<< Back to news
Older news - September 2001
Curt Wishman, President of Integrity Research and Development, holding up Le Amp which he designed
The big news this month is that by the time you are reading this, over 280 Le Amps are being shipped by air. For the units going to the USA, there will be no additional charge for the air shipment. We wanted to get these amplifiers out as quickly as possible.
The photograph above shows Curt Wishman holding Le amp showing the feet. Why the feet? Look at the bottom of just about any amplifier. How much thought do you think went into the feet? Many amplifiers costing thousands of dollars use stick on rubber or screw on rubber feet. Le Amp's feet are made from polished machined aluminum with vibration free rubber inserts. The aluminum gives a finished and classic look to the amp while the rubber feet protect furniture and isolates the amp from vibration.
This is not the only place where there has been a great deal of attention to detail.
The photo above shows Le Amp without the laser cut logos. The unit on the left is shown with its cover off.
Le Amp is designed to be a sonically superior amplifier. Everything has been done and no expense has been spared to make this a truly high-end amplifier. The front is finished with an anodized sand blasted aluminum front panel that will have nOrh's logo laser etched into the front. The back is very straight forward except that the connectors are very high quality. The speaker terminals are gold plated and not plastic. If you look along the side, you will see that there are lots of screws. Each screw has a nylon insert to make it easy to remove and tighten each screw. The amplifier is built to take abuse. Note that the edges are rounded. This is much more expensive to manufacture than the traditional 90 degree angles found on most amplifiers.
Le Amp features a massive 400 V/A transformer—that is 800 V/A per stereo pair
Most 100 to 150 watt per channel monoblocks have 200 to 250 V/A transformers (or less). As you increase the volume of your music, the amplifier sounds compressed. It is compressed because while you are playing 20 watts, the peaks would require 200 watts. The power supply simply can't generate this overhead so the music sounds dull and lifeless. The transformers are specially built for us. They have only .65 ohms impedance. You can see that the transformer is wound using very heavy duty wire. The transformer has a silicon and steel belt around the outside. Also pictured at the two 10,000 uf BC capacitors. These are among the best electrolytic capacitors made for audio.
This photo shows the power supply. Note he heavy duty wires leading the the oversized 35 amp bridge rectifier.
You can see the TDA7294 output device connected directly to the custom heat sink. Note the shielded signal wire and the heavy duty speaker wire. Also note the size of the wire used throughout.
Pictured is the output section of the amplifier. The heat sink is designed specially for Le Amp. It is built to 1/3000th of an inch. Le Amp will run cool to touch. Some people believe an amplifier needs to be hot to sound good. This is simply not the case - FETs will output less power as they overheat. Heat is the enemy of all solid state components. Let's face it, in the computer world, if we document a bug, it becomes a feature. In the audiophile world, the same is true.
Le Amp have the speed and resolution only found in the most expensive solid state amplifiers. It has the same smooth sound that most people associate with SE Amps. It has the sort of headroom usually only found in large monster amplifiers and it is built as rugged as the most professional gear.
The TDA 7294 is self protected against heat and shorts. I personally really appreciate this as I have blown out the power sections of some very expensive equipment before. Le Amp is designed to be failproof and easy to fix. Congratulations to Curt Wishman for an extremely well engineered amplifier.
There are some very inexpensive monoblocks on the market today for about $350.00 USD each. These units can never compare to the quality we are offering with Le Amps. We fully expect Le Amps to compare with some of the best 100 watt amplifiers made.
The reason why nOrh exists is to challenge the industry. If we didn't offer better product for less money, there is no need for use to exist. Le Amp will sell for $295.00 each or $495.00 when ordered as a pair. If you order three, the third is $250.00. This means that if somebody orders 5 amps, the cost will be ($495 x 2) + $250. This includes shipping.
We have set up a service center in the USA specially for Le Amps. For units in the USA, they can ship to a repair facility in the USA. Otherwise, they can ship back to our facility in Thailand.
For more details and pictures of Le Amp, please see this page.
We got three reviews on the Ceramic 4.0s in August. These reviews were all very enthusiastic about the sound.
WWW.CHEAPHOMETHEATER.COM didn't like the unusual look of the nOrh drums but they said "we were very impressed with their sound quality and performance."
WWW.GOODSOUND.COM stated "Put the nOrh 4.0s at the very top of your list. Remember, in addition to their excellent sonics, you'll also be purchasing unique, contemporary, refined looks." What really made me happy about the review is they applauded the skill of our Thai craftsman stating "Hats off to Michael Barnes for his strong vision, and to all his Thai workers who labor over fabricating these ceramic (or wooden or marble) speakers by hand."
HTTP://WWW.TNT-AUDIO.COM had some problems with their server this month. I am told that this will be corrected by the time this page is displayed. I am told they will also review the Ceramic 4.0s soon.
The big news this month is the Le Amp. We have shipped 200 Le Amps to the US by air and another 80 amps to other countries (as of the end of August). We expect to start seeing reviews and comparisons on the web. We are quite proud of Le Amp as we believe it can compare to some of the best 100 wpc amplifiers made. Le Amps are designed to provide years of trouble free operation and are designed to be very easy to service.
The Synthetic Marble 6.1s and 6.9s are shipping. We have no backlog problems with these loudspeakers. Customer reactions have been very positive. Our next Synthetic Marble loudspeaker will be the 5.1. The 5.1 is a larger version of the 4.0. It offers the same high-quality sound but it also offers deeper bass. We don't have a shipping date for the new SM 5.1 but we believe that it should be ready in the next couple of weeks.
I never thought that nOrh would become so popular so quickly. I find it ironic that at a time when many people have lost faith in the Internet, we have been able to be so successful. Our challenge has been to keep up with demand. We actually never set out to sell equipment directly to end-users. We originally looked for dealers. Once we put up our website over three years ago, we have been backordered ever since.
