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REVIEW: North Creek Music Systems Borealis Speakers

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Model: Borealis
Category: Speakers
Suggested Retail Price: $2500
Description: vented TM ($700 kit+$850carpentry+60% what would be retail markup=$2500)
Manufacturer URL: North Creek Music Systems
Model Picture: View

Review by MarkgM on October 14, 2002 at 23:37:15
IP Address: 208.61.71.229
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for the Borealis


I entered the model's MSRP a little funny but also to make the point: If this kit were sold retail, it would probably be $2500.

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I am comparing and in a sense reviewing two models of speaker. I have my Fuselier Basic Eights (Fat Julian's Audio, Roswell, GA) designed by Jon Fuselier, and I have my North Creek Borealis', designed by George Short. Imho, these are a two really top notch designers, and I think they've each done a great job of reaching they're respective goals. George Short is one of the speaker designers from the Apogee crew, and Jon Fuselier was at one point givent he opportunity to mass manufacture in the seventies, which he declined, I am told for a lack of desire of dealing in mass.

It's not a straightforward comparison, in the sense that the Borealis is rated flat down to 40 Hz, whereas the Eight is rated flat down to 28 Hz (both are 2-way designs), but, heck, these are the only two pair of speakers I have, and I feel like giving something back to the audiophile community if at all I can. So here goes!

Apples and Oranges

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I've had these two pairs of speakers back and forth on my stands over the past 4 months or so, and noticed them to be radically different, and each outdoing the other in its own way. Initially, I got the Borealis from a fellow in New Mexico who built the cabinets for me and so I also got to start out with drivers that had a couple hundred hours on them (no need to break in, thanks).

The cabinets are nice, although I need to call about the curdling veneer on one of them (ewww). This guy likes solid, and went with triple bracing as opposed to the double called for by design. He also as I understand fit the drivers into the front so tightly I am told they're quite difficult to remove. I find them very nice and very professional looking.

Running down the list of closely monitored CDs I used, after those months of swapping them back and forth: Eurythmics "Greatest Hits", a disc called "Indigo Spirit", Jon Anderson "Change We Must", Michelle Shocked "Deep Natural", and Roger Waters' "Amused to Death", the last just as a soundstage check. I wasn't planning on this initially, but found the Eurythmics disc to sound pretty good, albeit a bit 80s, and some of the songs on it actually present quite a bit of detail - much more going on there than I recalled from my younger days. Often there are similar sounds taking place together which makes this an even better detail test.

After this, there is the more classically-natured "Change We Must" which includes players from the London Chamber Academy, the "Opio Singers", and Sandrine Piao of the French Conservatoire.

Next there is the Michelle Shocked, a not-always great recording (on lead vocals) but some very good ambience, and on this theme followed in by "Indigo Spirit", which has as much bass as anything in my collection, and some interesting modified, as they say, classicalized, blues and rhythms. The Roger Waters disc uses "Q Sound", which has some clear-cut examples of far and wide soundstaging.

As I say, there have been many other sources in the past four months, along with a host of movie watching using the same system. So I grabbed a few discs and ran them through the mill.

I should also mention: the Eights have been my main home speaker for a couple of years at this point.

Starting with the Eurythmics, as I say, I was really suprised to hear how many sounds weere taking place on tracks like "There Must Be an Angel" and "Love is a Stranger". Starting with "Sweet Dreams", I rediscovered the dual keyboards working like a new wave rhythm, and each speaker giving them a good timbre and also catching the 3rd keyboard track during it's solo. On these tracks I noticed the Borealis surpassing the Eight in a couple of areas, and this continues generally throughout. These are the areas of timber, particularly in the midrange, and resolution across the frequency range. The Eights kept up pretty nicely, though, only slightly smudging a small detail here and there otherwise delivered clearly by the Borealis.

In terms of midrange timber, though, the Borealis is too clearly the better speaker of the two. I have found that in my desire to get more detail (but not lose any other qualities) over the Eights that I have at least gotten the attribute I was after. The sound of the vocalist and other instruments had more bloom, something I hadn't noticed or really even considered possible prior to A/Bing these two.

At one point I did have both pairs of speakers running together, by using my Denon integrated amp hooked into the copy loop of the Nohr ACA pre runnig the Borealis. The difference in amps doesn't hold a candle to the difference in speakers. I was able to switch back and forth between the two with a switch, and in fact, I brought myself to try this because I longed to hear the two pairs all at the same time (sigh). As it happens, each speaker makes me long for the other. On we go... (btw: I did not use the different equipment during listening sessions for this review)

I picked up a touch of sibilance in the main vocals on track 10, "I need a man" with the Eights not present with the Borealis. Now that is something about the Eights I have been suspecting for quite some time. Is it the equipment - or is it the recording? Soemtimes it seems just too hard to tell. I get the feeling that on this mark the Borealis is telling the truth with it's tweeter. I have also tried running frequency response tests showing what appears to be a slight hump in the treble between 4KHz and 6KHz on the Eights.

Listening to the Eights with the Eurythmics disc, on Sweet Dreams I also first noted more resonance in the vocals, and in general. It's the staying power of the note - is it lack of damping, or is it more in tune with the music? I don't know if I'll ever know, but I like the Eight's ambience. It sounds much to me like a timbrally slightly flatter but also more musical and extended sound. Interesting combination.

