News - December 2002

For nearly five years, nOrh loudspeakers has been introducing loudspeakers that set the standard for beauty and sound. Our loudspeakers are very unconventional because conventional loudspeakers are designed to take advantage of the cheapest materials and the cheapest packaging. A box cabinet is the easiest cabinet to build and package. The materials can be as cheap as plastic, PVC covered chipboard or MDF. For over 50 years, acoustic engineers have known that the box loudspeaker is not acoustically ideal. They know that the energy inside the cabinet reflects back and forth and that this energy interferes with the woofer's movement and creates standing waves.

nOrh Loudspeakers is not the first or only loudspeakers to apply unconventional geometry. Many of the most expensive loudspeakers available use exotic materials, unique shapes, and high quality components to achieve the ultimate in sound. nOrh Loudspeaker is the first company to try to apply these techniques and make them available to compete with the lowest priced audio systems. At nOrh, we believe that many people have prematurely given up their love of music because of two reasons. The first is that high quality audio equipment has become too expensive and the second is that expensive and inexpensive audio equipment is designed to be big and ugly.

At nOrh, we build products that we believe are easy to work into any decor. Our products are designed to blend into your room rather than to stand our or dominate. Many customers have told us that their guests have asked "where are your loudspeakers"? We regard that as a compliment. If our loudspeakers blend so well into the background of the home, then we have done our job.

If this is the first time to our website, welcome. If you have been here before, welcome back. For five years, nOrh Loudspeaker has been employing Thai craftsman to build the most beautiful audio equipment available anywhere. Our focus is to create loudspeakers and amplifiers that are "works of art". Our electronics and loudspeakers are all built by hand. They are built in a way that has almost virtually disappeared. Today, audio equipment is mostly over-priced, poor sounding and ugly. Please take time and look at our creations. I am confident that you will agree that nOrh products are among the most beautiful, most finely crafted and most affordable audio products available anywhere.

As I write this, Christmas is just around the corner. Last year, I remember that Christmas didn't feel like Christmas. I remember wishing that Christmas could be put off for a few months because of all the events that were going on. This year, I am more into the Christmas spirit. All of us continue to face challenges but I think that overall, things are improving.

This year, 2002, has been a very busy year for us. We saw that because the economy has been so challenging, buying expensive audio equipment for many most of us, was simply out of the question. We have seen a large number of very respected audio companies go out of business this year. In some cases, their names have been snapped up so that the while the brands will still be around, the original owners and spirit will not.

While many company have gone out of business and others have gone into hibernation, this year, nOrh has introduced more new products than ever before. Our focus has been to come up with designs that are more affordable and offer more value for those who are on a limited budget. This year, we introduced the Teak 5.2s, Teak 4.1, Marble 3.0s, Mini 9.0, SE 9, Marble Subwoofer, nOrh phono preamp, Pyramid and the SE 18. We also introduced Synthetic Marble versions of the 7.0 and 9.0.

I got many letters this year asking me when we would come out with a nOrh 10. I have actually stocked some expensive drivers with the intention of seeing if we could come up with a design that beats the 9.0. However, this year, we decided to focus on offering more value for the money rather than trying to create products that were more expensive. As it looks like the economy is finally improving, I believe we made the right choices. Our best selling products are those that are the least expensive. The SE 9 is being snapped up as quickly as we can produce them. The nOrh 3.0s and nOrh 4.0s are our best selling loudspeaker. The new Pyramids have been selling very well. Our real teak loudspeakers are very good sellers.

Every new product that we introduced is doing very well. The SE 9 has become quite a hit. I have included some comments from satisfied customers. Many of our customers are writing that they are rediscovering music because the SE 9 sounds so much better than anything they have ever used.

This month, we are shipping out our first SE 18 amplifiers. The SE 18 is not the most inexpensive integrated single-ended tube amplifier on the market but I bet it is probably the best sounding integrated amplifier available under $1,000.00. The SE 18 is designed to create the same quality of sound that many audiophiles pay thousands of dollars to achieve. The SE 18 is $799.95 and that includes shipping.

We have been shipping the Pyramids. We believe that the Pyramid is one of the best loudspeakers for single ended tube amps for its efficiency and one of the best for surround sound because of its imaging ability. We now have the Pyramids available in gray.

Movies

I tend to see most of the movies I watch for the first time on DVD. My wife always tells me that if I want to know where all the money goes, look at my DVD collection. I tend to buy just about everything – even if I know it is bad. I have a weakness for 1950s science fiction movies and I also and a collector of really bad movies.

This year, I was mostly disappointed by the movies I saw. One of the biggest disappointments was Star Wars II. I simply could not believe how uninteresting the story was and how the special effects tended to get in the way rather than enhance the story.

I liked Spiderman. When I spoke to our factory manager, Pan, about the movie, she told me it was just a remake of Superman. I asked her to explain. She explained that both Superman and Spiderman were orphans. The father dies in both movies at about the same time in their lives. They both have women they care about that they won't reveal their secret identities to. They both work for newspapers. The both encounter and evil genius who knows their weaknesses. Both have to decide between letting the women they love die or saving innocent people.