For the first time, we are now actually catching up with our backlog. We still are backordered on ceramics but we can ship just about every other model. We are adding new suppliers for ceramics and hope that very soon, we will be able to meet demand for this very popular loudspeaker as well.
I have tried to analyze why we have had so much success on the Internet while other industries have not had as much success. There are new audio companies trying out the direct model every month. Why does it work for audio and not other industries?
I believe that the reason why nOrh and other companies can succeed selling directly to customers while other industries have not found the Internet effective is that the audio industry had created a large private club. This private club did not react to typical market forces. The manufactures worked with dealers and magazines to ensure that they could charge outrageous prices and everyone would benefit. The manufactures were able to charge prices that were way beyond what other industries could charge with similar costs. The magazines received advertising money and proclaimed these ultra-expensive products were actually "bargains".
Dealers benefited because the manufacturers would work to make sure that outlets selling their products only sold these products at list price. If someone tried to break into this club, there was no way to reach their audience. We are not the first company to challenge the status-quo. Many companies have tried to introduce high-end products that are fairly price but if they can't get reviewed by the magazines they can't get into dealers. If they can't get into dealers, they can't reach their customers.
The magazines and dealers tell people that you should never buy an audio product without hearing it first. The problem is that if you go to these places to listen to equipment, you only hear what they want you to hear under conditions they control.
I have often mentioned Shahinian Acoustics. Prior to starting my own loudspeaker company, I only purchased Shahinian Acoustics products. I found all other loudspeakers simply lacking. Shahinian products have always been much more fairly priced than most of the products that you will find in the typical audio salon. If listening is key to selecting your loudspeakers, why can't you just go out and listen to Shahinian Acoustics' loudspeakers? The reason is that the industry hasn't accepted Shahinian Acoustics into their club because they have refused to play by the rules. Also, their speakers sound so much better than most of the products in the audio salons that it would simply embarrass the audio salons for having inferior loudspeakers that cost many more times the price.
The Internet is the first challenge that the audiophile country club has had to deal with. They don't like it either. They don't like the idea that the Internet is allowing customers to buy direct and bypass this system they have put into place. They don't like it that customers are able to share experiences and express their own opinions. They don't like it that people who love audio and music can have an opinion of their own that they can express openly and freely.
Many customers write to me and tell me that I should be concerned that more companies are trying to use our model of selling directly to customers over the Internet. I remind them that we view this as a positive. Customers should have a choice. Audio products should be more fairly priced. Customers should have access to more innovative ideas rather than being spoon-fed on the latest implementation of an MDF box with some magic crossover that transforms $600 of parts into a $10,000 system.
I am sure the people reading this might wonder what has me so wound up this month. The reason we are so wound up is because of Le Amp. This month, we will ship nearly 300 Le Amps to people around the world. We believe that Le Amp will challenge amplifiers costing 10 times more than Le Amp. We have set ourselves up to be able to produce huge quantities of Le Amp. We know that when customers hear the quality of the sound and see the quality of construction, they will now realize how badly gouged they have been in the past.
We don't expect everyone to be happy by this realization. If you paid $10,000 for an amplifier and find out you could have had the same or better quality for $500.00, would you be happy or would you be in denial. We expect that there will be many attacks on us because of what we are doing - but not from our customers. Our customers will be very happy with their choice. The Internet has given our customers a voice and our customers have become our salesforce.
Below is a collection of photos we have received from customers. If you would like to show off your nOrh equipment, please send us your photos. We will set up a section that shows off your nOrhs.
Several customers have sent up photos of their setups. I really enjoy these pictures because they show just how well the nOrh loudspeakers blend into a room.
I really like this photo. This is actually someone's house. Notice that everyone is dancing and the speakers are nOrh 4.0s.
|
Pair of nOrh 5.1 sitting on customer designed stands |
|
This month I would like to talk about tweaking. Many audiophiles enjoy tweaking. They enjoy going into an amplifier or a pair of loudspeakers and replacing components to improve the overall performance. A skilled engineer with the right testing equipment might be able to do this effectively. However, no engineer can know exactly why another engineer made certain choices. I get e-mail all the time from customers who ask us questions because they want to try to squeeze more performance from our products.
In the case of the CD-1, many customers report that changing the tubes to Svetlanta tubes improves the sound. In this case, tweaking is probably justified. One of the fun things about owning tube equipment is that it invites you to play with different tubes. Another aspect of changing tubes is you don't have to be an engineer or know how to solder to swap out tubes.
Changing capacitors or coils in a crossover is another issue. I recently had a customer contact me and tell me they had replaced some Bennic capacitors with Solens. I never received a response when I explained to the customer that Solens buys their capacitors from Bennic and that the unit we use happens to be the best capacitor that Bennic makes.
I tell customers that the best way to improve your loudspeakers is to go active. Active crossovers are going to outperform passive crossovers. Biamping is going to give you a major improvement in dynamic range, power and speed. While Le Amp is only 100 watts, it is more power than you need if you connect directly to a woofer and a tweeter.
We plan to build our own electronic crossover and we plan to price it modestly because we believe this is the most significant improvement you can make to your system.
At nOrh, we really do try to achieve the best possible sound we can. We do not cut corners with any part of our system. We use very high quality wire, very high quality connectors and use high quality crossover components. If you really want to tweak our speakers, go active. If you simply enjoy tweaking, then you should buy a loudspeaker that uses cheap components.
Note: If you are planning to visit Thailand
or any other locations in Asia, please take a look at Cathay Pacific's Asia
Pass promotion. Here's
the link to the promotional offer.
Sincerely,
Michael C. Barnes
President
nOrh Loudspeaker Company, Ltd
