Acoustic Portrait NJ1 - Dual Mono Power Amplifier

bazee

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Hello friends


how good is the Acoustic Portrait NJ1 amp.

cant find many reviews.

is it good for power=hungry dynaudio?
what is the RMS at 4ohms.

Website :

Corrson India
 
Hi Bazee,
All these products except for the PM-1 on the website have been updated. The NJ-1 sounds as good or even better than most amps costing 70k to 1.5lakhs. We have done comparisons with some three branded amps costing around this range. Can't tell you the names ;) Be assured they were very well regarded amplfiers.
If dynaudio, they require atleast the contour or higher line of speakers.
 
would the amp match dyna audience 72...
has anybody heard the pair?


regards
 
Hi Bazee,

Which pre-amp are you thinking about to pair with the NJ-1 monoblocks?

Square_wave and a few others have a lot of regard for these amps made by Siva of Bangalore. Unfortunately, there is not much information available about the products in their websites. In these day and age, it takes very little time and money to put all the information up on the net.

Apparently these power amps are very good. I have read in another forum about one member abhi.pani who has preferred these over a plinius. Square_wave must know this fellow.

In my amp thread (which has really turned into a Mahabharat) square_wave suggested that I could consider Siva's new pre-amp which price and quality-wise is between the premium pre PM1 (owned by square_wave) and the budget NJ1. However, when I tried to contact Siva (both by calling and sending e-mail) there was not much response from him. Siva has not replied my e-mail in three or four days. I find it very strange, because, on one hand there are always people accusing us for not thinking about Indian products, and then when I try to make contact trying to find out a bit more about the products, there is NO response. I really do not know how to interpret this. May be they do not want to do business outside Bangalore for logistic reasons (like service or whatever). That is the most positive way of looking at it, I guess.

How is it possible that we will just buy something without any details about the product and absolutely no communication.

I have auditioned the Cadence VA-1 and frankly (even though the audition was not set up right) it is NOT worth 1.1 L. People talk about magic in music with some of these amps. That Cadence system does not come even remotely close to my 20 year old HK amp and Canton speaker combination.

I have tried to get information about Audire amps. I was interested in their Argus pre-power. But again, please go to the website and see how much information is available. Almost nothing. We do not need very stylish pages with difficult unreadable typesetting. We need clear information on plain white background.

When I enquired with Viren Bakhshi of Lyrita Audio, there was nice response from him over the phone and he replied my e-mail within a few hours with all the price details. Thanks to him.
 
I find it very strange, because, on one hand there are always people accusing us for not thinking about Indian products, and then when I try to make contact trying to find out a bit more about the products, there is NO response. I really do not know how to interpret this. May be they do not want to do business outside Bangalore for logistic reasons (like service or whatever). That is the most positive way of looking at it, I guess.

There are a couple of reasons:

1. Most of these companies in India are started by technocrats who have no idea what marketing is.

2. Once you reach a comfortable state in your business, you start to get a little lax in your efforts and also start having some pride. You don't chase each inquiry, believing so much in your products that you think the customer will automatically come back. None of the dealers I have interacted with in Chennai (or elsewhere) have ever called me, expecting one who was surprised I left the shop without placing an order. When I asked him if he know what I was looking for, he had no idea.

3. Many of the establishments expect all clients to be referred. I am not expected to just call or walk in. You must be a person of some substance, or will be ignored.

4. As a rule, we Indians are very lax when it comes to marketing to fellow Indians. A lot of issues come into force - (1) Who is this guy? (2) I know more than he does (3) Why is this idiot asking me silly questions (4) Can't he come prepared? (4) Does he have the money, or is he wasting my time? (5) Does he even know what music is? (6) My God! what kind of movies does he see? (7) He thinks too much of himself listening to these stupid English/Hindi/Tamil/whatever songs. (8) Hah! He thinks he knows about sound technology, he has just learnt a few words, and is throwing them about.

5. The minute you mention a competing product the owner or shopkeeper either get belligerent or defensive. 'How dare you compare my product with this?'. 'Do you know the product is made in a sweat shop in China?'. 'Do up know how much love and affection I have given to my products?'. Excuse me folks, all I was looking for was simple assurance that I am buying a good product. No such luck.

As a rule, we get very confused with our assessment of the other person, our expectations, and end up screwing the relationship.

But, lately, this does not seem to be with India only. With the recession running, I thought a vendor will chase each and every inquiry. I am spending enormous amount of money trying to get prices from a few shops in Singapore for a HTPC case. The stock answer, 'Send me an email'. The email is never answered. When I call again, I am greeted with aggression.

Even face to face, the issue is the same. Yesterday I went to one of the largest computer shops in Chennai. I was the only client, and there were over 6 people behind the counter. No one, NOT ONE looked up to acknowledge me. When I asked some questions, the look on the face of the counter person was, 'Oh god, one more pain in the neck'. In another shop when I asked for a MX item, he placed it on the counter and walked away !!

A few years ago, the owner of one of the oldest shops in Chennai approached me to train their counter and sales people. The shop called 'Currimbhoy' has been around for donkey's years. When I started the training, my first question was, 'do you people like your job?' The owner was shocked and I had to shoo him out of the room. Today, he has three shops in Chennai and has expanded into Puducherry and other cities.

Usually when I go to a shop or establishment, I wait patiently to get the attention of the owner or sales person. Invariably, someone barges in, shouts about what he wants, picks it up and walks away. Why would the shopkeeper or sales person even acknowledge me? He must be thinking I am just a idiot gawking at his wares. When you enter a super market in the US, you are left alone to fend for yourself and is expected to call a shopkeeper when you want some help. In India it seems to be opposite. If you just walk around for a few minutes, you immediately become a suspicious item. The sales person will ask you if you want anything, and just follow you making you feel like a thief. No smile, no 'can I help you sir', nothing.

