<< Back to news

Older news - July, 2002

Now Shipping: nOrh Integrated Tube Amp

Sometimes I feel like Rodney Dangerfield, I just can't get no respect. I am certainly not the first person to try to produce reasonably priced audio equipment. Others have tried and they also had a hard time getting respect. Bob Carver, David Hafler, Richard Shahinian and others have tried to build companies that offered excellent value. The audio industry (which I call the country club), has spent years trying to convince people that they have to spend outrageous sums of money to buy high-end sound.

For four years, I have been working to try to make high-end audio more affordable and audio systems look and sound great. Our customers call themselves nOrhphiles and have organized themselves into a user community that is only rivaled by Apple computer users. Their devotion to our effort has helped make nOrh one of the most read audio sites on the Internet. If you don't believe it, do a search for loudspeakers on Yahoo and see what comes up.

I don't like putting my picture on the webpage. It reminds me how much hair I have lost over the years. However, for the SE 9, I want everyone to know that I am quite proud of this product and I know you will treasure the SE 9 for many years.

Last year, we launched the CD 1. The CD 1 was a high quality CD player with tube output. People said it was one of the best sounding CD players they ever heard. Demand was so high, we sold out. We were unable to keep up with demand and the parts we need went out of production.

The SE 9 is available now. If you want to read about the performance, the first users will start posting on www.harmonicdiscord.com by next week. Don't wait too long once you decide that you or someone you know could use the SE 9. Our first production was sold out but we are going back and making more next week. Christmas might be months away but I won't be surprised if the SE 9 becomes very back ordered soon.

I am excited for those of you who will buy the SE 9. You will receive one of the best values that has been offered in audio for many years. You will receive a product you will cherish for many years to come. You will receive a product that will sound better than you believe possible.

The most affordable high-end integrated amplifier, the nOrh SE 9

There has been a debate raging in audio for many years. The debate regards the sound of tubes vs. the sound of solid state. I have been on record saying that I believe that there are good and bad examples of each. The best solid state amplifiers are not harsh, have great dynamics and authoritative bass. The best tubes sound clean natural and smooth.

For nOrh, it isn't a matter of which is better. It is a matter of what is most appropriate for a given application. I use tubes in my office. I don't play the sound loud. I find that I can listen for eight to ten hours and not feel fatigued. I know that if I used the typical inexpensive receiver or inexpensive integrated, I would be fatigued after a very short period.

I bought my daughter a Zen tube amplifier. I got it for her because it was very low powered. She uses it to drive a pair of 4.0s. She leaves the amp on almost all the time. She thinks the look is cool. I think that 2 watts is enough power for her given the music she listens to.

Le Amp and the "soon-to-be" introduced products from IRD represent the ultimate value in solid state components. I believe for many people, these products off a powerful alternative for people who believed they could never enjoy solid state.

I am getting many letters from customers who are looking for something to use with a pair of 3.0s or 4.0s. They want to buy a complete system on a limited budget. While there are many low cost mini systems and low-end receivers, these simply don't meet my expectations for an audio system.

nOrh's major goal has been to attract people back to audio. Today, audio is a broader hobby than it once was. Audio now includes home theater and computers. No matter what your source is, you should be enjoying the very best sound possible given your budget.

nOrh Loudspeaker is about to release a product that absolutely redefines the low-end price of high-end audio. We are about to release a Single Ended integrated tube amplifier at a price that is simply unbelievable.

First of all, this is not a cheaply assembled amplifier made in China. This is a very high quality amplifier made in Thailand. The amplifier features hand wound and hand tested transformers. The construction and appearance will set a standard for low priced amplifiers.

nOrh SE 9 with marble nOrh 3.0

Before we reveal the price, we would like to tell our audience about some of the high-end features of the nOrh SE 9. The SE 9 has two inputs. The volume control is manufactured by Alps. The switches are platinum counted. The sockets are ceramic. We use Electro Harmonic tubes instead of no-name Chinese tubes found in many lower priced tube amplifiers.

The nOrh SE 9 has an output rating of 9 watts. While 9 watts is certainly a modest amount of power, the nOrh SE 9 will deliver sound that no low-end receiver, mini system, multi media loudspeaker system can offer.

The nOrh SE 9 will certainly be in high demand. Many nOrh products have sold out very quickly. We strongly urge you to pre-order the SE 9 before we come to our senses and price the SE 9 where it at a more profitable price. This is a much better amplifier than anyone has a right to expect at this price. It sounds wonderful. It looks beautiful. It will last for years and years.

