Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: nOrh 9.0 Speakers by Nick M

It was in November last year that I did something I had little dreamed of doing before. I bought a pair of speakers from an unknown company in Thailand. Having lived with the speakers for 1.5 month, I think it is about time to contribute a review.

I have owned various small two-way speakers (Rogers LS3/5a, Celestion SL600/SL700 and B&W Matrix 805 among others) in the past two decades. Consequently I have developed an appreciation for the soundstaging and imaging capability as well as a willingness to sacrifice the bottom octave. Most recently, I was using the Martin-Logan Aerius i, which I think is one of the most musical speakers in the $2000-3000 range. While I appreciate the Aerius?fs intrinsically sweet midrange and bass response, I lately began to notice the resolving and imaging capability was not exactly up to the minimonitors.

So when I came across the 9.0, a compact two-way speaker is said to go down to –3dB at 30Hz, I was a bit carried away. So I placed an order for my pair without auditioning them. Two months passed and the black marble nOrh 9.0s arrived on my doorstep from Bangkok.

The 9.0 looks drop-dead gorgeous. Inspired by a Thai longdrum, it has a round leather-covered front baffle and its enclosure is severely tapered at the rear end. Each 9.0 weighs about 70 pounds, measuring 14?h wide, 15?h high and 19?h deep. Carved out of a solid marble block, the enclosure is as dense as that of any speaker on earth. Rap your knuckle against it and you will wince with pain.

The two-way design pairs a 1.1?h silk-dome tweeter with a 5.5?h woofer/midrange driver, both of which are Scan-Speak?fs top-of-the-line driver units. Dual gold-plated binding posts are situated under the speaker?fs rear for bi-amping but not for bi-wiring as nOrh claims the latter does nothing to the sound.

I positioned each speaker on a 1/2?h thick marble cooking board placed on my old 20?h wooden stool, which is a few inches lower than nOrh recommends. Looking for the best placement in my modest-sized listening room, I wound up with them approximately 3?f from the side walls and 2?f from the rear wall, with my listening seat about 7?f from the front plane of the speakers, which are placed 6?f apart. The rest of my system consists of a Rotel RB-1090 power amp (380Wpc into 8 ohms), a Rotel RC-995 preamp and a TEAC VRDS 25xs CD player.

nOrh says it takes 200 hours for the 9.0 to fully break in and I have given my pair just as much since its arrival. So how do the 9.0s sound? I listened to many recordings over the period but a couple of CDs help evaluate the quality of the speakers.

First up is Steely Dan?fs ?gTwo Against Nature.?h What strikes me most is the exceptionally articulate reproduction of Walt Becker?fs bass guitar. It is fast, tight and clean. No, I don?ft think the 9.0 will handle the very lowest notes of the pipe organ, the music of which I am not a big fan anyway, but it goes deeper than the Aerius without the upper bass boom so typical of many small 2-way designs. Listen to Ray Brown's ?gSolar Energy?h CD and you will be surprised to hear the 9.0's diminutive 5.5?h mid/bass driver present the lower reaches of the well-recorded double-bass with surprising weight and authority, which is something the Aerius?fs 8?h woofer is not capable to achieve.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, the 9.0?fs highs are not only more extended than heard thorough the Aerius but they are much faster and cleaner. The tweeter, which is called ?gRevelator,?h proved to be exceptionally refined and detailed. The upper reaches of violin sound wonderfully smooth and natural, without ever becoming harsh, edgy or fatiguing on Midori?fs beautifully recorded ?gEncore?h CD, for example. I can hear every nuance of her playing with stunning speed and harmonic accuracy in a disarmingly lifelike manner.

The 9.0?fs midrange is also a revelation (no pun intended), with a complete lack of the congested ?gboxy?h quality. No doubt a total absence of enclosure-induced coloration contributes to its exceptional transparency. When I listen to Jacintha?fs ?gAutumn Leaves?h CD, I notice her seductive voice comes through with startling clarity. Although I always thought the Aerius was among the elite of the speakers, which excelled in the midrange transparency, the 9.0 is even more transparent, much to my surprise. Also, the 9.0 was more lifelike with astonishingly palpable presence, if you will.

And oh, that soundstage. With Cowboy Junkies?f ?gThe Trinity Session,?h the area between and behind the speakers opens up into the enormous space of the acoustic recorded with a single microphone in Toronto's Church of the Holy Trinity. The imaging capability of the 9.0s is simply captivating. Localization of Margo Timins?f voice and individual instruments in the recording venue is as specific and exacting as that from any other top-ranked speakers I have ever heard. Although the Aeriuses seem to throw images with a little more breadth and bloom, the 9.0s?f imaging is more precise and pinpoint.

Although the nOrh 9.0 ($3000/pair) is more expensive than the Martin Logan Aerius ($2300/pair in the U.S.), all in all it represents better value for money. The 9.0 offers so much greater resolution of inner detail, more precise imaging, more transparent midrange, and deeper and better-controlled bass that the difference is not subtle in my opinion. Incidentally, I live in Japan and the Aerius costs $4000/pair here. So for those of us who have to pay more for the Aeriuses than folks in the U.S., there really is no comparison.

REVIEW: nOrh 9.0 Speakers Review by Nick M at Audio Asylum