I was quite surprised that there so many similarities. I guess that too often, we just watch the same movie over and over. Different actors, different settings, better special effects, but, still the same story.

Every now and then, a movie comes along that tells a completely original story and is presented in a way that is unique. This year, I saw two such movies. The first was Memento (2000). Memento is about an insurance investigator who looses his short-term memory when his wife is being raped. He can remember all the details of his happy marriage, successful career, but he can not remember anything after his injury. He knows that his wife has died. Because he can't remember anything but more than a few minutes, he writes clues on scraps of paper, takes photographs of people and places and tattoos his body with important information.

The story is played with the events played backwards. This helps create an atmosphere of disorientation that the real character must feel as he wakes up in places he doesn't recognize and have encounters with people he doesn't know.

I thought that Memento would be the most unusual and most entertaining movie I would see this year. I was surprised when I found another movie that was even more unusual, more entertaining and probably the best movie I saw this whole year. The movie is Donnie Darko. Donnie Darko is about a teenager who has had a history of emotional problems. His family is caring and loving but their son's emotional problems creates strains. The main character, is well aware that he is having problems. We learn that Donnie Darko had committed arson a few years back. He has been seeing a psychiatrist who has him on medication. We come into the story as Donnie's problems appear to be getting worse. He begins sleep walking, leaving the house and waking up in strange places. After that, Donnie starts seeing a giant figure dressed up in a rabbit suit that tells him that the world will end in 28 days.

Donnie Darko is a very unusual and very satisfying movie. The movie takes place in the early 1980s. The music, dress and conversation is laced with images of that time. The young people in this movie are far more multidimensional that they would be portrayed in a adolescent exploitation film. The adults and young people in this film seem like real people.

The end scene from Donnie Darko features that plays Gary Jules' version of Mad World, a song originally recorded by Tears and Fears. The song fits the movie perfectly. One of the bonus features of the disk is the music video for Mad World. I downloaded this song from Kazaza figuring that I had paid for the license for the song having bought the DVD.

I highly recommend Donnie Darko. I am sure there are people out there who do believe Star Wars II was the best film last year. For me, Donnie Darko is the best movie I saw this year.

From the beginning, we have given the same message. That message is that audio doesn't have to be expensive to be enjoyable. It doesn't have to look cheap or sound bad to be inexpensive. For the audio industry, nOrh does something that is simply unheard of, we use our costs as the baseline to establish our selling price. While this might be how every other industry works, the audio industry works on a completely different set of rules.

Most audio companies place a subjective value on what the manufacturer perceives the sound of their product is. If the manufacturer believes their product sounds better than some over priced audio gear, that manufacturer will set the price accordingly. Today, it is possible to find loudspeakers that cost $1 million a pair. It is common to find amplifiers that cost more than an automobile. A few feet of copper wire can cost more than wall to wall carpeting.

It was not uncommon for people to spend $100,000 USD for a home theater system. Sometimes, houses were refinanced so that the owners could pay for the A/V systems over thirty years. Sometimes stock options were cashed in, bonuses were used or a few shares of a growing stock were sold.

As we approach the end of 2002, things are not quite the way they were a few years ago. $100,000 seems like a lot more money now than it did to many a few years ago. I wonder how many people who spent $40,000 to $100,000 on their audio systems would rather trade them back in and have the cash. It is not that these people are not enjoying their systems. It is only that money is much harder to come by now than it was a few months ago. Some people are probably worrying about their children's education or even their own jobs as they watch the latest DVD on their now three year old A/V system.

nOrh Loudspeaker has never been arbitrary in the way we price our products. Sometimes, we figure out how to build a better sounding product for less money. When we do, we tell our customers and price the new product based on what it costs us to manufacture and ship that product.

Some people say we have an unfair advantage because we are based in a country with a lower cost of living. I reject this argument. There are many places in this world with lower manufacturing costs than Thailand. There are very few places in the world with the level of craftsmanship that we have in Thailand. It actually costs us more money to build our products than it does other companies. Our ceramic cabinets, marble cabinets and real Teak cabinets cost us much more money than what other loudspeaker companies pay for cheap chipboard with plastic wrap. We pay $75.00 just for the Teak for one 5.2 cabinet. The typical loudspeaker cabinet for a speaker selling for $500.00 per pair costs about $15.00 to manufacture.

Recently, we introduced the SE 9 integrated amplifier. While many other similarly designed integrated amplifiers sell for $1,200 to $2,000, the SE 9 sells for only $399.95. The SE 9 has left our critics speechless. We used the best tubes, custom transformers, beautiful case and high quality parts throughout. The end result is the best looking and sounding integrated amplifier in its class.