One of the reasons I have liked tube amplifiers is I think they look great. We have designed the nOrh SE 9 to look absolutely fantastic. The front plate is black while the top is a mirror finish. The mirror finish will reflect the subdued lights from the tubes. I believe tube amplifiers are the most romantic electronic products you can buy. I think of them as apartment fireplaces. The nOrh SE 9 consumes only 35 watts of power. This is comparable to the power consumption of a low-end receiver or integrated amplifier.

One of my hopes is that parents will send their kids off the college with a pair of 3.0s or 4.0s and a SE 9. The idea of someone growing up with my speakers and amplifiers really excites me. Most importantly, this is not a throw away product. The nOrh SE 9 will last for years. This is not a system you will outgrow. It will always have a home in a bedroom, office or driving a computer multimedia system.

We believe that the SE 9.0 matches nOrh lower priced offerings. We suggest the nOrh 3.0, nOrh 4.0, nOrh 5.1, nOrh 5.2 or nOrh 6.1. What is amazing is that paired with any of these loudspeakers, the total system price will be less than $1000.00.

The nOrh SE 9.0 is being introduced at $399.95. This price includes shipping. You can have a pair of nOrh 3.0s and a SE 9.0 delivered to your door for less than $550.00 USD.

The SE 9, the perfect amplifier for women

Most of the employees at nOrh are women. Actually, I shoulds say, nOrh is run by women. Namphung, pictured above, is the director of marketing. Pan runs our manufacturing. Much of the style in nOrh products is a result of their opinions. What women want is something that is small, easy to use, reliable, reasonably priced and stylish.

The SE 9 is certainly reasonable. At $399.95, there simply are not better looking or sounding integrated amplifiers anywhere. The SE 9 is small and can fit just about any free space. Using Le Amp couldn't be easier. There is an off/on switch and a two position switch to choose sources. My wife is always telling me to turn the stereo down. I have never heard her turn it up to what I consider loud. I don't believe watts per channel is a priority with women. Tube amps are very reliable as tubes last for a very long time and are easy to replace when they do go bad.

Pan sold her solid state integrated to buy a SE 9. She didn't do it because the SE 9 sounds better. She did it because she thought the integrated amplifier didn't look good in her bedroom. She prefers the look of the SE 9.

My wife thinks that the tubes are sort of like a fireplace and that tube amplifiers are romantic. I don't know if I can go that far. The SE 9 is affordable, stylish, small, relaible and simple to use. If she doesn't get buy one for herself, maybe you should buy it for her.

Introducing the new Prism 4.1 Teak

Boom shown with our newest loudspeaker - Teak 4.1

The Prism 4.1 is one of my favorite creations. I have always liked the design because it is one of the most versatile loudspeakers I have ever seen. The loudspeaker is designed so it can be angled. This allows you to place the loudspeaker at any height and then aim the woofer and tweeter towards the listener. The speaker is designed so that if it is hung upside down, the tweeter and woofer point down. If the speaker is placed on a coffee table, the woofer and tweeter naturally point up towards the listener. On a TV, the supplied stands allow you to point the speaker back down towards the listener.

The original 4.1 was made from MDF and finished in teak veneer. The new version is now solid teak. Teak is one of the more expensive and finest woods anywhere. Teak does not rot when exposed outside. Teak is a very dense wood and has no voids. It is a superior material for building loudspeakers. The only problem with teak is it is very expensive. None-the-less, nOrh Loudspeakers offers the Prism 4.1 Teak at the same price as the original 4.1.

The nOrh Prism 4.1 shown on TV using stands to raise the angle of the tweeter

The Prism 4.1 Teak can be used for left, right, center and rear speakers. When used for the left and right loudspeakers, it is best to employ a subwoofer to extend the low bass. The Prism 4.1 Teak features the same drivers used in the 4.0, 5.1, and 5.2 loudspeakers. This combination of woofer and tweeter have received universal rave reviews.

Many customers would like to hang loudspeakers from the ceiling. This is not easy with most loudspeakers. The Prism 4.1 Teak is very simple to hang. The loudspeaker is made of solid teak. It is very easy to screw in hooks or other standard hardware and hand the loudspeaker from the bottom so that the woofer and tweeter are angled upside down. To get an idea what we mean, save the photo above "Introducing the Prism 4.1 Teak" and look at the image upside down.

The Prism 4.1 Teak is very inexpensive. Each Prism 4.1 sells for $225.00. For this price, your alternative is generally plastic or chip board covered with contact paper based loudspeakers. The nOrh Prism 4.1 Teak looks life a piece of art. It is handcrafted by nOrh Loudspeakers own craftsman. Do you have plastic tables and chairs in your dinging room? Is your furniture made from vinyl covered chip board? Are your lamps made from plastic? If you are are introducing home theater to your living room or your bedroom, you will need five loudspeakers. Why not buy five attractive loudspeakers instead of five ugly ones?

