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Norge is a brand that’s worn many a tempest and taken on some imagines competition, yet never elastic to gimmicks or tall claims. The company makes only audio cog, such as stereo amps and speakers, so a lot of audio purists opt for Norge as the products are very sensibly priced. They’re from India, not Norway, which almost certainly explains how costs can be cut.

From what I’ve seen so far, most of Norge’s gear drop in the band of decent-to-good, despite some clear flaws. Do the new Norge 75 bookshelves offer any important enhancements? Can honest sound can be achieved from a device whose cost runs into just four digits? I’m as curious as you are; so let’s go ahead with our review.

Design and Features

These are typical bookshelf speakers with a basic straight-edged rectangular cabinet; the type that brings back memories of a bygone analog era. The cabinet is MDF, with a PVC coat of light oak. Though the beauty of PVC is debatable in the eye of the beholder, this one does look warm and rich.

The front panel is covered in black and supports the tweeter and woofer drivers, making this a two-way reaction design. The bass port is at the back, along with the most basic speaker connectors. The design is unassuming, but some may want a jazzier look – perhaps some smooth curves to make things interesting. All that comes at a cost, so whatever we have is not bad.

The silk dome tweeter is 30 mm in size, while the woofer with an ’specially treated’ cone is 5.5 inches. Encouragingly, the drivers are from Wavecor. The weight is 5.5 kg, which I believe is on the lighter side.

Performance

These healthy speakers require be placing on heavy stands, about 3.5-4 feet wide, and slightly toeing in for a full spectral delivery. The amp has to be good, as stereo sound can get very much colored in the amp itself, which the speaker can do nothing to improve. The speakers came to us already broken in, so I straightaway started the tests. First off I inserted a Sheffield Labs test CD and ran a few tones and sweeps to make sure the scene. The speaker can go down low till about 30 Hz odd, though not in a flat way. In highs it touched 18K before wisping off. While I did not have the real sensitivity rating, qualitatively I can say it would be quite high.

In addition to the pristine recordings from the test discs. What I incidental was a wide and open sound stage; the sort of stuff that appeals to a mature audience. Thump was not there, though low bass frequencies were present, and sounded nice.

The mids were a little forward for my taste: very crisp and made some vocals sound overemphasized, but not harsh at any point. Sound depth was praiseworthy as a line to the imposing sound stage. High frequencies were rolled off and subtle, with no extra sibilance anywhere. This I liked a lot, as I hate too much be good at in the sound.

At a price of Rs 8500, the speakers offer bang for the buck. If you’re not a stickler, the flaws talk about can be ignored, as the good points outweigh the bad. The design could have been better, it’s true, but then true audio quality has not anything to do with looks.

With a sub I’m sure these speakers will rock. They nicely fit the requirement of a bedroom stereo music system and could be an ideal choice for a quiet musical evening, but not a party.

This 2.0 speaker set is a descendant to the I-Trigue 2200, with just a few slight changes. It’s a little more stylish, but astonishingly, loses a feature that figures in the previous version. The set is aimed at those looking for a speaker solution for a laptop or movable media player; let’s look at whether it’s worth its price tag.

Specifications: System Setup: 2.0, Output (RMS): 18 watts

Driver satellite: 36 mm NeoTitanium micro drivers

Magnetic Shield, Signal-to-noise ratio: 80 dB

Frequency response: 120 Hz ~ 20 kHz

Controls: Power On/Off & volume control, tone control

Headphone jack

Design

These speakers are high. The 2300 has a whole gloss face and a proper stand for better looks and stability respectively (as compared to the 2200). The thin face and depth of the 2300’s satellites are the same as those in the previous model. The depth given to the satellites, along with the air-vents at the rear, are destined to enhance the bass. Each of the satellites has two high-quality NeoTitanium drivers for better sound clearness crossways the spectrum. The drivers are not hidden, as in case of most satellites.

As customary, the right satellite holds all the controllers and connectors. There’s a headphone jack, the two knobs, and an LED on the front. Of the knobs, one is the volume control which also does the duty of the On/Off switch, and the other is for tone control — no divide bass and treble here. In fact, there’s a Creative two-speaker set from around the year 2000 that has separate bass and treble… I just can’t see why this unit has only a tone control! The back houses a DC-in, Line-in, and the jack for the left satellite. I must say the plan of the speakers is attractive.

Performance

The combined output spec of 18 watts RMS is good on paper, but the sound quality wasn’t quite as good as I’d predictable. It was a pleasure listening to tracks without too much bass. The treble of the strings in Country and Soul tracks was copy sensibly well by the small 36 mm drivers.

With type like Rock and Trance the drivers couldn’t really handle the bass. Turning the knob to the treble side sent the highs way too high, and made the music sound even worse. I found that the best settings for tracks with lots of bass was with the tone knob set at almost full bass, and the volume knob at sandwiched between 50 and 70%, 70% being just about manageable. Throughout my testing, the dual driver satellites delivered the mids and highs, but even with the depth provided by the design to enhance bass, there wasn’t much of it to be grateful for.

It’s unlucky that the quality that the satellites can deliver is not complemented by a woofer; satellites with NeoTitanium drivers should be escort by a sub, otherwise it’s a waste of those quality drivers. Speaking of which, the I-Trigue 2200 provides a port to attach a sub, and this one doesn’t! I’d say this system is at best good enough for some quiet music in the backdrop.