As I explain elsewhere in this month's newsletter, we also learned that our least expensive loudspeaker is now becoming the new standard in recording studios. Recording engineers are buying the nOrh 3.0s -- not because they are inexpensive but because they are so much better than anything else its size or price. Today, you have four choices. You can spend about as much as you would on a luxury car or new home to buy a high-end audio setup, you can settle for cheap and ugly systems that are inexpensive, you can just give up and plug your new DVD player into the TV and listen to the sound system built into your TV or you can buy a reasonably priced high quality system from nOrh.

Introducing the SE 18 (18 wpc Single Ended Integrated Tube Amplifier with Phono input.)

Shown below are the pictures of SE-18. Click on the images to enlarge (opens in a new window)

Pan, our factory manager showing off the new SE 18. Tubes look cool – like bottles of fire.

The SE 18 is absolutely beautiful to look at, even better to listen to. A perfect match for the Pyramid loudspeakers.

SE 18 now shipping

The SE 9 has received outstanding reviews for its beauty and its value. For most users, the SE 9 offers enough power and sound. The SE 9 is small enough to fit in small apartments, bedrooms and offices. It is powerful enough to fill even large rooms with music. While the SE 9 is ideal for most people, some audiophiles and music lovers will want more power, even better sound and additional features. The SE 18 doubles the power available from 9 watts to 18 watts. We do this by using two EL34 tubes in parallel. The SE 18 uses no negative feedback. The SE 18 has an active preamp and an integrated phono preamplifier.

The SE 18 is probably the best sounding and possibly the best looking integrated amplifier under $1,000.00. Most audiophiles would assume that sound like this is not possible from an integrated amplifier. Everything about this amplifier is high-end – except its price. The SE 18 draws about 180 watts which is less than many solid state amplifiers.

Special Offer (limited time)

nOrh Loudspeaker has a smaller version of the nOrh 9.0 we call the mini 9.0. The mini 9.0 is made from synthetic marble instead of real marble. It is smaller. The mini 9.0s uses the same woofer but uses the Scanspeak 9700 tweeter instead of the more expensive Revelator. The sound is very similar to the larger 9.0s but for half the price.

We had an overwhelming demand for Mini 9.0s while we were clearing overstock created by a canceled dealer order. In fact, we sold through eight pairs of mini 9.0 in one day. We have decided to make another special offer. This time, we will sell the mini 9.0 in kit form. For $500.00 USD, we will ship the cabinets, crossovers, legs, wires and connectors for the mini 9.0 directly to your house. You simply add the drivers. Our DIY page has a list of dealers selling the appropriate drivers.

The mini 9.0s sell for $1,500 per pair while the nOrh 9.0s sell for $3,000 per pair. For Christmas, we will ship free marble stands worth $500 per pair with every pair of nOrh 7.0s and nOrh 9.0s.

Our new factory on the river. Wat, one of our long term employees goes fishing on his lunch break.

Most people know that my background is computers. Audio has been my hobby but computers is how I have made my living. nOrh is a sideline for me and I don't take any money for it personally. I am driven by several factors. Ego is certainly one of them. Even more than ego, I want to find a way that Thai craftsman can find an outlet for their skills. It won't be long before craftsmanship is completely replaced by automation. In once sense, this is good. In countries like Thailand, there are more craftsman than there are customers to by their handicrafts. I have tried to combine craftsmanship and engineering to create products that are easier to sell than wood carvings of elephants. I have tried to create a safe and comfortable workplace where our employees can enjoy their work and earn a decent wage.

I am proud to say that in nearly five years, we have had no accidents. Safety is a very big concern for me and we are always trying hard to create the safest work environment that we can. This month, we moved into our new factory. I am very pleased that we can find a place for our staff that makes them happy to come to work. I have put some photos of the web of our factory opening. Some customers have come to Thailand and actually asked to take a tour of our factory. Everyone has told us how nice they think it is.

nOrh wants to make you this deal. You give us your business and we will build the finest products at the best prices we possibly can. We will take the money we make from your sale and we will create a better place for our people to work. I will be content with the ego trip I get out of so many people enjoying what I have designed.

nOrh Loudspeaker is trying to reintroduce the world to the enjoyment of listening to music

Audio used to be a fun hobby. Anyone my age (48) will remember how important music was for us. When I was in the first grade, Elvis was hot. We also had Pat Boon, Perry Como, and a lot of artists that our parents enjoyed. Even my grandparents had their favorites. They loved to watch "Sing along with Mitch" and the "Lawrence Welch Show".

My personal favorites as I was growing up was the Beatles. I can remember that when I was in the eighth grade, my small LP collection consisted of Sergeant Peppers, Between the Buttons by the Rolling Stones, Magical Mystery Tour by the Beatles, Frank Zappa and the Mother's of Invention's Freakout, and the Iron Butterfly's first album. My collection of LPs grew as I entered high school and was able to find a part time job.

Today's young people use their computers to listen to music. Microsoft estimates that 20% of their customers use computers as their primary entertainment medium. Today, young people learn about music, exchange music and listen to music on computers. They are listening to music while they browse the Internet, send messages to one another and do their homework.

