Norh Speakers from Thailand: High-end or Hype??

You will find many users and information at www.harmonicdiscord.com or www.audiocircle.com

The first will have some reviews of the different speakers and both will have a manufacturers forum for questons. I have heard about six models in their line and own the SM 6.9's. Everything is pretty much what people say about them. The drums do provide a very huge sound stage and the wood speakers are very beautiful.

If you live anywhere close to Lima, HO, they will be at the Midwest AudioFest in April. I think they even may be going to CES.

I have two pairs of the NORH drum style speakers. A pair of older 5.0 and a newer pair of the synthetic 6.9. I was so impressed with the 5.0 that I bought the 6.9s (white)which have been in my main system for over a year; relegating my B&W floorstanders to my HT system.

What more can you ask for in a speaker? Rich(no glare)treble, true, controlled bass, efficient, non-fatiguing. I am driving mine with a set of mono-block ASL 1006DTs (100wpc/6550)(obviously no strain).

The workmanship is excellant and the delivery process is actually easier than trying to get something from Canada.

System: Empire 698 (Grado); SFL-1se; ASL-1006DT; NORH 6.9sm; Audioquest cables; Brickwall conditioner.

I don't know about the hype (actually you can go to harmonicdiscord.com for all the hype you want) but I simply could not be more pleased.

Not involved in any way with NORH (or anybody else). Just a very pleased owner.

I also own 6.9 marble synthethic they are good speakers
they would even sound excellent if you rewire them with
silver, provided if your system is not too bright.There is
no hype on this norh product,it make me wander, how they
make money, good reasonable price state of the art enclosure
wonderful sound,iam also one happy owner cant stop talking
about them.I also heard the 9 first class speakers, smooth,
neutral with excellent base.

I share you instincts/sentiment sunnyjim. I did for awhile think of buying some, but was wise and didn't. They called there little pyramid speaker with 4 3" Tangband drivers something like "one the best av loudspeakers of all." (go check the webpage--its there) If 4 3" tangbands are that good in their lineup they must have done a horrible job designing with their Vifa and Scanspeak drivers. Which is what I suspect about the company: there is/was plenty of room for improvement in the designing phase. They may have the good drivers and cabinets but that's all they talk about. I think they look ugly too. I vote hype/crap. They even talk like BOSE about "musical instrument omnidirectional; therefore, speaker should be omnidirectional" I don't think he understands the recording chain, microphone types and placement, room acoustics as it relates to speaker/room/listener-interface, etc. If they are good, as people claim (but people like all sorts of junk and I'm always suspicious of subjective claims) the website isn't too technical as you noticed.

I auditioned a pair of nOrh Prism 6.9s, but ultimately opted for Meadowlark Kestrels. The Prisms weren't bad; fit and finish of the cabinets was poor, but they sounded nice enough - smooth mids and highs, bass a little over-extended, considering the size of the drivers.

nOrh products use Vifa and Scanspeak drivers, and to my ears, they don't sound radically different from all the thousand other speakers that use these same drivers. The odd cabinets detract from rather than enhance the performance, in my opinion.

Pretty generic, inoffensive stuff. There are so many speakers in this price range... unless you get a stunning deal on used ones, keep shopping. And don't expect performance that's out of the ordinary in any way.