nOrh Newsletter

November, 2001

Review of Ceramic 4.0 at TNT has been posted.

Stereophile asked an interesting question in a recent issue. They wanted to know if you are an equipment lover or a music lover. It would seem that audio should be a means to an end and that end would be the reproduction of sound. Unfortunately, we often forget about the music and get too caught up in the hardware. I often get e-mail from customers who think that the goal of their audiophile grade systems is to reveal every single fault that exists in the recording. Many of them say that they can no longer enjoy their CD collection because the recordings sound very harsh. They claim that they are buying only audiophile grade CDs. I think this is a sad situation.

Just because you become an audiophile doesn't mean that you have to give up the music you love most. Whether you listen to RAP, R&B, classical, jazz, rock, pop, country, or hip hop, your audio systems should enhance your listening experience and not destroy it.

There is a popular myth in the audiophile world that most recording engineers don't know what they are doing and their over-processing renders most CDs unlistenable. I really don't believe this. Many recording engineers go to great lengths to make their recordings sound good. I think that what is happening is that many audiophile companies tend to go to extremes to make recordings sound bad.

nOrh's goal is accuracy. We want to maintain the signal integrity throughout the signal path. I believe the best way to evaluate an audio system is with music you know and love. The goal of audio equipment should be to create a realistic and enjoyable experience—one that mimics the actual performance as best as possible. It is an error to try to smooth over faults or to create a sound that is artificially lush. It is also wrong to emphasize or enhance the flaws in a performance. One reviewer recently said that nOrh equipment had the best toe-tapping quality of any of the systems under comparisons. This is exactly what we are striving for. We want people to enjoy their music.

I love DVDs. I used to love LDs too. Unfortunately, I was one of the few who did and the format died out. DVDs are great because it seems that everyone loves them. I particularly like music DVDs. My absolute favorite is the live James Taylor DVD. I try to buy DVDs for my daughter but her taste in music is at best fleeting. It was not all that long ago when she wanted me to take her to get an autograph of the Spice Girls as they were in Bangkok promoting themselves (they had not yet released their CD in the US). Now she tells me she is into Punk. I argue with her that she hasn't got a clue what Punk is because I am old enough to know what Punk was. She never heard of the Sex Pistols, the Ramones or the Clash. Her idea of Punk is what I call "derivative rock". It could just as well be called "three chord rock" also as none of her music appears to have more than three chords. Unfortunately, there isn't much that nOrh can do to improve the sound of her music. It is compressed, processed and bland.

Not remembering what groups she liked this week, I saw a DVD from Destiny's Child, The Platinum's On The Wall. I took the DVD home to my daughter but she said she really wasn't into them. I put on the DVD. As far as content, the DVD is very sparse. However, what is on the disk is astonishingly good. I can not say that this is the sort of music I would listen to as music. However, combined with the videos, this is really an infectious DVD. It has everything I normally dislike about pop music. There is rap, overuse of electronics and nonsensical lyrics. None-the-less, the talent behind this group is very obvious.

When I played this DVD on the 9.0s, I realized that this disk really shows of the capabilities fully. The bass on this DVD is deep and fast. These ladies voices are really very nice and they are recorded perfectly. Two songs stand out to me. One is Bills Bills Bills. In this song, the voices are always clean and clear and never overpowered by the music. The other song that stands out is Say My Name. I like this song because the video is quite artistic. These ladies are talented, clever and quite attractive. Another thing I like is that they always come off as classy and not trashy in the videos.

I went to Bangkok's CD Warehouse and listened to new CDs on their headphones. One that I listened to was Radio Head Amnesiac. The disk seemed to have very good bass so I bought it. Listening to this CD was almost trancelike. This CD isn't for everyone. However, it does demonstrate once again just how well the nOrh 9.0s handle bass and how fast they can deliver that bass.

Everyone who has written to us about the Thai Boy CDs we promote have told us that these are a great change of music. We still have them available and you can add them to your orders for $8.00 each.

nOrh recently acquired the license to one of the highest praised audiophile Jazz CD issues. The CD is Blue Skies by The Harry Allen Quartet. We will have details on the release soon. "The Harry Allen Quartet’s debut outing is an assured and swinging disc of ballads that showcase this ensemble to good effect. …[T]his is great stuff in a late-night, mellow mood, but these guys can rock out, too, as an up-tempo reading of Bert Williams’ minstrel song "Shine" reveals." Stereophile

Lek with SM 6.9 and wood nOrh 4.0

The PEAK MAGAZINE did a story on nOrh.  The PEAK MAGAZINE is carried in the First Class and Business Class cabins of Air France, Cathay Pacific and Lufthansa as well as sent to select individuals in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.  The article is not online but we recreated it for the web.

Christmas Specials

We have been working hard to build up our stocks to get ready for Christmas. We are posting our Christmas specials early to give everyone an opportunity to review their gift list (including themselves) and take advantage of these prices. If you order any of the specials, we should be able to ship them to meet Christmas demand.

We have plenty of 3.0 drums in stock. These are only $150.00 per pair. They make ideal gifts. The Prism Teak 3.0s for 195.00 per pair are very classic looking. We are also introducing the black 3.0.