We are very pleased that we continue to receive praise for our products. A new audio site called 6moons has reviewed the nOrh SM 6.9 and they plan to review Le Amp very soon. The nOrh 5.1 continues to receive perfect scores (five stars) on www.audioreview.com, making it one of the highest scoring loudspeakers on that site.

Every month, new customers discover nOrh and discover that high-end audio doesn't have to be expensive. This month, I have focused on trying to look at the details for setting up a home theater system that is also excellent at two-channel audio. I would like to invite you to go back and read our previous months newsletters where you can learn more specific information on nOrh products. This month's newsletter will be a little generic.

The State of High End Audio

High-end audio has been a shrinking industry for a long time. In most cities, it is hard to find a store focused on audio only. Many people have focused on building home theaters and rarely play music only on these systems. The remaining companies serving the shrinking high-end audio customers willing to pay premium prices.

I would like to bring to your attention an article by the Boston Audio Society that shows that the results reported in blind testing fails to show the advantages of many recommended tweaks or even the difference from one amplifier or another. In a test done by Quad, 32% of the listeners thought they could hear a difference even when the same amplifier was used in all tests. The article points out that listeners want to hear a difference to the point they will convince themselves there is one even when none exists.

If this article is correct, then many customers have spent money on useless tweaks, expensive amplifiers and cables with no real improvement.

The high-end audio crowd rejected CDs when they were first introduced. The first players and more importantly, the first CDs were far inferior to what is available today. Despite the improvements in the technology, many audiophiles clung to the idea that CDs were a bad medium. Ironically, while the high-end crowd were talking about a need for a new high end audio format, young people adopted a new format that was sub CD quality—MP3.

The high end community put a lot of hope that a new higher end format – SACD would bring about a resurgence of interest in high end audio. I have long believed that the DVD disk itself already offered higher end audio and that there is a lot of interesting performances on DVD video. SACD has not taken off the way that the high-end folks had hoped. While the fact that there is another competing format, DVDA, the real failure of SACD is the lack of support from Sony itself.

Sony could have easily put the SACD format into the Sony Playstation II. This would have put millions of SACD players on the market at once. They could have converted their entire catalog to SACD and made sure that there were facilities all over the world to produce SACD disks. They could have also made sure that the price of SACDs were not premium priced and made the technology available in cars and other consumer products. Sony did none of these things.

Another very interesting article is available from the Boston Audio Society that describes the competition of SACD vs. DVDA.

I believe that this is not because people enjoy music any less than they did before or that young people need to have videos to go along with their music. After all, these same young people will use a variety of portable devices to take music with them. They have car stereos in their automobiles and carry portable CD or MP3 players when they travel.

The problem is the audio industry itself. The audio industry has failed to make a compelling case for young people to invest in high end audio.

Brian Cheney of VMPS Audio wrote a very good article that can be found here.

Part of the problem is the fact that high-end audio has become so very expensive. I remember when I was in my 20s I bought a Stanton 881s phono cartridge. I remember it cost about $81.00. At that time, this was considered quite expensive. I later purchased a Sure IV for about $150.00 and finally a moving coil cartridge for about $350.00.

I recently saw a review on a phono cartridge that was $1,350.00. In the review, the author called the cartridge a budget phono cartridge. At 48, I believe that a budget phono cartridge is now out of my income range yet I could afford a very high-end cartridge many years ago.

When I was young, I was able to buy the ultimate format for audio — separates. I started out like most people buying a receiver. My first receiver was an 80 watts per channel (wpc) JVC receiver with a built in five channel equalizer. I discovered over 100,000 wrong settings using my equalizer.

My $350.00 JVC receiver brought me two years of enjoyment until I was able to buy my Hafler preamp kit and a Souncraftsman 2001 amplifier. I used a pair of Shahinian Obelisks in my first high-end system. I believe the total cost for my high-end systems was about $2,500.00. At the time, I made about $20,000 USD per year. I can honestly say I don't miss any of the money I spent on my original systems. When I consider how much enjoyment I got from my investment, I believe that my systems were a bargain.

Customer's A/V system using a pair of marble 3.0s in the rear, a marble 4.0 in the center and a pair of marble 9.0s for the front left and right

While there has been a decline in two channel audio systems in the home, there has been an explosion of home theater systems. As of May 1, 2002, more than 120 million DVD movies and music videos shipped in the first three months of 2002, a 74 percent increase over 2001. One of the big factors for this increase is the inclusion of DVD players in game machines. This has put DVD players into the kids rooms for the first time. During the first quarter of 2002, 3.6 million DVD players were shipped to retail stores. This is a 29 percent increase over the same period last year. Total shipments for DVD players is more than 35 million since the format was launched and it is predicted that 20 million units will ship to retail this year.

