THESE ARE THE LARGEST DRIVERS WE’VE SEEN NORGE SPEAKERS SPORTING AND THEY LOOKED LIKE THEY COULD TEAR OUR STUDIO APART.

NORGE TWR 125 MK III

MARCH 2010 38

Norge-2.indd 38 3/29/2010 11:21:20 AM

ndia wouldn’t be what it is without its fair share of audio industrialists. From Sonodyne

to Norge, our guys love to cater to the entry-level market, although that’s all starting to change quite dramatically. Sonodyne has released more than just a handful of mid-level speakers and home-entertainment setups, and they’re getting their due share of sales. That’s because companies like Norge cater to the entry-level market so well. And today is another fi ne example of a Rs 20,000 tower speaker called the TWR 125 MKIII.

OUT OF THE BOXThis might just be the largest pair of speakers we’ve seen by Norge in our studio. However, it isn’t the fi rst birch-wood veneer Norge cabinet nor the fi rst to sport the standard black grill that beckons to be removed. We would love to see Norge try something di erent with cabinet design, especially if they are hitting the 20 grand price range. Even a gentle curve to the sharp edges of the cabinet can do wonders to the overall aesthetics of these 40” tall speakers. Or even spikes for that matter.

TECHNOLOGY The TWR 125 comes loaded with standard ‘Norge’ commissioned drivers, namely two black 6.5” Wavecor mid-woofers and a 30mm Wavecor silk dome tweeter to top it o . These are the largest drivers we’ve seen Norge speakers sporting and they look like they could tear our studio apart, especially with their 4-ohm impedance. They drop way down to 30Hz, which is quite a feat for any loudspeaker, let alone a relatively low-key player in the loudspeaker game.

The cabinet is reasonably heavy, and it needs to be if it was to reach its 180W power handling maximum. The speaker terminals can be hooked up via banana plugs or spades, however the terminals have been placed way at the top of the back panel. We’ve never been big on this design

primarily because it makes the wires hang down from the back unless you do some wiring that makes the speakers’ placement permanent. And not many people would want that.

PERFORMANCEWith the TWR 125, we realised that we needed to add another factor ie positioning. We noticed this from the very fi rst CD I dropped in, BT’s ‘Movement In Still Life’. I had the speakers about 4–5 feet apart and a little toed in, before I played “Hip-Hop Phenomenon”. When that distorted kick drum comes in at the very beginning of the track, I knew there was way too much of lower-mid end response along with that extremely powerful and deep lower end. And Norge speakers can be a little bright or even lacking in lows, but never this spike in the ‘warmth’ range. I positioned the speakers a little further apart and toed them in a little bit more. The problem persisted and I tried a whole bunch of di erent positions and even switched the amplifi ers, but to no avail. Giving up, I fl opped back on my sofa set and the spike disappeared. Just like that. I realised it was simply my position in the amazingly narrow sweetspot that judged the lower mid-range response, as well as the toeing in of the speakers. Once I got that out of the way, I could fi nally get to the rest of the frequency range.

I dropped in John Mayer’s ‘Battle Studies’ and skipped over to the very bluesy “Crossroad”. We got a beautiful rendition of Mayer’s vocals with him seated at the very front of the soundstage, not at all intruded by the guitar licks and the thick drum kit. The same went for “Edge Of Desire”, with the guitar arpeggios* that drive the track given their atmospheric touch, but kept a little caged up because of that narrow image. With a more busier album like Richard Devine’s “Asect Dsect”, the speakers got a little mixed up with what to pay attention to and what to let slip. Because there’s always a little compromising you can hear speakers in this price range do, and with the TWR 125s, this happened in the higher frequency range. The many hi-hats and extremely

high-pitched synthesised samples came at the speakers at remarkable speeds and we could at times only hear an ambiguous sizzling going on. However, the lower end more than made up for it, driving the track “Rusx Fee” deep into the ground.

CONCLUSIONThe TWR 125s are good speakers, with a butt-kicking lower-end response, which we all love to hear coming from entry-level speakers. Fine, they begin to lose their sense of clarity as you go higher up in the frequency range or move too far away from the sweetspot, but this pair has its heart in the right place. Hook this pair up to an amplifi er from its own family, and you’ve got yourself a killer economical system.

Karan Gour

I

Gorge On The BassStanding taller than their predecessors, the TWR 125s certainly seem promising. But let’s find out if they tower on the performance front as well.

SPECIFICATIONS DESIGN 2-wayDRIVERS 2 x 6.5” Wavecor Mid-Woofer; 1 x30mm Wavecor Silk Dome Tweeter FREQUENCY RESPONSE 30Hz–35kHzNOMINAL IMPEDANCE 4ΩPOWER HANDLING 180W RMSSENSITIVITY 90dBDIMENSIONS (HxWxD) 40” x 9” x 10”WEIGHT 18kg CONTACT www.norge-audio.com

NORGEMODEL >> TWR 125 MK IIICATEGORY >> FLOORSTANDING SPEAKERSPRICE >> Rs 19,975WARRANTY >> 1 YEAR

BUILD

AUDIO

AESTHETICS

OVERALL SCORE

EASE OF USE

VFM

WHAT SAY AV?When you’re talking Rs 20, 000 speakers, you’ll be committing a sin if you don’t include the TWR 125 MK IIIs by Norge. With their power-packed lower end response and a thumping soundstage, this pair has got everything the Indian middle class man wants to hear at this price range.

It is a musical term used to describe the playing of the individual notes in a chord. The notes are usually the key notes that are needed to let the listener still hear the same key signature.

* WHAT IS...ARPEGGIOS

39 MARCH 2010

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