5,000 preamp.

When I moved to my new house, there was no room for my large amplifier. I decided to give the SE 18 a try. What astonished me is that the sound was from the SE 18 was virtually identical to the much larger, much more expensive and much more energy wasteful sold state combination that I had before. What concerned me the most about the SE 18 was whether or not I could play my music loud enough. After hooking up the system, I called my wife down to listen. The first words out of her mouth were "turn it down".

My speakers are the nOrh Marble 9.0s. The 9.0s are not very sensitive. They are rated at 85dB at 1 watt at 1 meter. The sound was full, dynamic and detailed. I have been very happy with the SE 18. I believe it is the lowest priced amplifier that achieves this level of performance.

June 2005 - Happy 7th Birthday to nOrh

NorhTec

Loudspeakers

Customer comments:

ACA 2b

SE 9

SE18