The Creative I-Trigue 2300 2.0 sells for Rs 4,499, and comes with a one-year warranty. It beats me why anyone would want to spend that much on a 2.0 system. For that price, you can easily afford a good 2.1 set, or a low-end 5.1 system, which would deliver enhanced music overall. If you’re looking for a solution for your portable media player, you’d do enhanced to look for a set of moveable speakers (it’s likely you might require to invest more), or perhaps better headphones than those that came bundled with the device. And if you’re looking for speakers for your laptop, I’d say it would be much better to spend in a good pair of headphones.

Yamaha has started a 10 watt, A2DP-compatible, Bluetooth speaker called the NX-B02. The tool is calculated to handle output from Bluetooth-compatible PCs, PDAs, and of course your mobile phone. In case that wasn’t enough, it’s also ready with a 3.5mm line-in socket, so you can without complicatedness attach your MP3 player or PMP.

The NX-B02 has dual 4.5cm (1-3/4-inch) full range speakers, and each speaker has an SR-Bass (Swing Radiator Bass) diaphragm. This diaphragm moves by the shaking of the main diaphragm and efficiently increases bass energy, producing larger sound force levels for deeper and stronger bass.

The speaker can be used as a moveable device as it runs on four AA batteries. According to Yamaha, battery life is about four hours with alkaline batteries and seven hours with NiMH batteries. You can also choose to run it on the AC adaptor that comes with the enfold up. The NX-B02 is priced at Rs 7,883

In a world filled of iPod docking stations, it’s no shock to see Bose launch yet another. The newest to hit the stores is just called Bose iPod Docking Station. The need for a docking station is in custody with one’s desire to have music played noisily, but it may not be that great an idea if you crave great loudness. Like all tech labs, we have seen our split of docking stations – even a water-resistant dock for that matter – and going by past knowledge, the Bose docking station does seem to cut through the opposition. At least, the docking station is huge, and can surely meet your miniature-sized party supplies.

The wharf comes with a removable rechargeable battery that, according to the manual, can blare music for almost half a day. To check, I hosted a dawn party with limited people and no power opening. The melody kept going for eight hours before it showed signs of subsiding. The battery charges whenever you plug in to your wall outlet, and also charges the iPod. The volume keys can be found on the top right. The player is mainly an iPod docking station, but for good measure also includes a 3.5mm input slot for any other MP3 players. iPods – we tried fifth and sixth generation ones – can be controlled with the remote control, which means you can tenuously control the volume, play back music and power off the player. You can skip tracks, and the remote has a enthusiastic play list skip button. The dock is hidden at the bottom right in front, just below the speakers. All you need to do is give it a slight nudge, and out it pops.

The sound is good, with a lot of volume to back it up. What it lacks is thumping bass. It does thump, but not with accurate lows. The sound is relatively balanced when compared to some others in the market. The sound seems strained when the volume is cranked up really high. For a room, the sound is clear and loud enough to merit the need to scream while talking to each other. The need of the hour is an option to EQ the sound from the dock itself. The Bose docking station lacks this. Sadly, and oddly enough, you cannot surf the song list using the isolated control. As is the case with almost all Bose products, this one too comes package with all types of wall indict plugs.

The docking station is not up till now available in India, but according to company sources, plans are on for a bureaucrat launch sometime in February. It’s predictable to be priced at Rs 24,637. This is bit sheer, but more than half the money you pay goes for the ‘Bose’ name. So if you have the money, go for it.

XtremeMac just proclaim from MacWorld today another iPod speaker system. This time around it is the Tango X2, priced at around $150. The XtremeMac Tango X2 is explain as “a full range speaker system with a subwoofer and AM/FM radio enfold in an elegant plan that delivers big sound from a dishonestly compact unit.” Having had hands on information with the first Tango we have to picture this will be even a better system. Basic features include an AM/FM radio with hidden display, a smaller footprint from the previous model and an included iPod dock. Get the full details on the XtremeMac Tango X2 after the jump.

XtremeMac make public Tango X2 Audio System for iPod with built-in AM/FM radio 2.1 Speaker system delivers powerful room filling sound for $149.95. XtremeMac today proclaim Tango X2, its latest addition to and by now imposing line of speakers built for Apple’s iPod. Tango X2 is a full range speaker system with a sub woofer and AM/FM radio wrapped in an elegant design that delivers big sound from a dishonestly dense unit.

Like its precursor Tango, this unit is equipped with precision tuned high dynamic speakers, tweeters, and a sub woofer to produce the phenomenal sound for which it was so highly regarded. Tango X2 picks up on the previous version by adding an AM/FM radio with an out of sight display and six user presets. The new design is also thirty percent lesser than the original allowing for post in virtually any media center or room. The result is a compact, robust speaker system different any other now on the market.

The sleek, black and chrome system includes a universal dock well that will charge and play any iPod with a dock connector, and has an auxiliary line-in jack on the back of the unit for between other devices. The built in AM/FM radio can be tuned through buttons or presets on top of the unit, or through the higher function remote. The blue LED display is cleverly hidden at the rear the speaker grill when not in use, and with no trouble visible from across the room when it is being used for tuning or show source in sequence.

“Tango X2 creates a new standard for iPod speakers.” said CEO Gary Bart. “It is the only system accessible that combines outstanding audio presentation, iPod functionality, and an AM/FM radio, for half the price of other units.” Tango X2 is priced at $149.95 and may be pre-ordered from XtremeMac’s website today, or purchased at retail outlets universal in the coming weeks.