One of the biggest problems that I hear about is that many people have built home theater systems and they are not satisfied with the way music sounds. They report that while they enjoy movies, that music simply doesn't sound very good.

I get lots of questions about putting together a good home theater system that would also serve as an excellent music system. This month's newsletter will focus on some thing to consider as you build a home theater that is also a great music system.

When DVD was first introduced, I bought the Sony ES 7000. I had read that this was the best DVD player on the market. I also bought the Pioneer top-of-the-line as it played both LDs and DVDs. Each of these units cost more than $1,000.00. Both of these units offered pretty good CD playback. The transports in both systems were excellent. The Sony unit started giving me problems after a year. It turns out that the industry increased the security on their disks. The Sony unit was unable to play many commercial disks. When I bought my player, DTS DVDs were not available. Both the Pioneer and the Sony could not work properly with DTS encoded disks. I had bought two Sony AC3 decoders. Prior to this, I was using an expensive Dolby Prologic decoder from Sony. After only two years, the Sony Prologic unit was a dinosaur. It turns out that my newer processors suffered the same fate. The AC3 units did not decode DTS and I became very frustrated by the pace at which my new A/V technology was becoming outdated. I expected this from computers but not for home entertainment.

I replaced my Sony and Pioneer with very cheap DVD players. These players had AC3 and DTS decoders built in. These players cost well under $200.00. The picture quality was better than the Pioneer and equal to the Sony. In fact, one of the units I had seemed to be almost identical inside to a much more expensive Panasonic player. It had the same DVD drive and the same decoding chip. In fact, it came with a Panasonic disk that showed off the high quality of Panasonic players.

The problem having the DTS and AC3 decoding built into the player is that there isn't any really good way to control and balance the levels of the rear and front speakers. The trick I used was to use the volume control on the remote to set all channels up or down and then adjust the front left and right with my preamp. This is not an ideal solution but it is workable.

One of the things that frustrates me with home theater is the high cost of processors. I would not mind paying $1,000 or so if I could believe that the technology might not change in one or two years. I consider the processor to be vulnerable. I have simply spent too much money on processors in the past and don't really want to do it again. It's a war where the consumers loose everytime. Have a look at the table below, which shows the formats of surround sound and positioning systems available.

At the same time, you can buy a receiver that has processing in it for under $300.00. I wonder why we can get a receiver that has a remote control, five amplifiers, processor, tuner and switching for under $300.00 but the cost of only a processor is likely to be over $1,000.00. The fact is, there are not that many solutions on the market to do the decoding with. It is likely that the receiver does an equal job to a dedicated AC3/DTS decoder. No wonder that most people will buy a receiver for their home theater system.

The reason we have advocated a video-passthrough on our preamp is that it gives the user an easy way to combine audio and video systems. The least expensive way to do this is to use a receiver and a preamp. If the receiver has front left and right outputs, these can be plugged into the A/V passthrough. The receiver can power the center and rear speakers. When the listener wants to listen to high quality audio, they can use the preamp but the receiver becomes the heart of the video system.

Most people will agree that while DVD players are excellent values, they are not very good CD players. The sound from most budget DVD players is really very disappointing. When we still had our CD-1s available, many customers were amazed at how much better their music collection sounded using the CD-1. Unfortunately, the CD-1 became a sellout.

The supplier of the transport — Matsushita, discontinued the CD drive and said they would focus their attention on DVD drives. The obvious question we are asked is why don't we just build a DVD player.

The answer is that the DVD consortium is not set up to allow small companies to get in. It costs $20,000 to have the right to display the DVD logo on your product. You also have to license Dolby and DTS (see the table above). Many of the low-cost players that come into the United States simply don't pay their license fees. The factories that supply these machines have huge markets outside the US so if their players are stopped, they still have a massive market.

Low Cost AC3/DTS Processor

I was in Taiwan attending a computer show. While there, I met with a company that makes OEM products. One of the products they make is a AC3/DTS processor. The processor uses a Motorola chip and does are great job. The name of the company that makes the product is Minton. They manufacture a decoder that is one of the best values in the world. Their decoder can be found on here.

If you are located in Asia, you might be able to find the unit sold under the Minton label. In the US, the decoder is now marketed by Klipsch. I tried to find the device on their page and it took me a half hour. I don't know if they are trying to keep the product a secret or not. Klipsch sells the decoder for $169.95. This is a fair price and a very good unit. You can look the unit up here.