In addition to nOrh, I am also working on a company called NorhTec. NorhTec is focused on changing the way people use computers. This month, we will bring up our NorhTec website. The website is www.norhtec.com. One of the projects we are working on is a silent computer we call the Panda PC. The Panda PC has a DC/AC power supply so it can be used in automobiles. It is quite small. The system doesn't need a processor or power supply fan. It comes standard with a combination DVD/CDRW drive. While these features alone are quite unique, one of the most unique features of the Panda PC is that it will play DVDs, VCDs and CDs without booting the computer. The BIOS actually has these features built in.

The Panda PC has a composite video output and it has a SPDIF output. You can plug the unit directly into a receiver's digital input for 5.1 channel decoding. The Panda PC consumes much less power than traditional computers. Most computers today use from 250 watts to 400 watts of power. The Panda PC uses less power than most laptops. It consumes only 20 watts.

The Panda PC has been a very challenging project and we have had to design almost everything ourselves. The Panda PC is x86 compatible and will run virtually any x86 based operating system. I have several white papers that I have written the discusses several desktop operating systems and compares Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP and several versions of Linux.

Today, some people will buy a DVD player, a CD player, a computer and a game machine. The Panda PC elegantly combines these functions into a very small, energy efficient and silent package. The Panda PC will sell for $495.00 with 256 MB RAM, 20 GB hard disk, and DVD/CDRW drive. The Panda PC will features integrated MPEG II decoding, 128 bit 2D, 64 bit 3D and 8xAGP graphics. The Panda PC will feature 6 channels of 24 bit audio. The audio decoder and amplifiers are separate – resulting in a S/N ratio of 108 dB! The Panda PC is expected to ship January 2003. We will launch the NorhTec website soon at www.norhtec.com.

I believe that the ideal office computer would be a Panda PC, SE 9 tube amp and a pair of marble 3.0 loudspeakers.

Many people I talk to have given up listening to music anymore. It isn't that they don't like music. It is that listening to music has become so expensive and complicated. Most audio systems that cost under $1000.00 look more like boom boxes. They are simply too cheap looking (and they sound bad).

The SE 9 Integrated Amplifier

"Just wanted to let you know we hooked up the SE 9 to a pair of nOrh ceramic 4s & the sound was absolutely incredible, especially playing jazz. My Thai business partner who is a jazz aficionado was over the moon."

"It is a beautiful piece of equipment, looks great, and sounds just amazing!" - George Martin

"I received the SE 9 yesterday, and it is indeed a beautiful amplifier, and a heavy one at that." - Cato Feness

" I have been listening to the new SE 9 for two days now. I have heard a bigger difference replacing my Jolida 502b with the SE 9 than I did replacing my cheap Audio Alchemy CD player with the nOrh CD-1. I intend to write a review of it on Harmonic Discord soon. The short story is that it sounds great." - Bruce Settergren

"Your speedy shipping is great, and frankly amazing. I don't get things I order that fast from companies here in the states. Great Job!" - Joe Thoen

The SE 9 Integrated Amplifier is the perfect way to reintroduce yourself to the wonderful world of music. It is also a great way to introduce others. The SE 9 is the perfect size for small apartments, dorm rooms, offices and bedrooms. The look is very classy. The sound is absolutely high-end. No other amplifier, solid state or tube, looks or sounds better than the SE 9 at this price.

This Christmas, many people will give or receive cheap and ugly audio simply because they didn't know they could buy beautifully crafted audio equipment as such low prices. If you know someone who might be buying themselves or someone else and audio system, invite them to look at our website. For only $749.95, they can buy the marble 3.0s and a SE 9.0. A pair of wood 3.0s are even less. it just doesn't make sense to buy cheap, ugly, bad sounding audio anymore.

Why tubes?

Many people ask me why tubes? Some audiophiles will tell you that tubes sound better than solid state. That answer is not always correct and it is oversimplified. I believe that both tube and solid state amplifiers can sound fantastic or they can sound terrible. We know that many people have given up audio because most affordable audio systems look cheap and ugly. We wanted to introduce a product that is inexpensive, looks classy, easy to use and sounds great.

The SE 9 is conservatively produces 9 watts. Most people using receivers that claim to offer 40 to 100 watts might believe that 9 watts is simply not enough power. This is not the case. The SE 9 has enough power to drive loudspeakers of modest efficiency to very loud levels. The nOrh 5.1s, 4.0s and 3.0s are rated at 87 dB sensitivity. The SE 9 can drive these to about 99 dB. The SM or Prism 6.1s are rated at 90 dB sensitivity. The SE 9 can drive these to 103 dB. The Prism 6.6 and new Pyramid loudspeakers are rated at 94 dB sensitivity. These speakers will play at 106 dB with the SE 9.

The sound of the SE 9 and a pair of nOrh loudspeakers--even the inexpensive 3.0s can bring back the pleasure of listening to music you might have given up simply because audio had become too complicated, too expensive and quite frankly, too ugly.

