The SE 18 is only a high gain input. Many moving coils are high gain and don't need a headamp.
Our target market for both the SE 9 and SE 18 is the person who has been out of audio or never gotten into it. We want to make it simple and cost effective to enjoy audio. We are not trying to make a product that appeals to die hard audiophiles who have already spent 10s of thousands. We are looking for people who want to get into audio for $1500 or so.
The copy output does not pass through the volume control. I have talked to the engineers and asked if we can change this in a futture release.
The SE 18 uses all Electro Harmonics tubes. The sound of the SE 18 is really fantastic. I have not seen anyone do a detailed posting but we have received a lot of e-mail from happy users.
We looked into a remote control. I got a motorized volume control from Alps but it would require us to design our own infrared circuit.
As I have said before, the more successful we are in a given project, the more we will hae money to spend on new projects. The SE 9 is selling very well. The SE 18 is new and doing modestly well.
The next product is likely to be a very basic preamp. It will have thre 12ax7 tubes, a volume control, and three inputs. The sound will be very good. The price will be $399.95.
I would like to do a monoblock with a EL84 tube. The EL84 requires a much smaller transformer than the EL34. We can get to about 5 watts with the EL84.
I would like to have a 5 watt monoblock amp for home theater. The idea is that people could build a relatively inexpensive high-end home theater system using a multimedia computer or a low-cost decoder.
I am working with a company in Taiwan and someone in the US to try to introduce a tuner, preamp, decoder (AC3 and DTS) for about $250.00 USD each. This would take the place of a receiver. You could use a SE18 for your left and right channels and 3 tube monoblocks for the rear.
I am also looking at other ideas. We have had to develop fanless switching power supplies for our computers (NorhTec). Our current design is 200 watts. These have an efficiency of 87 which means that they deliver more power than traditional transformers.
It might be possible for us to create a very high performance 50 wpc integrated using Toshiba transistors. As you probably know, these are used in very expensive integrated amplifiers because they are so linear and have such high bandwidth. I would like to have something for $299.95 that would compete with much more expensive integrateds. I would then like to have a three channel amplifier that would be added on for home theater.
These are some of the ideas I am working on.
If everything goes well, I would like to do some 300B based products. These would be up around $995 for an integrated amplifier or $500 each for monoblocks.
As everyone here should know, I take no money from nOrh. I do plan to pay myself from NorhTec once it is profitable.
The money we make from nOrh goes into customer service, R&D and employee welfare. Nothing is ever paid out to me.
That is why I say that the future depends on our success. The more we sell, the more we can invest in new and original products.
