At the price at which the 2000 system is available, it ... - Norge Audio

62 av max | november 2007
At the price at which the 2000 system is
available, it can surely give its bigger competitors a
run for their money.

Norge Millennium Spkrs & Ref 2000 Amp
Brand
Model
Category
: Norge
: Millennium
Speakers
& Reference 2000
Amplifier
: Bookshelf Speakers
Price : Rs. 19,900 *
Warranty
Aesthetics :
Build :
Sound :
VFM :
: 1 Year
No this company is not from
Norway, it just means
Norway. Established about
four decades ago by a
passionate audiophile, Norge Audiophile
Systems has really come a long way.
With an impressive history of legends
like RD Burman, Kishore Kumar and
Mohammed Rafi as its clientele and
proudly holding its ground as one of the
very few audiophile companies based in
India, they have been catering to their
own select crust of clients. Until now,
we have reviewed a handful of products
from Norge and when we got these two
boxes one Monday morning; we knew
that we could look forward to some
quality in these boxes.
Out Of The Box
Norge has never tried to do anything
fancy with their equipment design.
Their amps and speakers have always
maintained minimalist designs — they
just don’t shout for attention. The Norge
Millennium bookshelf speakers and the
Reference 2000 amplifier were just the
same — a very humble set of speakers
and a sturdy amplifier. The vinyl finish of
the speakers lends them a vintage look,
just like those furniture style radiogram
consoles from the sixties. The amplifier
is pitch back in colour. It reminded us of
the big black box; you put in anything
and it will never come back.
Technology
In terms of technology Norge has
been doing it their way. They have
Edge Of Norge
All set to give a tough match to all the big players, Norge slowly but steadily
moves forward as one commendable rival in the ring with their new 2000
range of speakers and amplifiers.
always made it a point to use high
quality components across their
products. First the speakers: it is a twoway
bass reflex system with a crossover
frequency of 2kHz. There is 1” silk dome
tweeter and 6.5” woofer. The drivers are
made up of dual neodymium magnets
that ensure efficiency and optimal Thiele
parameters (factors which define the
overall performance of the speakers, like
the volume of the cabinet, size of the
drivers, etc), and simultaneously provide
extremely good magnetic shielding. The
amplifier unit has a toroid transformer,
which has now become like a tradition
with all the Norge amplifier units. It
ensures effective rendition of the low
frequencies. The unit has tape, CD and
auxiliary as input options with RCA
jacks. Neat looking tonal controls and
input selection switches for DVD, iPod
and auxiliary are provided in the front
along with a headphone out. There is
a tone defeat switch, which basically
bypasses all the tonal controls. So if
you want, you can listen to the mixes
just as the mixing engineer made
it with minimum influence of the
amplifier. The remote is optional at
an extra cost. Let’s see how the two
bookshelves sound as they come right
out of the factory.
Performance
First, we loaded ‘OVO’ by Peter
Gabriel. It did not take long for us
to realise that this set of speakers
would take some time before it could
optimise its performance. But the
amplifier did give us a glimpse of its
strength. Thus went in a 'Sheffield Test'
CD. Just for your information, the test
CD with all its test signals and burn in
tones is quiet a workout for any given
system.
Having religiously completed all the
testing rituals, we played some reference
tracks from the test CD itself. There is
a very elaborately recorded track in the
CD, which really tests any given system
for each and every detail to its extreme
limits. It was clearly evident that the little
ones were emerging from their shell.
The pair sounded much better than
what they did in the beginning. The bass
was now more pronounced and was
just making its presence felt. However
still there were small traces of gain in
the high frequencies. Going further, we
played a mono track from the test CD.
PECIFICATIONS
Millennium Bookshelf Spkrs
Design: 2-way Bass Reflex | Drivers: 1 x 1” Silk dome Tweeter, 1 x 6.5” woofer | Frequency Response:
30Hz–30 KHz | Crossover Frequency: 2KHz | Sensitivity: 91.5dB @ 2.83 V/ 1m | Power Handling:
100-watts /channel | Impedance: 4W | Dimensions (H x W x D): 17.2” x 8.11” x 10.55” | Weight: 10kgs each
november 2007 | av max 63

The 2000 system is at par with most of the better products
available out there.
Now the point is that whenever you play
a mono track, the entire sound should
appear to be coming from exactly
the centre of the two speakers, as if it
coming from one single point — smaller
the point, better the performance of the
speakers in the stereo mode. So coming
back to the speakers, the pair faired well
in this test.
Just to confirm the same we played
‘The Binary Universe’ by BT. The
speakers did reproduce all the complex
panning and the intricate synthesis with
good detail. To check if all the burning
in and the test tones helped or not,
we played ‘OVO’ again. There was a
considerable difference in the way the
speakers performed and it was for good.
Now the bass was tight and subtle.
The speakers nicely rendered the midfrequency
range, which is in fact the
most important factor in any form of
music. Generally, this range defines the
entire tone of the music.
The high frequencies had now
mellowed down a little bit, though
still not the sweetest. Excited with
change in the performance we
played a CD by Venetian Snares.
The speakers produced the fantastic
orchestration and the amazing blend of
modern classical and electronic beats
impressively. The speakers had good
dispersion and a satisfactory transient
response. What makes us say so is the
convincing directivity shown by
the speakers.
With the intention to see how
this system would sound in a hometheatre
set-up we hooked it up to our
DVD player and put in ‘War Of The
Worlds’. Its performance pumped life
into the overall experience; it almost
rained thunder and lightning. The low
frequency rumbles of the blasts and
the sharp and crisp lightning with the
gunshots were effectively rendered. As
we tried a number of CDs, the speakers
were just getting better and better,
CD after CD. Most of the good things
generally take time to show their entire
potential. This set of speakers and the
amplifier is a perfect example of this.
Conclusion
Any audiophile company, having
been there for long, would have come
out with a wide range of products, but
it is not so with Norge. This company
has come out with very few products
as such, thus it is lesser known to the
masses. However this does not come
in way of their high-class standards
and high quality that they offer and
the Reference 2000 amplifier and
the Millennium 2000 speakers are no
exception to that. The 2000 system is
at par with most of the better products
available out there. On top of that, at the
price at which the Norge 2000 system
is available, it can surely give its bigger
competitors a run for their money.
SUMIT BHOSLE
* The price is inclusive of both the products.
PECIFICATIONS
Reference 2000 Amplifier
Power: 100-watts+ 100-watts@ 4W| THD: < 0.04 % @ 1KHz | Frequency Response: 10Hz–80KHz (+ 0.5dB) |
S/N Ratio: 100dB | Damping Factor: NA | Dimensions (H x W x D): 4.5” x 16.9” x 12.99”
64 av max | november 2007