For those individuals which a LP collection, you might want to consider our tube phono preamp. The nOrh tube phono preamp is only $250.00 USD shipped.

This week, I had a chance to meet up with a recording engineer who is a big fan of nOrh. He has a pair of 4.0s, marble 9.0s and a pair of Le Amps. He told me that the nOrh 3.0s are now very popular with recording engineers. I was surprised. I knew we are selling a lot of the nOrh 3.0s but we don't require that our customers tell us what they plan to do with them or what they do for a living.

He said that the nOrh 3.0s have several unique qualities that make them better than some much more expensive studio monitors. The first is that they are more accurate than many expensive studio monitors. I was told that in the past, most engineering was done with analog. Now that it is all digital, speakers need to be more accurate and the 3.0s reveal more details of the sound than even expensive studio monitors.

The 3.0s are excellent at reproducing voice. I was told that many TV shows are now recorded using 3.0s. The recording engineers find that the 3.0s reproduce voice very well and make it easier for them to edit voice. I was then told that the 3.0s handle sound effects much better than traditional studio monitors. I was very happy to hear all the great benefits of the nOrh 3.0s. One of the benefits that was not mentioned was the fact that the nOrh 3.0s are very inexpensive.

I asked which model of the nOrh 3.0s were being used in studios. I was told that the Teak Prisms are the most popular. I was quite proud to know that the Prism 3.0s that I use with my computer and in my office were the same loudspeakers that are used in major recording studios. I was even more proud when I remember that I designed them.

nOrh 3.0s drums after finishing, the most beautiful loudspeakers under $200.00 USD per pair (only $150.00)

Reported to be very popular for recording studios. The 3.0 drums are only $150 per pair.

It is is nearly impossible to find a pair of loudspeakers that cost $200 per pair. nOrh sells the real teak 3.0 for only $200.00 a pair. No loudspeaker looks or sounds better at this price

When we went to the Midwest Audio Festival in Ohio, we brought 20 pairs of nOrh 3.0s. We sold out in a few hours with many people wanting to buy more. The nOrh 3.0s are so good that you simply won't believe them until you hear them. The combination of the SE 9 and the nOrh 3.0s costs less than many mini component systems. The marble 3.0s are even more elegant.

Our most popular loudspeakers are the 4.0s. The 4.0s are available in wood, ceramic and marble. The ceramics are by far the best selling version. The ceramic 4.0s are available in a variety of amazing colors that include the All American as well as Celedon Green.

Our best seller, the Black Ceramic 4.0, only $400.00 per pair, and Celedon 4.0, made like fine pieces of treasured art.
(Click on the images to enlarge)

The 4.0s are ideal for smaller rooms or for A/V systems with subwoofers. The nOrh 4.0s have consistently been praised by major websites and magazines that include Absolute Sound, CheapHomeTheater, GoodAudio and TNT-Audio.

The sound from the nOrh 4.0s rivals many highly regarded studio monitors. The nOrh 4.0s can play incredibly loud and handle lots of power. The nOrh 4.0s are among the best values in loudspeakers anywhere.

SM 6.1 White

SM 6.1 Pink

The SM 6.1 is rated from 48 to 20,000 Hz +/- 3dB. The sound is quite smooth. The SM 6.1 can handle 120 watts. The SM 6.1 is ideal for home theater because of its dynamic range and the ease that it can be mated with subwoofers. We have many different colors available.

nOrh has just moved our factory. During our move, we discovered a lot of items that we have that we need to get rid of. We have lots of Synthetic Marble cabinets that are dull looking instead of shiny. Other than the dull finish, these cabinets are identical to the standard cabinets. Instead of just keeping them in our warehouse forever. we have decided to make them into SM 6.1s and offer them for at a loss. The SM 6.1 is very efficient and would make an ideal loudspeaker to match with the SE 9. The SM 6.1 is rated at 90 dB. Therefore, the SE 9 can drive the SM 6.1 to 100 dB. This is a very limited offer and will never be repeated. The price for the SM 6.1 is $600.00 per pair and remains at $600.00 per pair. However, if you would like to have a pair with the less than perfect cabinets, we will ship them for $400.00. You simply will not find a better value than this.

In addition to the SM 6.1s, we also have some Prism 6.1s. The Prism 6.1s use the same woofer and tweeter but in a larger cabinet. The larger cabinet produces deeper bass--down to 45 Hz -3dB. The Prism design is floor standing so you don't need to worry about stands. The Prism 6.1 is ported on the bottom of the speaker. This reinforces the bass and allows you to easily place the Prism 6.1s.

The Prism 6.1s are finished with real 3mm thick Teak. They cabinets are much more beautiful that standard box cabinets that are usually finished with plastic PVC film. The drivers we use are genuine Vifa drivers. The Prism 6.1 is a great speaker home theater. It makes an ideal left and right loudspeaker. The high efficiency allows the Prism 6.1 to play very loud, even with a very modest A/V receiver. The 6.1 is also a very good choice for a reasonably powered Single Ended tube amplifier, such as the nOrh SE 9.