Our shops and establishments need extensive training in client management.

I suppose if a vendor comes back to me as a follow up by himself, I may faint !! Just to give you an example. I had placed an order for a sub woofer cable with a vendor in Chennai. I forgot to take delivery for some reason, and picked it up six months later from the same vendor at a discounted price. I know it is the same cable, as I saw his internal papers where my six month old order was mentioned. The sales person did not even acknowledge I was the same person !!

Sorry, the words came out in a rush. I have learnt a lot. One; do not to expect any response or expect the vendor to be pleasant. Two; be very persistent and keep harassing till you get what you want.

Cheers
 
I agree with most of what Venkat has to say.
Effective client management has a long way to go in India.
With Corrson, I have some clarifications. This is a one man and one assistant organization which started mostly as a hobby. They went commercial a few years back with mid-fi range speakers to compete with speakers costing around a lakh in the branded sector. Although the speakers totally out perform the competition, the venture did not succeed because customers in this segment usually wants the security of a brand. Now he is re-launching again with very hi-end products which are usually custom made to order. Only for people who understand the product and really want them. It works by word-of-mouth and has a lead time. I had contacted Corrson regarding Asits mail and it seems the person had to travel urgently and he will surely get back to him this weekend. Remember this is a very small organization and they do not have any staff to monitor mails and enquiries like they have in bigger organizations.
Most small brands are like this even in the US (check out audiocircle). Getting Klaus Bunge of odyssey audio to send an email is almost impossible. This is actually a joke on their audio-circle site.
I am not supporting this state of affairs. But once small organizations staff-up, overheads go up. Then to maintain sales and higher profit, they have to make commercially driven compromises, prices go upand so on..it is a vicious circle.
It is basically a choice.
 
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Allow me to chime in with my chaar-aanas :)

I work in the IT industry and I must say, all over the country, people are absorbed in developing applications and web sites. Many competent developers for sure. But when it come to Information sharing and dissemination we are a poor lot. We do not value Information for its sake or take pains to organize and present it meaningfully. Nobody takes pains on that front. So you have all these grand websites littering the webspace with content copy-pasted from here and there with some ad-hoc editing, like the plastic and bottle garbage at heritage sites.

Paradoxically with the blooming I.T culture there is little understanding about the social value of free exchange of information ... we are just a bunch of people slaving it out for American and other foreign companies for the greed of money and the opportunities it brings to us to rise upwards socially. No genuine social development or nation building accrues out of it. Only our Foreign Xchange reserves.

OT I know but could'nt help commenting.

Regards
 
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Going by what SW says, it makes a perfect case to have an updated website that will provide all information. In these days its an absolute must to do business.
 
Hi guys,

Siva did actually call me this morning. He was quite an articulate man and spoke quite gracefully. It was very nice talking to him. He basically said that he was doing it out of passion implying perhaps that his business and public relations acumen do not match his technical ability and passion.

Now here is the information, I could gather from him (Bazee, if you are interested, please communicate with him directly):

1. They have just decided to change the business model they were following before. Earlier they had a few dealers (I actually have seen mentions of Absolute Phase and Soundsmiths in relation to Siva's products). Now it would be factory direct to reduce costs further.

2. They have discontinued the NJ-1 line. I specifically enquired about the NJ-1 pre, and that is no longer available. Bazee, I did not ask him about the NJ-1 monoblocks, but I would presume those are discontinued as well.
As reasons of discontinuation, he cited use of some budget parts in the budget NJ-1 line and they are no longer comfortable with use of such parts.

3. There is a new line replacing the NJ-1. These will be essentially the design of the more expensive PM-1, but some of the parts are less expensive. This has already been touched upon by square_wave in my amp thread. The DACT attenuator is replaced by a less expensive attenuator with very similar sonic character, as Siva said. He also said that Jensen caps will no longer be used. But this time he said that the reason for this replacement is also because they were having some quality issues with these caps. Price for this new pre-amp was quoted as Rs 53 K (close to square_wave's figure of 52K). This is exclusive of of a 12.5% VAT and shipping costs which Siva anticipates to be around 1K. So the total price could be around 60K inclusive of everything. I would assume this has a few line level inputs and also a phono stage, but I forgot to ask him about these, as I also forgot to ask him about the output impedance and anything else that could matter.

4. We did not discuss about the replacements of the NJ-1 monoblocks and any price point. So bazee, you have to find those out. Actually, since he was calling I did not want to ask him anything more than I needed. Actually I ended up asking a lot less.

5. When I complained to him that his webpage has little or no information and especially no information about the new models, he told me that because of lack of manpower or something, it would take them a while to update the page.

Now square_wave, can you impress on Siva that having a good webpage (that means great functionally with all the relevant information, not necessarily fancy looking) is tantamount to having good business these days. It's actually very little money involved. He just needs to get hold of a guy with a bit of a knowledge of html language, that's all. You talk about Klaus Bunge, but what I have read, he, in addition to being a maker of superb amps, is also a very astute salesperson and an expert communicator. In the US he would have been wiped out otherwise. He answers phone calls regularly and in one instance I read about he even went to dinner with one of his grumpy customers. We are not expecting that here, though.

Venkat, I agree with you on many if not all counts. If Siva makes good products that can compete with the best of the foreign products and then because of lack of communicative skill and will, he has to shut down the business, that will be a pity.

Gobble, I think I have understood the crux of what you have said. It's actually deeper than what it appears to be. I myself am guilty of it. Students who come to our Institute for PhD from other places and also summer students from IIT's have compalined that I do not update my homepage regularly enough. I know that these days students want to find out about you quite critically before they join you as a student for research or even for a summer project.
 
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