Norge Reference 2000 Stereo Amplifier

[dichkaun]

Any opinions on Norge Reference 2000 Stereo Amplifier.
Tech2 has a vague review at Tech2.com India > Norge Reference 2000 Stereo Amplifier > Reviews > HiFi & TV > Home
The amp is not yet listed on the Norge site.
I called them up asking for a Bangalore dist, but they don't have an active one.

~dich

 

[cha_indian]

guys....

anyone has used norge products? How are they when compared to the marantz or yamaha as far as stereo is concerned?

 

[Sean de Silva]

As far as stereo is concerned, Norge is second to none whatsoever!!! It outperforms the very best !!

The brands you mentioned pale in comparision, one just pays for the "brand" .

 

[tonedeaf]

Hi,
I purchased a Norge Reference 2000 ampli two months back and paired it with Mourdant Short Avant 906i. I find the sound amazing. This is my first experience with a Hi Fi set up , so won't be able to tell you how it stacks against something else... but I've palyed my entire CD collection (mostly gazals, hindi film, light classical and some western classical) and every type of music played well.
Cribs - it doesn't come with a remote, looks are so-so.
Pros - I stay in Mumbai, so if something conks, I can take it to their factory and get it fixed.

My decision to go for Norge was mainly due to Mr Shyam Bajaj (owner of Norge Audiosystems). He gave me a demo in his small factory cum demo room. Since I wanted to audition with my speakers, he said I could take it home and if I was not satisifed after playing it at home, he would take the ampli back.
I guess that confidence worked for me.

Not much of a tech review... but hope it's helpful in some way..

 

[Tamal Chanda]

I am considering to buy Preamp and Power Amp of Pulz . How does it compare to Norge?

 

[lakshmant]

I wrote this review of a Norge 4242 amplifier amazing piece of equipment, i have met Mr Shyam Bajaj and his design principles are very sound. You wont regret buying norge. He is also a very nice person as well who supports his customers completely. I have been to his office where my 4242 amp was assembled in front of me in 3 hours.


Review of Norge 4242 stereo integrated amplifier

This unit has a output of 42 W Rms @4ohms per channel from 20hz to 20 kHz + or -1db


Exterior design

the unit has a simple and uncluttered front panel with basic controls of bass treble tone control on/off input selectors for DVD ,auxiliary and tape with the corresponding RCA inputs in the rear .the build quality of the unit is good and made with metal chassis the front panel has a red LED that glows when the power is turned on .

Room and other equipment used in this review



1)Speakers onkyo SKF101 speakers connected with van den hul skyline hybrid cable bi wiring mode distance between speakers APP-3.0 meters speakers angled at 45 degrees from listener as per Dolby and ITU recommendations for LR speaker positioning sensitivity 87/db per watt meter

2)Source unit Onkyo DVS757 THX certified DVD audio and video player .


3)Interconnects -front left and right Van den hul D102 III hybrid cables terminated with local connectors cables connected as per VDH website recommendations on ground end marking.
4)Room data- hollow room of around 3000 Cu feet without acoustic treatment and sparingly furnished listening distance app 10 feet from speaker .

On plugging in the amp it had a mute of 3 sec before the power comes on leaving it on for a minute or so I then proceeded to play various tracks from commercial CD 's like bacradi blast 3 (virgin ) Titanic score (Sony music) Fiza (tips) for some time the amp seemed very dull and unresponsive but after a period of 45 min the amp started to open and the details started coming though there was excellent control on the speakers during the loudest peaks in the recording ex on fiza in the 1st track the female lead vocals would sound shrill and thin on many other systems due to the high pitch and vocal freq of the singer but the presentation was controlled and precise without a loss of any high freq detail which is generally associated with flat freq freq reproduction of sound in many cases.Then moving on to the audio file test disc of opus 3 revealed a very broad and open sound stage and immaculate stereo separation and positioning between the speakers while maintaining the timbre of the instruments mainly the depth and range of piano tracks.

I then proceeded to use multichannel film sources and their recordings to test the dynamic capabilities of the system starting of with nayak(shemaroo Dolby digital 5.1) revealed a increased amount of detail and better playback of the high freq and bass in the 60hz region dialogue when mixed down to stereo sounded clear and crisp in spite of the dominating sound field created by the music and effects similar results were found on Gladiator signature selection dream works (DTS 6.1 ES discrete) and Die another day MGM (DTS ES 6.1) where the dynamics and fidelity were equal to a well aligned multiplex when scaled down to the current room size.
Then stepping up on the source resolution I used the DVD audio disc of Eagles Hotel California (Warner) played back in stereo at 24 bit 192 KHz resolution the highest resolution PCM playback format in the world today the amp responded extremely well to the dynamic drum and guitar passages on "Hotel California" and reproduced the exceptional detail in tracks like? New kid in town" and "Wasted time " and revealed subtle music cues unheard before. I have not tested the MLP version(DVD audio) part of this disc as it involves a stage of packing and unpacking of audio data compared to pcm which is not compressed in any way.