Real Teak Loudspeakers

Our Teak 5.2s have been selling very well. We get many letters praising us for these beautiful loudspeakers. The Prism 5.2s ship for $500.00 per pair. It costs us $75.00 per speaker or $150.00 per pair just for the teak wood to make each loudspeaker. The price has doubled since we introduced our teak loudspeakers. You will never be able to buy real teak at these prices again.

Teak 5.2s waiting for drivers

Completed Teak 5.2 (Enlarge)

SE 9 with black 5.2 (Enlarge)

We have introduced a real teak center speaker, the 4.1. The 4.1 uses the same drivers but is in a smaller cabinet that can be angled up or down so that it can be placed above or below a TV. The real teak 4.1 is also shielded. The 4.1 looks like a a piece of sculptured wood. The real teak 4.1 sounds fantastic and looks very expensive. We sell the real teak 4.1 for only $275.00 each. The 4.1 can also be hung upside down from the ceiling.

Beautifully handcrafted real teak 4.1

You can own a complete video set of real teak

We have found some of our original Prism 5.2 cabinets and we will offer them at $400.00 USD per pair shipped. the Prism 5.2 is rated at 87dB sensitivity. The -3dB point is 48 Hz. This is a great loudspeaker for small areas. These are floor standing loudspeakers so they do not need a stand. For $400.00 per pair, most companies offer cheap drivers, poor sound and ugly boxes. This is a very limited opportunity to buy a beautiful pair of loudspeakers.

You can put together a very nice video system using all teak loudspeakers. The cost is less than $1000.00 for a complete set. Most loudspeakers in this price range are made from chip board covered with PVC or plastic. They use cheap drivers, cheap crossovers, cheap wire and cheap connectors. The nOrh real teak loudspeakers use Vifa drivers and high quality parts throughout. The real teak video set will last for many years and will always look beautiful.

While taking photographs this month, one of the locals came to look at what was going on.

We will ship the Prism 6.1 for only $500.00. This is a very limited time offer. There is no reason to buy a cheap looking, poor sounding box speaker when you can own a very elegant work of art from nOrh.

For the Christmas season, we have made a special run of wood 5.1 loudspeakers. The 5.1s have received a perfect score on Audioreview for three years straight. Some people say that the 5.1s are the perfect A/V loudspeaker. The 5.1s have a -3dB point of 48 Hz and a sensitivity of 87dB. I personally use the 5.1s for my center loudspeaker in my main system and rear speakers in my second A/V system. These are beautiful loudspeakers and we have them specially priced at $400.00 per pair shipped. This is a limited offer. When they are gone, they are gone. This is new stock. We produced them specially for our Christmas special.

Michael, my 5.1 speakers arrived yesterday and caused quite a stir in the office. They are simply beautiful and everyone that saw them asked many, many, questions. I am not an audiophile and I purchased these for my main front speakers for my home theater system. I was only able to listen to them for a few minutes yesterday and they do sound wonderful. At times while listening to some light jazz the sound seemed to surround me and the perception of knowing the speakers were in front of me disappeared. I can't wait to get home this evening to listen to them and experiment with placement etc.

UPS delayed delivery by a day because of a "mechanical failure". Judging by the condition of one of the boxes I assume it was a plane crash. Initially I was very concerned because there was a large, ragged hole in the side of the box that you could easily place both fist in at the same time. You could clearly see the bubble wrapped speaker inside. Fortunately the excellent packaging job you do protected the speaker and no external damage was noticed when I unpacked the speaker. Congratulations on a fine product.

Thank you very much for your letter Eric. Many customers have commented on our packing. Unfortunately, the major shipping companies don't treat packages with kid gloves. The shippers here in Thailand tell us that they treat the packages with great care here but once they get to the US, the packages are treated very badly.

Packaging

We have developed packing methods that are the best we know of for an audio company. We mold our own foam to fit perfectly around out loudspeakers and amplifiers. We then strap the speakers in to make sure there is no movement. We then pack the speakers in their cartons and strap the cartons.

For every new product we perform drop tests. The box is lifted up and dropped twice.

We look outside the box for damage, open the package and check the contents. If there is any damage, we redesign the packaging.

Our Best

If our lower priced products are so good, imagine how good our best loudspeakers are. Our very best loudspeaker has been called the best two-way bookshelf in the world on TNT-Audio. Our best loudspeaker is the Marble nOrh 9.0. Only a limited number of people will ever own this speaker. The reason is that it is carved out stone. The nOrh 9.0 is designed to last. The grill is made from powder coated galvanized steel. The baffle is covered with real leather. The cabinet is carved from solid marble.

