Norge Concerto Gold 1000 Review ( An underestimated Brand)

[alpha1]

I tried everything with norge. It lacks low volume bass for sure. Even I paired with Akai vitage book shelves with 10inch woofers but the bass goes down along with the volume. The circuit design itself is such its made keeping in mind the mid frequency particularly voice, so it lacks depth in low volume. A loudness on/off option might have solved the issue. Its the current which drive the heavier coil of woofer while reducing the volume along with the voltage the current also drop. Here the loudness circuit comes in handy holding the current from dropping.

Bass IS supposed to weaken at low volumes. This is how our ears work.
If the purpose of loudness on/off button is to increase the bass frequencies then it is quite wrong, because I can easily increase the bass using the equalizer knob for at least ±6 dB on Norge amps.
Loudness on/off button will not really solve this issue, please see the reason below.

Every thing is fine with Norge except one drawback they are not providing Loudness on/off option. Which is a must for listening in low volume. This provide low frequency boost with a nice thump. I spoke to Mr Laxman he bluntly said no way.

First of all, we all need to be aware of something called as Equal loudness.

Equal-loudness contour - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Sound/eqloud.html

Simply speaking what it means is that ear is extra sensitive to 2-5 kHz spectrum and thus even at lowest volume we are able to hear these.
And the ear is low sensitive to <1000 Hz and decreasing sensitivity with decreasing frequency.
So, in order to actually do loudness equalization one should have a very wide bandwidth low frequency boost that starts at 20 Hz and ends at 1000 Hz. High frequencies are not at all to be touched since whether it is low volume or high volume the responsiveness of ear doesn't change.
Most of the loudness buttons boost bass as well as treble and again, it is plain WRONG.

To use some numbers, what this means is that lets fix 80 dB/1000 Hz as the desired volume; which makes it 80 phons loudness. On this contour we see that the ears need 120dB at 20 Hz to experience the same loudness.

Now let's view the scenario at low volume say 40dB/1000 Hz = 40 phons loudness. On this contour, we can see that the ears need 100 dB at 20 Hz to feel the same loudness.

What this means is that the ear loses around 20 dB additionally at 20 Hz when we reduce the amp output by 40 dB, in other words 40 dB loss due to reduction in volume, and 20 dB loss due to reduction in sensitivity.

Now we can construct the loudness boost curve, for a 40 dB reduction in sound volume, we must boost all frequencies from 20 Hz to 1000 Hz, starting with 20 dB at 20 Hz and reducing to 0 dB at 1000 Hz (that means boosting bass as well as lower mids, and mids also to some extent).
Tell me how many "loudness on/off buttons" have you seen doing this?

 

[changappa]

Bass IS supposed to weaken at low volumes. This is how our ears work.
If the purpose of loudness on/off button is to increase the bass frequencies then it is quite wrong, because I can easily increase the bass using the equalizer knob for at least ±6 dB on Norge amps.
Loudness on/off button will not really solve this issue, please see the reason below.



First of all, we all need to be aware of something called as Equal loudness.

Equal-loudness contour - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Sound/eqloud.html

Simply speaking what it means is that ear is extra sensitive to 2-5 kHz spectrum and thus even at lowest volume we are able to hear these.
And the ear is low sensitive to <1000 Hz and decreasing sensitivity with decreasing frequency.
So, in order to actually do loudness equalization one should have a very wide bandwidth low frequency boost that starts at 20 Hz and ends at 1000 Hz. High frequencies are not at all to be touched since whether it is low volume or high volume the responsiveness of ear doesn't change.
Most of the loudness buttons boost bass as well as treble and again, it is plain WRONG.

To use some numbers, what this means is that lets fix 80 dB/1000 Hz as the desired volume; which makes it 80 phons loudness. On this contour we see that the ears need 120dB at 20 Hz to experience the same loudness.

Now let's view the scenario at low volume say 40dB/1000 Hz = 40 phons loudness. On this contour, we can see that the ears need 100 dB at 20 Hz to feel the same loudness.

What this means is that the ear loses around 20 dB additionally at 20 Hz when we reduce the amp output by 40 dB, in other words 40 dB loss due to reduction in volume, and 20 dB loss due to reduction in sensitivity.

Now we can construct the loudness boost curve, for a 40 dB reduction in sound volume, we must boost all frequencies from 20 Hz to 1000 Hz, starting with 20 dB at 20 Hz and reducing to 0 dB at 1000 Hz (that means boosting bass as well as lower mids, and mids also to some extent).
Tell me how many "loudness on/off buttons" have you seen doing this?

Agree. But I came to the conclusion with Norge is that its intentionally designed as such. By masking bass the mids sound amazing. In my case as I Said I am using a equalizer to enhance bass but the amp doesn't like it.

 

[changappa]

If that's the case I think u better change ur amp with something u find more appealing to your likings. I am satisfied with the mid oriented presentation of Norge concerto gold 1000, and whatever bass the amp is producing is fine for me. I use two sets of bookshelf speakers alternatively. Elac debut b5 and wharfedale evo 4.1. The Elac's are little better for bass but I use wharfedale's around 80% of time.

When I need extra bass in low volume I use Sound King amplifier it has the extra punch even in low volumes. I pushed a equalizer in between norge and the source still the amp doesn't like it it prefer to play solo

 

[changappa]

If you get a chance, try floor standers

I have floor standers each 4feet tall having woofer subwoofer and tweeter presently paired with norge. But low volume play back lacks that additional punch. I use a equalizer to enhance bass but amp doesn't like it. So bass richness i use sound king 9000 amp paired with akai vintage 3way bookshelves each with 10inch woofers

 

[availlyrics]

But low volume play back lacks that additional punch.

alpha1 explained perfectly​

Their are other ways to improve bass , but requires some soldering skills

 

[Manoj Nair]

Hi Manoj,

I am aware of brands that you are currently using, cosmic, pulz etc. In fact I have stayed some part of my life in Mumbai and even met some senior personnel from Pulz in 2007. I had started my Hi fi journey in 1985 with a Philips cassette Ampli deck AW729. Prior to that I used to have a small National Panasonic tape recorder. Then in 1991 I bought a combo of Philips cassette deck, Arphi equalizer(similar to the one in your system set up photograph), Arphi amplifier AA140 and Arphi super challenger speakers. In 2007 Nad integrated amp C325bee, Nad cd player C525bee and sonodyne towers Sonus 2605 and so on. Presently I have two amplifiers CA topaz am10 & Norge concerto gold 1000, two sets of bookshelf speakers Elac debut B5 and wharfedale evo 4.1 but I use Norge and Wharfedales combo most of the time. The sonic character of Norge is very much to my liking with very neutral sound. I had given description of my set in this same thread with two photographs on dec 9th, 2023. Have a look on that.

My honest observation about your set up - It is nice but slightly overdone. Maybe you like it this way. Wires need to be managed properly. I have used some wire management tools & techniques that has made my layout little systematic. As you have too many components the wire management will take lot of efforts and time but it can be done.

Hi
Thanks for the feedback.
I would like tonseek your advise on cable management .
Is it possible to what's app/ contact so that I can get some inputs from your end.

My What's app no is 9920288768

Thanks again
Manoj