At $169.95, this processor is an excellent value. This unit and five Le Amps would create a very cost effective home theater system with astonishing value. This processor will likely improve the CD performance of most inexpensive CD players as well as it uses a very high quality decoder and from what I could hear, the analog sounded pretty good.

Consider this: with the Minton (Klipsch) processor and five Le Amps, you could have a system that exceeds the performance of virtually any receiver for just over $1,400.00.

Add nOrh Loudspeakers to your HT system

Synthetic Marble 5.1 available in white,black, blue, red, green and pink

The system would not be complete without speakers. It would be hard to make a blanket suggestion what loudspeakers to mate with such a system. The issue is that Le Amp are sufficiently high-end that you could choose from any of nOrh loudspeakers. For those who have a sufficient budget, the SM 6.9s, SM 7.0s or the SM 9.0s would be excellent. While the SM 6.9s and 9.0s have received a lot of press lately, the nOrh 7.0 has been somewhat ignored. Some people have asked us to explain why the role of the nOrh 7.0. The SM 6.9 provides astonishing value and performance. While I hate to be the one to point out any weaknesses it might have compared to other loudspeakers in our product line, the area where the nOrh 7.0 excels is linearity. Most woofers become nonlinear as the power increases. While they haven't exceeded their maximum excursion limit, the sound they are producing is not linear so therefore it is distorted. The The 7.0s are better for those who really like to drive their systems hard. The woofers we use in the 7.0s are the Scanspeak 18W-8545. The unique quality of this woofer is that it stays linear throughout the entire audio band at 100 watts. There are very few woofers that can do this. The result is a loudspeaker that has very little distortion — even in the bass.

The nOrh 9.0s are better sounding loudspeakers than the nOrh 7.0s provided that you do not drive them outside their mechanical limits. For me, I never need to play my system loud enough to do that. Not everyone listens to music or movies at the same level. For those who really want to push their systems hard, the nOrh 7.0s will play loud and play loud without the distortion of most other loudspeakers.

The graph below shows that the linear excursion is not exceeded through the frequency range produced by the nOrh 7.0.

Graph showing linear Excursion of nOrh 7.0 at 100 watts (to the woofer)

For customers who are on a budget, the 6.1, 5.1 or 4.1 loudspeakers will all handle lots of power and sound much better than virtually any other loudspeaker in its price range.

Because technology is changing so fast, I have not suggested anyone go out and buy either an expensive DVD player or an expensive processor. I personally have believed for a long time that the ultimate media player will be a computer. There are many reasons why a computer makes the best device for playing audio and video but unfortunately, there are still many challenges.

Computers as Home Entertainment Center

Today, most recordings are mastered on computers using hard disk. This is true for movies as well. When we talk about masters, we are talking about hard drives and not tape. For anyone who questions the ability of computers to do the job, consider what device is used today to test high-end equipment. Any magazine that shows a printout was made on a computer. Today's high-end sound cards that are used in instrumentation and recording studios can cost well over $1,000 but offer a noise floor of -144dB or better.

The quality of standard commercial sound cards that go for $20.00 can not compare with the quality of high-end sound cards used by recording engineers. This technology is about to drop in price and become much more affordable. VIA Technologies Inc. released the VIA Envy24HT, a new high performance Audio Controller with superior recording and playback features that marks a new level in PC audio performance.

VIA acquired ICEnsemble in 2000 and has worked with such leading audio companies as M-Audio, TerraTec, Altec Lansing and ESI. The Envy24HT PCI multi-channel audio controller is a no compromise PCI solution that brings professional studio quality sound to the home PC user. It features 24-bit resolution and sampling rates up to 192kHz. The device has two inputs and 10 outputs. Their website is here.

Also introduced recently is a motherboard by AOpen that features a tube output for the analog section. I was pleasantly surprised to see they use Multicap capacitors on their motherboard as well. The AOpen board is only available for the Pentium 4. I wish they had made this available for a different processor because the Pentium 4 will be difficult to cool quietly.

I plan to buy the new AOpen motherboard and see if there is a way to cool it quietly. I have studied the issue of keeping computers quiet for over a year. It will be far more expensive to do this on a Pentium 4 than I would like. We don't need that level of performance to build a multimedia workstation.

The major challenge to making a computer work as a multimedia system are size and silence. A computer that would work as a multimedia system should be small enough to fit into a normal audio rack and it needs to be quiet. Today's computers can be quite noisy. Most new computers have a fan for the processor, a fan for the video chip a fan for the case and one for the power supply. These fans can spin up to 7200 RPM and create quite a bit of air turbulence.

Another challenge is that computers have long boot times and you have to navigate the operating system to get to an application that turns the computer into a multimedia system. Of course, you could just leave the computer on with a given software package always running. Many computers draw up to 300 watts so this might not be the best idea.

