Older news - November 2001

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Le Amp

In September, we shipped approximately 300 Le Amps. The reports coming back from readers has been overwhelmingly positive. Everyone agreed that Le Amp had lots of power, plenty of bass, runs cool and was built like a tank. The one negative comment was that the LED was too bright. In future versions, we will tone down the LED brightness. We will also make available a kit to reduce the LED brightness. If you have bought Le Amp and want to make this change, you will be required to send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to an address we will give to you.

Le Amp was designed from the ground up to produce music. We wanted an amplifier that sounded very musical and had a “toe tapping” sound. We wanted to make an amplifier that would enhance both music and video.

When we introduced Le Amp, we realized that at this price, Le Amp was likely to find itself used in a lot of non-highend applications. We imagined that DJ's would like it. We also imagined that some some people would hook up their computers directly to Le Amps and that other people would use receivers as preamps. We were right on all counts. Because we did not know how or where Le Amps were going to be used, we built in a blocking capacitor.

A blocking capacitor stops DC from going through the amplifier and passing directly to the tweeters. Le Amp's designer put a shunt in Le Amp so that any ground would not be amplified. While this is probably enough protection, he also put in a blocking capacitor. The blocking capacitor was chosen as not to add any harshness to the signal bath.

When compared to some high-end amplifiers that are DC coupled (no blocking capacitors), Le Amp didn't sound as open. One customer bypassed the blocking capacitor and then wrote a report that he felt that Le Amp beat a $9,000 amplifier in all areas but bass.

On AudioAsylum, a well respected designer and owner of VMPS , Brian Cheney, challenged us to prove that Le Amp was a good performer. Without our participation, he arranged to borrow Le Amp from one of our customers. The review resulted in a heated debate between Brian and me on AA. He assumed that Le Amp was just another cheap import. There are many low-priced products from Asia that really do not have much merit. Brian took up the challenge to listen to Le Amp. You can read his posts on here. I would like to thank Brian Cheney for his posts and invite our readers to visit his site. He has some very interesting things to say about audio and his products certainly deserve consideration. Anyone interested can look at our test results.

For those people who would like to improve the sound of their Le Amp, we have a very simple modification. For anyone with experience soldering, the modification will take about five minutes. The details for this modification is here.

A few customer comments on Le Amp:

"My immediate impression was that the sound was more dynamic, the soundstage was taller and wider, and there was more clarity. Bass was better controlled and more powerful. Pitch definition of bass notes was also improved."

"Le amps arrived this morning. Build quality really impressive."

"So all in all I would have to say these le amps are a tremendous value. At $295 MSRP ($500 for a pair) you just can't beat it and they put the rest of the audio manufacturers to shame. The intro price was well ... let me see...... a steal! Was this legal! "

One of the questions I get all the time is about subwoofers. I generally am asked, what loudspeaker should I get to match with XY subwoofer? I am always surprised that people would select their subwoofer first. It is as if the left and right loudspeakers are an afterthought. So long as they have bass, I guess they don't care what the rest sounds like. My advise is always the same. Those who take my advise are never sorry. The advise is, if you want bass, get a loudspeaker that produces bass. Add a subwoofer only after you have completed your system and you know exactly what you need to add.

I used a pair of 9.0s in my main system and only use subwoofers for movies. For music, I use only the 9.0s. Prior to getting the 9.0s, I used a pair of 7.0s and a pair of subwoofers. I prefer the sound I am getting now with only the 9.0s. The nOrh 3.0s and nOrh 4.0s do not produce deep bass. If you have either of these, adding a subwoofer will extend the low frequencies. However, if you have the budget, getting a pair of SM 6.9s, will give you bass and you will get better performance in other areas as well.

We have now added the SM 5.1s. This provides a very low-cost way to get the performance of the ceramic/marble 4.0s but more bass. Moving up to the SM 6.1s, provides improved sensitivity, smoother sound and more power handling. The SM 6.9s improve the bass performance but requires more power than the SM 6.1s.

The Prism line are ideal for people who want floorstanding loudspeakers. The Prism 5.2 has essentially the same sound as the wood 5.1 but might be easier to place in some situations. The Prism 6.1 is essentially the same as the SM 6.1 in terms of drivers. The larger cabinet provides a bit more bass and the floor standing configuration might be easier for some applications. I personally use the Prism 6.6s in my bedroom. Curt selected the Prim 6.6s for his testing. The Prim 6.6 are very smooth sounding. They produce very good bass. The sensitivity is the highest for any nOrh loudspeaker. They are rated at 93 dB sensitivity.

The Prism 6.9s are the same drivers are our popular SM 6.9. The larger cabinet extends the bass response down to 33 Hz -3dB. The 6.9 cabinet looks like something sculptured from a single block of wood. Unlike most other floor standing loudspeakers in it price range, the Prim loudspeakers all look like fine handcrafted furniture.

The comments we are getting on the SM 6.9s and SM 6.1s are very exciting. The SM 6.1 uses two highly efficient Vifa drivers for a sensitivity of 90 dB. The SM 6.1 is a great choice for budget systems. The SM 6.1s are very smooth sounding. They offer great dynamics and look fantastic.

The SM 6.9s have exceeded all of our customer's expectations. Everyone has told us that the bass response is simply unbelievable. They have also commented on the SM 6.9s ability to resolve the inner detail of the music and its ability to create a realistic sound stage.

We have added some new colors to our line of synthetic marble speakers. We want to allow people to more easily mix ceramic and synthetic marbles.