Now the negative aspects of the amp

1) The speaker terminal are spring clips and not binding posts which poses a problem when uses high quality speaker cable

2) Audible cross talk between inputs when the volume id turned up fully requires better shielding within might cause problems when many sources are connected .

3) A remote might have been good at least for the volume.

4)Phono input might be a great addition

5) No instruction manual

6)It is heavy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7) Better quality RCA jacks to be provided .

Overall this amp is a great value for money and with a very sound design except for a few minor flaws this amp is very revealing about the sources it is connected to it so the amp will show that your X cd player or Y DVD player might be bad in certain audio aspects so don?t blame the amp overall a good product with a Made in India stamp

 

[awedeophile]

As far as stereo is concerned, Norge is second to none whatsoever!!! It outperforms the very best !!

The brands you mentioned pale in comparision, one just pays for the "brand" .

You found Norge better than Marantz? Wow.. I'm pretty amazed. Please eleaborate on the models compared and what was the rest of the equipment. Thanks.

 

[moktan]

i cannot comment on the quality of the amps since i haven't got the chance to hear them... but i have to mention that mr shayam bajaj is a thorough gentleman, he bothers to reply your mails personally, gives you sound advice .....follows up..

 

[Kamal]

Congrats, Lakshmant on your purchase & may it give you many hours of pleasure.
You could have asked Mr Bajaj to provide Binding posts & better quality gold plated RCA jacks when you Amp was being assembled-would'nt have cost you much extra.
Do post your experience after the Amp has broken in properly-it then shld sound smoother & more detailed.

 

[lakshmant]

I purchased these amps 2 years ago and they are with my brother now, they work very nicely.

Laksh

 

[soundsgreat]

Hi All,

Let me first start off by saying that whatever I say is my personal opinion and I do not mean to offend any 1 in any manner !

Now coming to Mr lakshmant 's Review,
I can only imagine the kinda of sound He's refering to for two reasons !

1) I've been listing to onkyo's since they hit the indian shores ( onkyo regional manager,now the country manager for Elac Etc is a dear friend of mine ) I visit thier office very offten to checkout thier latest offerings, so I have heard the SKF101 connect to onkyo integra research dual mono Amp Via Onkyo CD player. I cannot say it completly bad but the sound was something which was hard to digest as the overall sound was heavily lacking soul and substance. the same combo when shifted to B&W 301 bookshelf the sound was something else.

The point Iam trying to make here is when an 40+ K onkyo amp that to from the most respected Range as integra research and the onkyo Cd player failed to bring the best out of SKF 101 ! I can only imagine how an Norge ( no dis respect to the amp here) can do such wonders !

2) I've heard the best of the speaker like quad 11L,12L,22L, Wharfadle Opus,Evo ( entire Wharfadle Range) ,B&W Nuatilus Signature Series and Others(one of them mentioned above),KEF reference,Avante Garde,JM Lab Electra & Custom makes ( I make few Myself) etc etc the list goes on and Amps like quad 909,musical fidelity A3.2,Onkyo (mentioned Above) proton per-power,lexicon,yardly Valve,Nad (all Ranges),carver again custom makes etc etc the list again goes on.

so with above two reasons Iam commenting here.

Also I have nothing against norge they are good products but the real problem is thier overall product quality which leaves lot to desire !

Am saying this as a concerned buyer who is serious bout the stuff and want to help an prospective buyer make an sound decision.

Iam just trying to voice my opinion here in doing so If I have offended any 1 please forgive me, its not my intension !

 

[unleash_me]

...Also I have nothing against norge they are good products but the real problem is thier overall product quality which leaves lot to desire !

Am saying this as a concerned buyer who is serious bout the stuff and want to help an prospective buyer make an sound decision.

Iam just trying to voice my opinion here in doing so If I have offended any 1 please forgive me, its not my intension !

Couldn’t agree with you more brother.

I've heard the Norge amps in question and to my ears, they were just ordinary! Not bad but not that good as it is being projected up. Knowing and accepting the fact that music (or the way it sounds) is highly subjective in nature; any side by side comparison can expose the weakness of Norge in a few minutes if not seconds.

This has nothing to do with being locally made or being ‘desi’ – I believe we have reached a level of consumer market where we can choose what to buy and not being forced anything up on us, based on availability. Norge imho is a very good entry level budget component that is good value for - the money spend. If anyone can stretch it, there are far better components out there if you look around.

Best Regards.

 

[ranjeetrain]

That reminds me, I have to do a comparison of a Norge with the established international names. I know it won't be a fair contest (they would be pitted against amps costing twice or thrice as much, but what the heck).