While there are many challenges, I have been working for over a year to resolve most of these problems. I know what has to be done and I am working trying to do it.

NorhTec is currently designing a small computer that will require no fans. We are designing what I think is the first AC/DC power supply. This power supply will determine whether the power source is a battery or an AC source. The power supply will be 60 watts and require no fan. We will use a VIA C3 based solution that only requires passive cooling. Our current plan is to include an emergency fan that would come on in case the system does overheat. We would use a large 82 mm fan because we can move more air at a lower RPM.

Our current plan is to integrate the new Samsung DVD/CD-RW The device can play DVDs or burn CDs and it operates very quietly compared to other DVD drives we have tested.

Another new technology that has just come out is a BIOS extension that enables a computer to run CD, VCD or DVD without booting the system. This technology was developed by Elegent. This technology is not currently available to end users. It requires that the FLASH chip that contains the BIOS be upgraded to 512 kb and that extended features be added to the FLASH along with the BIOS.

I am contacting some of the first board manufacturers who will integrate this capability into their motherboards. This will mean that if you place a music disk into your computer drive or a DVD into your computer drive, the computer will automatically play these devices without having to boot the operating system.

A computer offers many advantages. The first is the ability to upgrade and do repairs. If the transport in a DVD player goes bad, it is less likely that you throw the whole player away than replace just the transport. In a computer, the drive can be replaced easily and inexpensively.

The most important reason why a computer makes sense is that the software can be upgraded without throwing the whole system away. Today, most software DVD players include both AC3 and DTS decoding. Just upgrading software and perhaps changing the sound card provides these capabilities.

A computer can support the full resolution of LCD projectors and HDTVs. A computer is much less expensive than dedicated line doublers and line quadruplers but it performs the same task. If the computer has a TV out port, it also provides support for NTSC or PAL compatible devices.

A computer can support streaming video through the Internet, record video (PVR), act as a MP3 jukebox, distribute multimedia over a wired or wireless network and offer a higher level of audio performance from a single device than most DVD players. It is also possible to control a computer with a remote control — including adjusting the volume of each channel.

I would like to invite our readers to come by every month. We are pushing the envelope here and there will be new information to report every month. In the meantime, we appreciate any purchases you make from us. I take no money for my work with nOrh and any profits are used for customers support, employee welfare and research and development. The better our business, the more research we can do. I believe we are on the right track and that we will be able to introduce the ultimate home entertainment player.

This month, we received a review from recording engineer Alphonso Soosay. Mr. Soosay previously praised the nOrh 9.0s as among the most accurate loudspeakers he has ever auditioned. He now gives Le Amp a critical listen.

"Le Amp" Power Amplifier (Monoblock)

A Perfect Blend of Powerful Technology with a Straightforward Design.

A personal assessment by:

ALPHONSO SOOSAY

Audio Recording Engineer, Musician

PERTH, AUSTRALIA
 

The power of Le Amp was certainly very obvious in my listening tests. General image focus was excellent and a sense of depth and three dimensions was very well presented, it’s an impressive combination with my N0rh marble 9.0’s. This amplifier seems to mooch along naturally at high levels where other brands in this price range seem to sound strained. Bass control was very good as the amplifier took complete command of the pair of 9.0’s. It performed excellently in all circumstances.

This is a kind of power amplifier that other manufacturers will fear. Because, over the last decade, prices of high-end audio power amplifiers have risen at an alarming rate in Australia, while improvements in sound quality has been less than 10%.

Five weeks ago, I received and unpacked the pair of Le Amp, At that stage, I was guessing that the Le Amp must be a relatively small family-owned company. The amp is not very large but practical. The front panel had only a single, medium, rocker-type power switch, above which is a tiny blue LED power indicator. When positioned the pair of Le Amp side by side, I noted a little unbalance in LED brightness between the pair.

The rear panel is laid out extremely well, though it is somewhat of simple & basic design, one gold-plated RCA input, logically placed gold-plated pair of speaker output terminals that accepts banana or bare wire, one 3-prong power plug and a 3-amp fuse holder, which is in reality required for its only use. Its amplifier construction is built very solidly and obviously is of high quality. It has a thick faceplate. You don’t need to be an expert to evaluate amplifier construction quality. Your eye tells you clearly.

Impressive Mono-block System.

Then, looking at the inside of Le Amp was very impressive, one 400 V/A transformer for a 100 watts amplifier (real cool amplifier), 35-amp bridge rectifier, 20,000uf capacitor, heatsink inside the chassis, no in-built noisy cooling fan. It uses a toroidal transformer, that’s why it’s clean, no hum and quiet. After running the Le Amp for 6 hours per day, it was able to stay exceptionally cool. Setting up the Le Amp was most easy and straightforward,

Noise, What Noise?