Another effect of A/Bing the two speakers is the revealnig of the Eight's crossover region by way of timbre. I find the Eight to hold a good note in lows and highs, whereas the Borealis is strongest in the midrange this way, and it reveals the Eight as a version - although very high class spinoff of it - woofy-tweety sound. If I didn't have another great sounding speaker to play right next to it, I never would have known, but that 1"/8" driver combination of the Eight just doesn;t seem to have the strength to make the notes really shine in the area of the crossover point. And I have to qualify this. I still find the Eights flat in this region, just not blooming like the Borealis.

Now we move to Michelle Shocked "Deep Natural" for some cow-poke funky dunky hippin hoppin whatever the heck it is. I dunno. Track 3, "Why Do I get The Feeling?" starts out with a dreamy guitar sound, and then bam - breaks out what I now refer to as "the grand canyon" song. There are guitars off to the back left corner and the far, far right chiming in, and bass and drums and vocals. On the Borealis, I noticed the guiter on the left flooding out into the center of the room, and the images, such as the guiter to far right holding good, tight positions - very steady.

Where this passage breaks out on the Eights - gasp! The guitars and the bass altogether drench the room with rich, vibrant tones.

One of the things that separates these two speakers is the bass response, and in small way. Now, they aren't rated the same, one flat to 40, the other flat to 28, but the bass response of the Eight is just so much stronger than that of the Borealis, and it occurs to me that this is not just in the lowest octave, but seems to be a matter of bloom throughout the bass range. I even get the feeling that the Borealis is running light on bass all the way to the midrange. How would I ever know? I don't know. But it seems that way to me.

It also does not seem to me that the bass on the Eights is any more than a tad over-done. At most. The bottom end just seems like a wide open, bottomless maw, right up to it's maximum linearity (a nominal out of around 98 db).

Which brings us to the next in that category, "Indigo Spirit", the CD (Higher Octave Music HOMCD 49250). One day I just looked at the thing in the best buy and snagged it. And now, I've listened to it a couple dozen times (and generally at a healthy gain). It is times like these that I am thankful for the Stratos amp to drive through these kinds of bass passages, which over the previous amp sharpens and even depens the response. The Borealis has good bass. Tonally, it's just about all there. But I am not impressed by the performance. The Eight, well, this is like the previous selection - gasp! The room is drenched with sound, and in the case of deep bass, it doesn't hit my chest -- it slices right through.

So it's a funny thing to think about with the Borealis bass response, but I would like to give it the benefit of the doubt and guess that a sub would do wonders for it. At the same time, however, I am getting the impression that my tastes will have to adapt a bit even with a sub crossing over into the Borealis, for the total bass range.

Moving on to the last disc in this collection, "Change We must", I'm hearing some things I like in both speakers. On Chagall Duet, I am reminded by the Borealis how sweet the timber of the "French Lady"s voice can be, and free of any and all taint, and I am reminded of what sounds like a slight sibilance effect presented by the Eight on this track, and quite frankly, this CD in particular. I caught a touch of it in the male voice on Indigo Spirit that an A/B test with the Borealis revealed, but this Jon Anderson disc presents a significant boost in the effect over just about any other disc I have listened to.

I also think that bowed, stringed instruments can pick up a touch of this effect with the Eight, such as the violins and the cello on Change We Must. I hadn't made that connection before, but that's what it's sounding like to me at this point. The sibilance effect is most noticeable on track 8, "Candle Song", in Jon Anderson's voice.

I also went a little into Roger Water's "Amused to Death" just to take a peek at some of those wild holographic image positions. (The disc is no less morbid than anything Roger Waters has done) Both speakers found the images and placed them well. Again, on the Ballad of Bill Hubbard, the timbre of the guitar was rounder with the Borealis, and yet, and I actually wrote it down, for the Eight, "the guitar melts through me, takes the ice off my bones". What a bunch of apples and oranges these things are being to me.

So I was looking for more detail, and also to keep whatever qualities I already have, and the only option I can realistically pursue via the Borealis at this point is to match it up with a sub or subs. Also, there is the possibility of just letting my tastes change over time (but my roomies wouldn't like it). For those interersted, I think the Borealis wuold make an excellent speaker for classical. I've found the level of detail and the timbre to be of very high quality.

But if you're looking for full range, only one of these pairs really pulls it off. And the Eights are, what can I say, alot of fun to listen to. These are both very good speakers, capable of competing with products on the market costing up to 2 to 4 times as much. Of course, as I said from the very beginning, I think each of these designers has done what they set out to do. George has, as described, created a cost-no-object system that can be crossed over nicely under 40, or check his web site for more talk by George (North Creek), and Jon's goal was simply to try to create a full range speaker with only two drivers. It's not the best in imaging, sometimes an image floats a bit, and by contrast the midrange is not so bloomy as the Borealis, but you'll be hard pressed to find an audible frequency that it won't dole out in an open, dynamic, and musical manner. I hope to report back if or when I've got a sub to put together with the Borealis to do this all again.

btw: I know Jon has created an active 3-way, his latest and greatest, with the intention of providing high resolution via a new, highly resolving midrange driver.

And btw: I would love to know what the difference is between a North Creek Borealis and a North Creek Rhythm. Anyone? It's got an extra midrange driver there.


Product Weakness: short on musicality, ambience; seems light throughout the bass
Product Strengths: timbre, midrange, detail


Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier: Odyssey Stratos
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): Nohr ACA 1
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Meridian 500/566
Speakers: Fuselier Basic Eight
Cables/Interconnects: Transparent M-Wave 100s
Music Used (Genre/Selections): pop/rock, various
Room Size (LxWxH): 16 x 12 x 8
Time Period/Length of Audition: 4 months
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner




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Topic - REVIEW: North Creek Music Systems Borealis Speakers - MarkgM 23:37:15 10/14/02 ( 0)