Still our best loudspeaker, the marble 9.0 (Left) and White Mini 9.0 with grill (Right)
(click on the images to enlarge)

The nOrh Pyramid

The Pyramid loudspeaker is probably the best loudspeaker ever designed for public areas. When hung upside down from the ceiling, the Pyramid allows anyone in the listening room to hear the music accurately. It doesn't matter if people are sitting in front, to the sides or even in the back of the Pyramids. The sound is the same. No loudspeaker has ever created a more realistic reproduction of recorded sound at this price. I personally believe that the nOrh Pyramid is our groundbreaking achievement.

The Pyramids can be used in multiples to handle even more power and to increase efficiency. One Pyramid is rated at 94 dB sensitivity. Two are rated at 97. Three are rated at 100. The Pyramid can be pointed towards the listener, hung upside down or placed on a stand. We will consider doing custom colors as required.

I hooked up the finished pair of Pyramids today and wanted my wife, Linda to listen to them. Getting her to listen to loudspeakers is quite difficult. Those of you who have visited these pages for the past four plus years have never seen my wife's photo. You have seen all our employees. You have seen my photo and you have seen my daughter's photo. We have even had photos of some of our visitors. The reason is that my wife is not interested in audio what-so-ever.

That doesn't mean she does not appreciate the aesthetics of nOrh loudspeakers. She particularly likes the looks of the ceramic red nOrh 4.0s. She also likes the Prism 3.0 because it is small. She thinks the SE 9 is cute. Getting her to actually listen to the speakers is very difficult. Usually she will say "yeah that sounds fine" and walk away.

I called her in to hear the Pyramids. She walked into the room and said "Those really sound good". I was so pleased with her acknowledgment that I asked her to pose with the speakers. She agreed and so for the first time, so I had a picture of my wife, Linda on the webpage, in the newsletter for October 2002.

Background

After introducing the wildly successful SE 9 amplifier, several customers have written that they would like to see more efficient nOrh loudspeakers. We point out that the Prism 6.6s are quite efficient but they are outside the budget for many of our customers. Several customers have suggested various drivers that they would like to see us use to increase efficiency.

There is a difficult balance that all loudspeaker designers have to play with. These include, size, efficiency, power handling and bass output. Generally speaking, you have to give up something to get something. A speaker that is more efficient will likely produce less bass. The reason is that efficiency is generally obtained by making the cone lighter. Lighter cones will generally produce less bass in a given size cabinet.

One of the drivers that was suggested to me would roll off at 150 Hz. This would absolutely force customers to buy a I also believe that the drivers we have been using simply sound better with more amplifiers that the drivers that had been suggested. There is another way to improve efficiency. That is to use more drivers. This also increases power handling and lower distortion. The drawback is that as you add more drivers, you have to increase the size of the cabinet and the additional drivers increase the cost.

I designed a loudspeaker two years ago that I never released. It used three full range drivers and fit into a corner. The idea was that for home theater, you could put the speakers into the corners of the room. It seemed like a good idea until I started noticing how few room had four corners. The speaker sounded very good but it stayed on the drawing board. I had also designed a center speaker I called the Wedge. It looked like the nOrh 4.1 but was designed to be hung from the ceiling. The speaker had three drivers. One pointed to the center, one to the right and one to the left. The listening tests had been gone very well but it was another project that never saw the light of day.

As more and more people asked for efficient speakers, I tried to dust off these older designs and see if I could do anything with them. I asked our factory manager to mount three drivers in an 11 meter drum so that we could do some tuning. She sent over two pairs. One pair had three drivers and the other had four drivers. I don't know exactly way but the four driver version sounded much better. I know that four drivers should sound better but I don't know why it was so much better. The improvement was dramatic.

I started thinking about what could we do to put four drivers on these older designs. I thought that I could mount a driver on the back of the Wedge. That wasn't possible because the area wouldn't be enough to handle the two magnets. It then occurred to me that we could do a pyramid. We did some research and found that pyramids were built with a variety of angles from 38 degrees to over 53 degrees. The pyramid designers finally settled on 51 degrees as the right angle for pyramids. During my research, I also came across several articles that spoke about the perfect acoustic nature of pyramids. I even came across an article that talked about a musician who recorded inside a pyramid and a description of how great the recording sounded.

I only got one prototype back to test. I decided to test it as a center loudspeaker. I brought the Pyramid up and replaced my 5.1 which I use for my center speaker. I put on Anaconda. I wanted a movie that was quite noisy so that I could see how well the dialog kept up. I was absolutely astonished with the way the Pyramid worked. Not only was the dialog loud and clear, it was powerful. I moved around the room and the sound was always the same.

I wanted to hear a pair. I called the factory manager and told him to rush me another Pyramid. The next day, another Pyramid showed up and I decided to try them out on music. I played James Taylor's JT album first and followed by Jimmy Buffet's Son of a Son of a Sailor. I picked these two albums because I have been listening to them for over 20 years and because I believe that voice is the very best instrument to judge loudspeakers is voice, followed by piano and then violin. I spent two hours listening. This was a rare treat for me because I rarely allow myself this much time. The sound was astonishingly good but I heard a bit of harshness that I knew would go away with enough burning in. I let them play for about thirty hours so that I could hear what they sounded like fully broken in. I put on some Louis Armstrong's "I've got the world on a string". This is not a particularly well recorded album but I was just in the mood to listen to it. Listening to "I Don't Get Around Much Anymore" I realized I was listening to some of the most musical sounding loudspeakers I had ever heard. The sound was live. It sounded real. The image was perfect. I continued listening to the entire album. I then put on Dave Brubeck's Take Five followed by Diana Krall's "When I Look in Your Eyes".