Le Amp comes with only one unbalanced line input. No balanced line input. This is not particularly important if you are using the power-Amp in a stand-alone Hi-Fi system. In my home location, where there is little (r.f.) radio frequency interference, I could not detect any r.f. Noise interference problems with the Le Amp switched on. Off course, using good quality RCA connector leads.

Smooth Drive.

Le Amp seems to be driving my N0rh marble 9.0’s to reproduce it accurately. Sound-stage seem to be reasonably good. There was no dynamic compression at all with all sort of music tested especially with rock music, so this means, it provides ample headroom for any kind of music. Music details were accurate even at low levels. Even with my subwoofer switched off and programmed my pre-amp to deliver the bass to the full-range main speakers, the bass control was excellent.

Check This.

If you are ready to experience the full impact of Hi-fi Music & Soundtrack of Movies at home, this "Le Amp" will help you get there with their new monoblock 100 watts straight power amplifier. This new amp is ideal for any audio setups. Upgrade for today’s Hi-fi& Dolby Digital receivers.

After four weeks of use everyday, It seems to be providing a high-quality seamless transition between the Tweeter & Bass speaker of my N0rh marble 9.0’s. It delivered a massive realistic frequency response.

On relatively high volume playback there was no signs of harshness at all. Overall frequency response sounded quite natural, balanced and in proportion. Only after 5 weeks of use. I could feel as well as hear without placing additional demands on my pre-amp control electronics.

Good quality power Amplifiers, are the backbone of any audio system today.

Quality amplifiers are required today, that will deliver deep solid thundering Bass & good clean crisp high audible sound with any Hi-fi or Home theater quality speakers.

This 100 watts monoblock amplifier, actually has a much better quality power supply, because it seems to gives much more than 100 watts, at low distortion, for short bursts like explosions, gunshots, a tympani drum thud on a classical piece. ECT. It also seems to provide a noise free electrical power to the amplifier parts that’s why it is capable of delivering high voltage & high current accurately. Imaging is good because it uses separate power transformer for each channel.

Test Drive

One of the first thing I did when testing out the Le Amp at my home was to give the volume control a bit of a push, just to get an idea of the potential output power. I noticed that its Musical Fidelity was nearly impossible to clip or overdrive in the bottom end range. It look’s like, it has been designed with an emphasis on creating an open sound field, ideal for modern Hi-fi and Home theater systems. Be prepared for a shock when doing this volume control test. Because, this amp is powerful with my N0rh marble 9.0 speakers.

A Moderately Priced System.

Le Amp represents, a new era of affordable quality power monoblock amplifiers.

It is engineered to meet demanding audio requirements reliably and within budget.

Looks like; Le Amp’s name is synonymous with affordable & quality amp technology.

It’s a powerful argument for quality and value. Providing 100 watts (rms) per monoblock, using a 400 V/A transformer & frequency response 8Hz to 200kHz for superior audio performance.

Le Amp also produces an accurate, uncolored sound with very low distortion for the best in music, movie watching & live concert reproduction.

A Unique System.

Sound Engineers understand the importance of deep realistic Bass in the new Multichannel world of Dolby Digital scene. This Le Amp’s frequency response of 8 Hz to 200kHz really opens up the DVD information in movies that gives you that overall realistic effect.

Although its only 100 watts, it looks like it is designed with headroom of a 500 watts amplifier, It is also provided with overload protection circuit and output stage thermal shutdown protection, which is a must in any high quality amplifier.

Le Amp’s 100 watts power amp quality is hard to match for its performance simplicity and value.

Power in sound is very important because, DVD generally demand that sound effects and musical scores, which move the effects with spur-of-the-moment impact.

Summing Up.

This is one of the best power amplifiers that I have heard for its dollar. A huge sound in a small package, a tremendous buy that should provide many hours of enjoyment, no matter what your musical requirements are. Great combination with my N0rh Marble 9.0 speakers because it has a kind of imaging that keeps me listening.

Hi-fi, Movie sounds and Live concerts, are created with all the dynamics impact with immaculate clarity of real life events. Hi-fi Music recreation takes on new depth. Dialogue has a true human like quality. On screen explosions are recreated intact in full and frightening concussion wave. Passion and detail of actual live music is recreated right before your eyes.

So far, Le Amp has not only managed to deliver impressive sound, performance and operability with my Denon pre-amp electronics, but has also done so at a tempting affordable price, High-powered, high-end performance, without the high end dollar. Do yourself a favor. Have a listen to the Le Amp before buying any other power amplifiers in the market. It’s actually worth looking into. The experience will give you an idea, on the subject of just how good your system will sound with a good pair of speakers.