One of the comments we receive frequently is how our photographs don't do justice to our images.  We have been on the web for over three and a half years.  The quality of digital cameras has improved greatly since we started putting up images. Unfortunately, we have not replaced many of our old photographs.  Hopefully, we will try to improve the photos on our website. Even then, it is very hard to appreciate the beauty of norh loudspeakers in photos shrunk down to ease downloads.  If you write us, we can send you higher resolution images that will give you a better  idea how nOrh loudspeakers look

The nOrh 3.0  is an ideal way to evaluate the nOrh sound.  At $150.00 per pair, the nOrh 3.0 offers an ideal replacement for the unattractive, poor sounding loudspeakers that come with many modestly priced audio systems.  The nOrh 3.0 are ideal for offices, dorms, bedrooms or even modest audio systems.  All nOrh 3.0s are shielded so they can be used right next to televisions or computer monitors. We have had 100% customer satisfaction with the nOrh 3.0s.  The nOrh 3.0s were also reviewed on TNT.   There are other loudspeakers you can buy under $200.00 but none show any degree of craftsmanship and most of them sound bad.  The nOrh 3.0s are beautiful and sound very good.  

While we have had backorders for months on our Ceramic 4.0s, we have been building up our inventories of wood 4.0s. We are going to offer these at a reduced price of $300.00 per pair. Shielded versions are available for $175.00 each.

The wood 4.0s use the same components as the ceramics. We sold many hundred pairs of the wood 4.0s for $400.00. These make beautiful gifts and is a perfect opportunity to add second and third systems in the house. These also make great center and rear channels. All wood loudspeakers are available in walnut, natural, black finishes. From now until Christmas, we are offering the wood 4.0s for only $300.00 per pair. You can mix and match the 4.0s and 3.0s for a very beautiful and inexpensive A/V system.

We are also offering a special on the wood 5.1s. The special is $400.00 per pair. A shielded version is $225.00. I personally use a shielded 5.1 for my center speaker with my personal pair of marble 9.0s. The wood 4.0s were reviewed in Absolute Sound and TNT-Audio.

We are very happy to introduce our newest loudspeaker--the SM 5.1.  The SM 5.1 is available in all of the colors that we make synthetic marble. Today, this included blue, red, pink, light green, white and black. The SM 5.1 are available in shielded version.  The price of the SM 5.1 is $500 per pair.

We now have the CD-1s in stock. The CD-1 has received very favorable reviews. TNT praised the CD-1 as one of the best sounding CD players they had heard.

I get many e-mails about the CD-1. Many customers ay that this was the most surprising improvement they have made in their system. People describe it as improving every CD in their collection. Many customers have played with a variety of tubes to see if they could squeeze even more performance from the CD-1.

I also get many questions about tubes. I have seen many different letters from customers suggesting various tubes for the CD-1 that make the performance even better. One of the tubes that comes highly recommended is the GE 5751. A good background on the 12AX7 tube that we use can be found here.

We are going to offer free interconnects with orders of CD-1 for a limited time. These interconnects are made from solid silver wire. We braid three strands of solid silver. This is the same wire we use in the 7.0s and 9.0s. We normally sell this for $100 per meter plus connectors.

nOrh CD-1

We have marble 9.0s and 7.0s in stock. If you purchase a pair of 9.0s or 7.0s, you will receive a pair of our marble and stainless steel stands for no additional charge. This special is for Christmas only - we normally charge $500.00 for these 24 inches tall stands. The stands are available in black or white.

We are putting together a Marble 7.0 video set. This includes a pair of marble 7.0s and three marble 4.0s (one shielded). We have 7.0s in stock but we are still trying to catch up with marble 4.0s. The price for the Video set is $2,800.00.

The SM 6.9 is now one of our most popular loudspeakers now. The reviews have been overwhelmingly positive. We are offering a video set that consists of a pair of SM 6.9 and 3 ceramic (1 shielded) 4.0s for $1,500.00. The SM 6.9 and ceramic 4.0s are among our most popular items. We therefore urge you to order early.

While the SM 6.9 offer tremendous value for the money, the marble 7.0s are still a better loudspeaker. The Scanspeak drivers are faster and more detailed. The look of real marble simply can't be duplicated 100%. We use silver wire and Multicap capacitors in the 7.0s.

We are also now offering a marble rack. The five shelf marble rack is available for $1,200.00. Please write for quotes for three and four shelves racks. While the price of the nOrh marble racks are not inexpensive, they are actually much less expensive than many audio racks. A complete set of two five shelves and a three shelves rack in the center would cost about $3000. Imagine an all marble system with marble loudspeakers, marble racks, marble stands and marble subwoofers (coming soon).

We sold out of our first shipment of Le Amps. We are working to produce our next shipment now. If required, we will ship by air to get them to the US in time for Christmas. The price is $295.00 each, $495.00 per pair and $250 for the third amplifier. For our Christmas special, this price includes shipping.

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.

New Business Opportunity

As most of you know, I come from the computer industry. Until recently, I worked for Sun Microsystems. I had worked for Sun Microsystems for over 13 years. I left three months ago to pursue some personal projects.

For the past three months, I have been working on what I believe will be the next major high tech market. I am part of a new startup called NorhTec Microservers. This company is developing total solutions based on micropowered networks. Microservers are small devices that pack the functionality of a datacenter server in a form factor that is no much larger than a PDA. NorhTec microservers are x86 compatible. This means they will run existing applications based on Windows 9x, Windows 2000, Linux, and Solaris x86.

The NorhTec Microservers will run on as little as five watts. This means that you could run a classroom of computers with an 80 watt solar panel. They are small enough to allow networking and Internet access in airplanes, ships, and trains.

The Microservers will open up new markets and opportunities as it will make it possible to extend the Internet where it has never been possible before.

NorhTec is actively seeking investors and partners. Please write hambrook@apectec.com for a prospectus and non-disclosure agreement. This is a very unique opportunity to get in on the ground floor of an emerging new market. Imagine if you could run any application currently running on an x86 processor but you now have the ability to put this device in your pocket, how much would this change the way you use and access the Internet?

Sincerely,

Michael C. Barnes
President
nOrh Loudspeaker Company, Ltd