Hmmm, may be I firstly need to get close to Mr Bajaj so that he is kind enough to provide me a test sample

 

[vilfy]

hi,

have auditioned norge 2060 along with norge bookshelves. and from my personal experience i found them good value for money...any day better than sony, philips, LG, yamaha etc hi-fi/mini systems. good bass, clear mids (a tad on louder side i felt), but average highs (a bit too rolled-off, not crisp and with insufficient sustain). very good sound stage / imaging.

everything has to be valued at its price and in that regards, i guess norge are very good entry level components.

however have auditioned entry level nad, marantz, denon, wharfdale, kef, psb, paradigm, etc and they for sure offer superior sound for the higher price.

i have interacted with mr shyam bajaj and also seen his showroom-cum-factory-cum office. he is a senior citizen and hats off to his committment to expanding hi-fi india, in his own way. a lot of factors like investment in R&D, easy availability of quality hi-fi component suppliers, etc go into churning out a good speaker / amp. in the conditions that norge is running business, i guess they are doing great. hats off to mr shyam bajaj ; he sure does make us all indians proud.

 

[soundsgreat]

Hi Vilfy,

QUOTE
"i have interacted with mr shyam bajaj and also seen his showroom-cum-factory-cum office. he is a senior citizen and hats off to his committment to expanding hi-fi india, in his own way. a lot of factors like investment in R&D, easy availability of quality hi-fi component suppliers, etc go into churning out a good speaker / amp. in the conditions that norge is running business, i guess they are doing great. hats off to mr shyam bajaj ; he sure does make us all indians proud."

Yes it might be true ! but what we are trying to say is for the same amount of money you are getting a much better product so thats the main concern

for example the bookshelf and the amp you auditioned,whats the price of both ? when you take wharfadle's example the diamond 8.1 is less then 9k and so is 9.0 (both are award winners in many re-views in india and abroad )

so its just what I said in my earlier post !

This in noway an idea to disscourage indian products ! but just an effort to bring thier attention to the fact that they either improve the quality or reduce the pricing (though I personally prefer the former) !

Regards

 

[ranjeetrain]

hi,

have auditioned norge 2060 along with norge bookshelves. and from my personal experience i found them good value for money...any day better than sony, philips, LG, yamaha etc hi-fi/mini systems. good bass, clear mids (a tad on louder side i felt), but average highs (a bit too rolled-off, not crisp and with insufficient sustain). very good sound stage / imaging.

everything has to be valued at its price and in that regards, i guess norge are very good entry level components.

however have auditioned entry level nad, marantz, denon, wharfdale, kef, psb, paradigm, etc and they for sure offer superior sound for the higher price.

i have interacted with mr shyam bajaj and also seen his showroom-cum-factory-cum office. he is a senior citizen and hats off to his committment to expanding hi-fi india, in his own way. a lot of factors like investment in R&D, easy availability of quality hi-fi component suppliers, etc go into churning out a good speaker / amp. in the conditions that norge is running business, i guess they are doing great. hats off to mr shyam bajaj ; he sure does make us all indians proud.

Hi Vilfy,

Thanks for the review. It will be useful for future visitors to the thread.

 

[noelmask]

guys, everything is built to a price. open challenge is to give an amplifier at the cost norge does. At the higher end we have a lot of choice but at the entry level there is nothing. Look at the fact that there is just one guy against all the MNC's with their millions of dollars and still we are talking about that company speaks voulmes about the man and his passion.
we dont compare maruti to BMW so why here?
we are comparing apples and oranges here.

 

[dichkaun]

To put it other way:
Can we get an amp at the 10K price point better sounding than Norge?
CA/NAD/Marantz/Onkyo/Yamaha/Sony/philips.... anything.

~dich

 

[soundsgreat]

Hi,

Noel buddy everybody knows that all things in the world comes at a price (of their own) ! So its but natural for us to assume it !! As with norge being only company,I beg to differ as there are many such companies in India.

Now coming to your Maruthi Vs BMW !! for your kind information we are not the one's comparing Norge with MNC ! they themselves want us to do so by calling their products audiophile products ! Now The moment you call a product audiophile its but obvious to compare it to the likes of it or in other words the other audiophile products,if that other products happen to be MNC then who's responsible for it ?? if you or the anybody doesn't want Us or anybody to compare Norge with MNC then they have drop the Audiophile tag and say its a value for money product nothing more !!

In speakers their prices is on par with so called MNC that you refer to !! for Ex their bookshelf is priced at 12K where as the Diamond 9.1 (multi award winner) is 13K Q acoustics 1010i 10.3K, so now in what way and why you want Us not compare a similar priced products ??

Also one more fact is that they use Vifa and Wevcor (both MNC) drivers in their speakers,So inspite of using these if their designs fail (or atleast is not on par in terms of sound in comparison with MNC) then who to blame ?? and why we should not compare and buy the MNC ??

Also there are soo many small companies around the world (much smaller then Norge) which produces top of the line products at very economical prices, so are you saying we have to stick with Norge and ignore them ??

As with your open challenge there are many (both indian and MNC) that can take Norge head on and butcher it !!

Guys please please be aware of the facts before making any statements !!

I and many have already said that we do not have anything against indian products or manufacturers !! Infact we or rather, I personally love more then anything to see a indian product kick some MNC Butt !!

Am no manufacturer but I have built a product which more indian then any other !! saying this just prove my point !!

 

[ranjeetrain]

Hi Soundsgreat,

Slow down mate. You are being too critical for a good VFM product. You should help the community by naming the other products from the same price bracket that you think beats the said product, rather than getting into an argument.