Nohr Le Amp II(http://www.norh.com/products/leamp2/index.html)

From reading the spec's sheet and reviews this looks too good to be true. How would this stack up against the Outlaw Monoblock. They approach wattage in two entirely different fashions...it seems the Le Amp does not rely on any "signal shaping"...and has the robust power supply found in Levison and Mac gear!

SPECIFICATIONS:
Continuous Average Power 200 watts x 1 (8 ohms 0.1%
THD), 400W x 1 (4 ohms 0.1% THD)
Dynamic Power per Channel 400W x 1
Power Bandwidth 5 Hz - 50 Khz
Damping Factor Greater than 100
Input Sensitivity / Impedance 2.0 V / 44 k ohms (rated power)
Frequency Response 20 - 20,000 Hz +0, -0.5 dB
Signal to Noise Ration Better than 120 dB
Total Harmonic Distortion Less than 0.1%
Output Complement 8 transistors: The output stage is based on a CLASS A/B bipolar devices by Toshiba utilizing three Toshiba JFETS for the gain stage and three Toshiba bipolar for the output.
Power Supply 800 V/A Switching adjusted to 500 V/A supporting 800 V/A peaks.
XLR connectors for balanced inputs.

Le Amp II uses no negative feedback. It uses a DC Servo circuit so there are no capacitors in the signal path and no DC offset.

Le Amp is designed so that the power board and power supply boards can be easily swapped out. This means that repairs can be made by swapping out any failed board. We plan to put a diagnostic system into Le Amp that will show what board has failed.

Price $300.00

[img]http://www.norh.com/news-1103/leampglowleft-s.jpg
[/img]

I don't see the price anywhere. The pics did not transfer. This is from the link posted above:


(edit) I found the price of $300US. WOW!

Le Amp 2
This month I am writing this early as I will be traveling for the next three weeks. There are a lot of things happening these days and so little time to explain them all. What everyone want to now about is Le Amp 2. They are shipping. They are shipping slowly but they are going out. We have one customer who promised me that he will put his comments audio circle for everyone to read. There should be about 30 to 50 units out in the field by the time this is published.

We showed Le Amp 2 for the first time at the April audio show. The version we showed was nearly complete so we believed we would be able to deliver in about one month. We paid for the units in advance. We expected the first units to show up in May. Our supplier told us that he was negotiating with the case company. He said that the price he charged had assumed the case would cost about $25.00 but it wound up costing $70.00. This revelation came after we waited a month and expected delivery.

We called the case supplier. He said that the heat sinks were very expensive. These were 7.5 pounds per case. The heat sinks were custom molded, hand finished and anodized. We agreed to pay the difference and move forward to produce 200 cases. One month later, the cases were done. The vendor told us it wouldn't be long now. Each week, we were told, they are coming. I talked to the supplier and found that he was out of money. He had used our money to complete another job and he hadn't been paid for that job yet. He told me he needed to pay for the Toshiba parts that were coming in from Japan to complete the project. We paid for and accepted shipment of the Toshiba parts.

We got in about 14 amps. Then things slowed down again. This time, we found out that our supplier didn't have the money for connectors. You can guess the rest of the story. We had to buy the connectors a second time. In the meantime, we have contacted another supplier to help us clear up all the orders we have. The units that we are getting are bagful and sound great. Below is a photo taken just yesterday.

Photo of Le Amp 2

SPECIFICATIONS

Continuous Average Power 200 watts x 1 (8 ohms 0.1% THD), 400W x 1 (4 ohms 0.1% THD)
Dynamic Power per Channel 400W x 1
Power Bandwidth 5 Hz - 50 Khz
Damping Factor Greater than 100
Input Sensitivity / Impedance 2.0 V / 44 k ohms (rated power)
Frequency Response 20 - 20,000 Hz +0, -0.5 dB
Signal to Noise Ration Better than 120 dB
Total Harmonic Distortion Less than 0.1%
Output Complement 8 transistors
Power Supply 800 V/A Switching adjusted to 500 V/A supporting 800 V/A peaks

I have been receiving many e-mails from people who have asked us to show the insides of Le Amp 2. I asked the factory to send me some photos to show the inside. I apologize for the quality of these photos -- they were taken at our factory.



Inside the Norh Le Amp 2 (click to enlarge)

Le Amp 2 is nOrh Loudspeaker's most ambitious project yet. Our goal has been to improve quality while lower our price. Le Amp 2 is built like the most expensive amplifiers but it is probably one of the most inexpensive 200 watt per channel mono blocks available. Le Amp 2 uses a CLASS A JFET gain stage and a CLASS A/B Bipolar output stage. The output devices are from Toshiba. Le Amp 2 has over 7.5 pounds of custom molded and hand finished heat sinks. The power supply is one of the most powerful power supplies in its class. Le Amp 2 includes a balanced input and features very high quality, heavy duty connectors (look below).



[This message has been edited by willscary (edited November 06, 2003).]

[This message has been edited by willscary (edited November 06, 2003).]

How well does the le amp II handle 2-ohm loads?