Just in case I was patting myself on my back too hard, I decided to get some other people's opinion. I brought the nOrh staff up to listen. They all commented how live the speaker sounded. They all said they sounded fantastic.

The Technology

The Pyramid has four full range drivers mounted on all four sides of the speaker. Each side is tuned so that the sound coming from each side is identical. This means that no matter where you sit, you are sitting, you will hear exactly the same thing. If the speaker happens to be to your left, you will hear the same as if you are sitting right in front of the speaker. With a pair of Pyramids, you will enjoy the full fidelity of the music, no matter where you are sitting.

This is dramatically different from how most loudspeakers work. Most loudspeakers are omnidirectional but only for some frequencies. Bass information below 100 Hz is omnidirectional while frequencies above this become more and more directional. A very good generalized way to think of this is that a woofer is like a light bulb while a tweeter is like a spot light. If you walk around a loudspeaker, you will hear the information from the woofer but you will loose the information from the tweeter. This is why most loudspeakers have a very small area where you actually hear the correct stereo image. This is called the sweet spot. Some people will toe in their speakers because they sound better. This is because they are pointing the tweeter where they are seated so that they get all of the information from the tweeter.

With the Pyramid, the listener is free to roam around the room and enjoy the music. Because there are four drivers, the Pyramids are unbelievably sensitive. They are rated at 94dB sensitivity. I have seen other efficient loudspeakers but many of them will handle no more than 15 watts. The Pyramids will easily handle 80 watts. At 80 watts, the Pyramids will produce more than 109 dB!!! The Pyramids will play louder than this but nobody should ever play their music this loud.

The Pyramid for Home Theater

Remember that there is a sweet spot for listening to stereo. This sweet spot is positioned between the loudspeakers about the same distance from the loudspeakers as the speakers are apart from one another. Assume we have a room that is 12 foot long. We have the speakers two feet from the wall and eight feet apart. If we sit between the speakers eight feet back, we should be in the sweet spot. Some speakers might be different, this is an average rule.

Suppose we put the speakers right up against the rear wall. In a 12 foot room, the speakers are only two feet behind the listener. This is not far enough away from the rear speakers to be in their sweet spot. To solve this problem, some people put the speaker to the side. This would work except that the information recorded onto the tracks assumes that the sound is coming from behind the listener and not from the rear.

Recently, some decoders have tackled this problem by adding additional drivers. Dolby EX adds a sixth speaker in the center rear and there are also seven channel arrangements. All of these are trying to come up with a way to get the correct information from the rear channel to the listener.

The Pyramid provides an elegant and inexpensive solution. Because there are four drivers, it doesn't matter if the speakers are only one foot behind the listener. There will always be a full range driver pointed at the listener.

An excellent CD

I had the great fortune of hearing some of the most beautiful music I had ever heard. The recording is incredible. I don't think I can remember a more natural sounding recording ever. The music is almost hypnotic. Most of the music is violin and piano. Some of the songs feature female vocals. While the songs are in Thai, they are haunting. The music is unlike anything I have heard before. If I try to pinpoint it, I would say it probably music from the 1930, probably songs that would be sung in smoke-filled night clubs of that era. We will offer this unbelievable recording to customers who make a purchase for only $7.00. Simply add $7.00 to your order for Songs of Bangkok. You will not be disappointed.

In Conclusion

Congratulations for making it this far. Now that you have looked at our loudspeakers and other audio products, ask yourself, is there anyone out there trying to provide better looking or sounding audio equipment? Some customers have questioned the logic about buying loudspeakers without hearing. Despite this, after nearly five years, we have never had anyone write that our loudspeakers are anything less than exceptional. Consider this, which loudspeaker is likely to sound better – the one that looks cheap or the one that looks like it was built by craftsman. Craftsmanship has mostly disappeared off the planet. nOrh might be the last chance you have to buy anything built like this again.

dB-SPL	Typical Sound
180	rocket engine
150	permanent hearing damage
140	airport runway
130	loud rock band
120	pain threshold
110	power tools
100	subway
90	heavy traffic
70	busy street
60	average conversation
40	subdued conversation
30	quiet office
20	quiet home
0	hearing threshold

Prism 6.1	$500 pair (shipping included)
non-Teak Prism 5.2	$400 pair (shipping included)
SM 6.1 (dull cabinet)	$400 pair (shipping included)
Wood 5.1	$400 pair (shipping included)
nOrh 9.0s and nOrh 7.0s	Free marble stand
mini 9.0 kit	$500 (shipping included) just add drivers