I had the opportunity to listen to a couple of nOrh speakers this weekend, and I thought that I'd write up my thoughts for those who might be considering them.
The audition was inspired by my aesthetic frustration with my Vandersteen 2cs. I don't have a dedicated listening room, and the Vandys are quite monolithic in the old living room. I was hoping to find something that might look better, take up less space, and sound better all at the same time. The nOrh marble hams seemed like they might fill that order directly.
The nOrh Mini 9.0 concept has excited me since I first saw it posted. Great drivers and a cost-effective approach to a cool cabinet design @ $1500 delivered in the US. Dang. If you aren't aware, the Mini 9.0 is part of the synthetic marble line (see
http://www.norh.com -- I won't try to tell that whole story). I found a pair of white used Mini 9.0s for sale within driving distance, and I went down to check them out with my wife. An interesting side point here is that my wife is a bass freak. Because of this, the system concept that I had in mind is starting with the Mini 9.0s, and later adding stereo subs, possibly as stands. The ACI Titan LE II and Adire Rava SE were at the top of my list of potential subs.
Luckily, my host had 2 pairs of real Marble 9.0s at home also, one in black and one in white (with gray highlights). Considering this, I was excited to compare the two models' aesthetics and sonics. After this weekend I'll say that you definitely can't do that on nOrh's web site or by reading posts such as this rambling on the internet. I urge anyone considering these speakers to seek out a way to check them out in person.
Ok, enough setup, I'll break down the bottom line right here. The Mini 9.0 sounds fantastic, especially when you consider how little they give up vs. the ($3000) Marble 9.0. Speakers the size of these Minis have no business producing bass this authoritative and accurate. That being said, you have to be willing to live with the hand crafted "folk art" finish and pragmatic stability issues. I decided that I couldn't because I'm talking about a living room system. Read on for more details.
The system consisted of:
Ah Tjoeb CDP with Dan Wright Mods (my host's)
Acurus DIA-100 MkII (mine)
nOrh Mini 9.0, Marble 9.0
nOrh marble stands
Monster speaker cables (my host's -- definitely not their lamp cord, but I'm not sure which advanced model)
Note : I didn't spend time trying to swap cables or diagnose system problems like a real reviewer.
In this system, the Mini 9.0 (grills off) related more detail than I'm used to with my Vandys, and the sound was more forward. My wife actually described the sound as "bright", although I wouldn't go quite that far. I attributed this to the amp/speaker match, based mainly on reports I've seen that the Acurus can be bright. The Ah may have been contributing some edge that I'm not used to as well. It was not excruciating, unpleasant, and definitely not fatiguing, just different. The bass was strong, tight, and controlled, but not nearly as deep as what I'm accustomed to with the Vandys. No surprise there, those Vandys have a lot more driver and cabinet to them than the Mini 9.0.
Here are some comments on some of the tracks that we used.
Persuasions - Might as Well... (Ripple, Black Muddy River). Without a doubt, I heard nuances, texture and emotion in the a capella vocals that I haven't heard before. This was the highlight of the nOrh audition.
Erikah Badu - Baduism (Rimshot). Completely immersive with controlled, rolling bass line and percussion effects all around the room.
Los Lobos - Kiko (Kiko and the Lavender Moon). There are a lot of intricately placed instruments in this track, and the nOrh's weren't shy about throwing these around the room. Fantastic.
From my live Grateful Dead collection -- 6/11/76 (Scarlet Begonias). Sounded flat and lifeless, unlike what I remember from my Vandys. You might question this choice for a hifi audition, but I have a lot of soundboard recordings that, shall I say, lack the production value of the other tracks that I mentioned. This is great music, and this track is what sold me on my Vandersteens. But, with the nOrh's, it was just dead. I wouldn't rule the nOrh's out for this reason, but it is interesting that my auditory memory of this track on the Vandys is so much better.
My host swapped in the real Marble 9.0s (I certainly wasn't going to wrestle with those beasts). They were a little more forward than the Minis, but just by a hair. My host said that the bigger face plate on the tweeter of the full size Marble 9.0 casts a wider dispersion for a larger sweet spot, but I didn't notice a huge difference. The main difference in the sonics was better bass extension. I don't think that there was any difference in the bass region that the Minis could create, it's just that the Marbles went lower. That being said, the full size 9.0s still lacked the authority and grip in the deep down-low that I'm used to with the Vandys. The Marble 9.0s didn't show me a detail edge over the Minis, which highlights the incredible value of the Mini model.
So, on to the aesthetic and pragmatic issues that I have with the Mini 9.0. I have only seen one pair of white SM's, but this pair had easily noticeable imperfections in the SM finish. I'm talking about stuff like a grouping of 6 or so pen tip sized indentations, edges on the port that form imprecise, inconsistent angles, and general inconsistencies in texture and color. These minor blems might not have mattered to me if I hadn't seen the pristine, stunning finish of the real Marble 9.0. But, now that I've seen the real marble I don't think that an SM speaker with this quality finish would cut it for me. Especially for a system that's OUT in the living room. I realize that these speakers are hand crafted and that some might see these imperfections as character, but I don't. Is this really a typical quality SM speaker?
The pragmatic issue that I have with the nOrh's (Mini or full size) is that, as stand mounted speakers, they seem like an accident waiting to happen. They are extremely heavy, and they seem to be precarious even on the 12x12" top plate nOrh marble stands. With the long horn shape, the center of gravity can shift out from over the feet very quickly. This isn't so much of a problem in a dedicated listening room, but in a living room system I would fear a clumsy guest bumping into the speaker or stand. Considering the heft of these marble cornocopias, not much would stop them (foot, cat, kid, floor, basement, etc.). I thought that the metal feet were cool looking, but they have a very low coefficient of friction which doesn't help stability. My host had rubber sleeves over the feet of his Marble 9.0s for this very reason -- they tend to slide on the nOrh stands. I suppose that Blutack might help. The best solution that I could think of would be to drill or route holes in the stand tops for the feet to sit down in.
In addition to the aesthetics and stability concerns, the fact remains that the Vandys take up far less space than either of the nOrhs by the time you include space for the stand. These marble hams are very deep front to back.
So, to sum up, the nOrh Mini 9.0 sounds fantastic. But, they're not for me because of 1) finish and 2) pragmatic concerns about toppling in an active living room. For me, I'd rather keep the Vandys and think more about upgrading my amplification. Later I'd look in to converting to slimmer floorstanding speakers in future (Meadowlark, Totem, Odyssey, other suggestions???). I say this despite the fact that I love the real marble finish. I'm kind of sad that I can't see it working out for me.