This amp is not about chimes & whistles that offer you 20 to 30 gadget features that you will never use. This power amp is all about accurate sound quality & good engineering.

This is a lot of amplifier for US$495/- for a pair of 100 watts (rms), It’s a great amplifier at a great price and I recommend it highly.

Looks like its has been priced to humiliate the professional audio trade.

Subwoofers (again)

nOrh speakers featured on the Kratos System Website

The final topic I wanted to cover this month is subwoofers. My opinions on subwoofers are frequently argued with. The question is why if I am right, everyone else does things differently. The answer that I give is not flattering so many people will not take kindly to my statements.

In many movie soundtracks, the bass is often exaggerated. To reproduce these sound effects, it can put quite a strain on a subwoofer. Today, more subwoofers are designed to reproduce the footsteps of Tyrannosaurus Tex in Jurassic Park more than they are designed to accurately reproduce music. Many subwoofers are focused on delivering a "larger than life" impact to sound. Interestingly, many subwoofers that are sold today really don't provide a lot of deep bass. What they do instead is exaggerate the frequencies between 40 to 70 Hz.

The amount of bass that a given driver can produce is tied to the volume of the cabinet that it is mounted in and how the box is tuned. Larger woofers will require larger cabinets to produce the same amount of bass. You can equalize the response but that is asking the woofer to do something it wasn't designed to do and you have a greater chance of pushing the woofer into distortion.

Using large woofers is perfectly fine if the cabinet is large enough to accommodate it. Today, I see many subwoofers that are only 25, 30 or 55 liters that have 12 inch woofers. Generally speaking, a larger cabinet will allow for a lower bass response. Below is a curve from a very high quality 12 inch woofer in a 65 liter cabinet. 65 liters is quite large for a modern subwoofer. Note that the response does look pretty good but it does start to roll off at 50 Hz and it is -3dB down at 35 Hz.

Please note that the subwoofer below is by no means a poor system. If combined with a pair of 4.0s, the results would be very impressive. The results would be less impressive when combined with the SM 6.9s, 7.0s or 9.0s. Just in case you are interested in building the subwoofer below, the size of the cabinet is 25.613 high, 15.83 inches wide, 9.7833 inches deep. A 3 inch port will be 7.069 inches long.

12 inch driver in 65 liter cabinet

Let us take a look and see what happens if we put the same woofer in a larger cabinet. This time we will us a 90 liter cabinet.

Same 12 inch driver in 88.9 liter cabinet at 650 watts

Note that the -3dB down point is now 28 Hz and that the frequency starts to roll off at 40 Hz instead of 50 Hz. Just in case you would want to build this subwoofer for your own use, the size of the cabinet would be 28.52 high, 17.628 inches wide and 10.895 deep. The total volume in English measurements is 3.17 cubic feet. You need to compensate for any area taken up by the driver or stuffing. A three inch port would be 7.69 inches long.

If we make the cabinet 198 liters, we can get the bass to -3dB at 24 Hz. This would be a cabinet that is 37.107 high, 22.933 inches wide and 14.174 inches deep. A 3 inch wide port would be 7.069 inches long.

Building and shipping large cabinets is more expensive than building and shipping small cabinets. Given that MDF is a very inexpensive material, the subwoofer is probably the best candidate for a DIY project. The woofer that we used in this simulation is the Adire Audio Shiva Mark II. This woofer has several advantages. First of all, it can handle lots of power — up to 650 watts. The woofer also has dual voice coils so it is possible to use a single woofer with a passive crossover. Also, the woofer is relatively inexpensive – about $140.00 USD.

The subwoofers we manufacture use 8 inch drivers. We suggest that customers buy them in pairs. The woofer we use will produce down to 26 Hz -3dB. The amount of output available from the 12 inch woofer is indeed greater but our subwoofer will produce up to 106 dB without reaching the limits of the woofer. We believe that the marble cabinets and our amplifiers make our marble subwoofer very musical and produce a sound that is quite natural.

If what you want is a woofer to reinforce movies, then you can use a subwoofer connected to the LFE (subwoofer) output of your home theater processor and use two marble subwoofers for your left and right loudspeakers. While this might seem excessive, it would actually provide the best of all worlds. Another advantage of this approach is that you can use the crossover built into your processor with any amplifier to power your home theater subwoofer.

Thank you again for stopping by and reading our site. We invite you to look around and learn more about nOrh products. We believe we offer the greatest value in audio. Our products are extremely high quality as they are handcrafted here in Thailand.

Sincerely,

Michael C. Barnes
President
nOrh Loudspeaker Company, Ltd.

Top | Back to News