Ultimate nOrh setup? nOrh owners, your thoughts please! (1 Viewer)

[Adam_Reiter]

Okay, I have rethought my purchase... AGAIN! For like the 4th time now. I have about $9200 to work with. I am so godamn impressed with nOrh, and Michael Barnes, his attitude, his commitment to quality. I have only known about nOrh for a week! I have read every single piece of info I can get my hands on. His articles have really opened my eyes to hifi manufacturing and I can't believe how we can spend so money on sub-grade electronics. But because there is a "brand name" and an "avertising slogan" we buy into it. Or, I least I always have.
My original idea was to have an (after being converted from possibly buying Klipsch RF-7 line to nOrh)
Onkyo ds989 $2100
nOrh 9.0 $3000
nOrh 4.0 marble 5 pack $1600
two svs subs with samson amp $2500
However, after all of my reasearch. I am really giving thought to:
Onkyo DS898 110w/channel x7($1100 -ebay)
or
Onkyo DS787 100w/channel x7($700-$800-ebay)
This way I get my 7 Channel, and Dolby Pro 2, and DTS, and THX EX processing.
Then, nOrh Marble 9.0's ($3000)
nOrh Marble 4.0 5 pack ($1600)
4 LeAmp's for the 9.0's to biamp them($1000)
nOrh Audio Control Amplifier (ACA) ($900)
nOrh CD-1 ($800)
1 SVS Ultra with Samson AMP ($1400)
Now, I can hook up HT, but preout the L/R mains to the ACA(for the 9.0's) when running HT right? And then just let the Onkyo power all of the 4.0's? Would this work?
That way, (for my budget) I can get the finest quality two channel stereo, AND some ass-romping HT!! Would this setup work? I sure the hell hope it would.
Maybe since I would order all this nOrh stuff at the same time, Mr. Barns could give me a package deal? *wink *wink My email address is SlaggBot@hotmail. if you are reading Mr. Barnes.
Actually, I would expect any further discount that this gear seems to be already.
Please give me your thoughts on these please.
------------------
Adam Reiter
Network Engineer
San Diego, CA

 

[John Gates]

Adam,
Yep, I guess I'd have to agree that this is pretty darn close to the "ultimate nOrh setup." It's gonna ROCK!
Whatever you decide, you'll be secure and happy in your decision when all is said and done, as it seems you're doing some good research. Seems you have learned a tremendous amount already in just a few days!
My hat is off to this forum, as they also helped me to sort through all the many options (without being heavy-handed or judgemental). This forum is awesome!
John

 

[John Gates]

PS. The 787 (I have one) has only 6 channels of amplification. YOu need an extra outboard amp to run the 7th channel.
If you're referring to the newer 797, I'm not sure about that one. It might come with 7 amplified channels.
You won't have any probs driving the 4.0's with the Onkyo standard amps. I agree with your decision to drive the 9.0's with higher quality outboard amps, though. These will really benefit from the better quality amps (and the ACA as a pre-amp for music).
John

 

[Ryan Schnacke]

The Onkyo 797 has only 6 channels of amplification. And from the pictures available on www.crutchfield.com it does not look like you can reconfigure them to power 2 surround back speakers. So you'd still need an external amplifier for that.
The Onkyo 898 and the Dennon 3802 have 7 channels of amplification.
If you run preouts from the receiver to the ACA and then from the ACA to the amps for the 9.0s, then what about the ACA's volume control? It seems like you want to use the ACA to control music volume, but then you would have to recalibrate everytime you want to watch a movie. Yuck! You could use the receiver to control music volume too, but then the ACA would just be a pass-through device.
If I were considering this setup, I would probably just forgo the ACA, but still get the Le Amps to power the 9.0s (and relieve some of the workload off of the receiver).
Have you picked out an active crossover for bi-amping?

 

[Gordon C Jr]

Adam,
Just a suggestion, but if I were about to put out that sort of money for a new system, I'd want to hear it first. Michael Barnes may be a nice guy and very well educated with these speakers, but he may also listen to completely different music than you. Nothing wrong with that, but his tastes and ears are obviously different than yours.
I would suggest that you find someplace or someone who has a similar setup and bring DVD's or CD's that YOU ussually listen to and see how they sound.. What you may possibly find is that your current favorite music sounds horrible on this new setup...
The preferable setup would be at another members house, so your ears are not skewed by the professional installation at your local Hi-Fi stores (Not sure these speakers are at any local hi-fi store anyway)
Also, everybody has different taste in terms of speaker sound and since you mentioned earlier that you could tell the difference between speakers anyway, I think you would be very suprised if you heard these or somewhat equivalent speakers. Many speaker manufacturers create their speakers to certain type of music also...
Lastly, although these speakers look good, many times the ugliest setup sounds the best... Possibly becuase the manufacture spent more $$$ on sound and quality, rather than esthetical value.
Just my 2 cents of additional things to consider.

 

[Gordon C Jr]

In addition to my comment above, and this is not ment to offend anyone, usually if you ask only nOrh owners how the speakers perform, for that sort of money you will find very few who would say, " Oh, they suck"
Similarly, if you ask only B&W owners how their speaker sound, the majority will say "excellent"
What I'm getting at is you may be getting a biased answer.. This is not to say that nOhr owners don't know about anything other than nOrh, but your decision will be more educated if you hear opinions from other satisfied speaker brand owners.. And here some of the negative aspect of the speakers like how they can't handle bass very well, or whatever the case may be
Just an additional 2 cents

 

[Ryan Schnacke]

I absolutely agree with Gordon. I auditioned the nOhrs beforehand and fell in love with the "nOrh sound". But I also found that I have almost no desire to upgrade beyond the 4.0s combined with a good sub. I've listened to the Reality 3D, the nOrh 9.0 and actively bi-amped 9.0 all vs. the 4.0 and I was amazed at how the little 4s hung in there.