The ever-so-friendly Norge has suddenly delivered the unexpected. A nice little subwoofer named the NSW-100.lt really came as a surprise when this cute bass-thumper waltz into our studio and we were dying to see what it could do, primarily because of the price-range it falls under.

The best way to describe the NSW-100 would be to call it a 'bookshelf subwoofer'. It doesn't look like it could compliment the most of tower speakers primarily due to the size of that silver driver. But for a bookshelf that can't go below 200Hz, this sub would complement it perfectly. The NSW's wood finish really draws attention to itself even when it's placed in a corner of a room. In fact, you sort of feel like you're punishing a little child and most likely will be compelled to bring it a little more into the centre of the room. The back panel is well organised with an L/R line input along with a polarity switch and a level knob.

That 7.5-inch aluminium driver staring at us wasn't just a simple driver Norge decided to throw into this sub. It's a Wavecor driver, built especially for compact subwoofers. With its stiff aluminium cone, long linear throw and the special dynamic linearisation ring. the driver should be able to deliver unusually linear and low-distortion bass. And the best part is that even at high levels. the unit is supposed to behave controlled and free from any distortion. This diminutive driver is capable of rendering frequencies between 35Hz and 150 Hz, although the bottom limit seems a little too much for a woofer of this size. Nevertheless. maybe with the help of the cabinet, the NSW-100 should be able to get close to the 40Hz range. The 100-watts RMS amplifier in there would seem sufficient for the NSW but we wouldn't know until we drive it with some much-needed visual and sonic entertainment.

We could very easily lift the NSW-100 single-handedly and place it wherever we pleased. However, the more we tried to hide it in a corner, the more it started to disappear sonically from the soundstage. We had the level up to its maximum with a sine-tone running through it, but it still wasn't powerful enough to go into a corner. We decided to leave it right next to the bookshelf speakers. We first decided to check this little sub on some 2.1 music, so we dropped in Prince's 'Musicology' and switched to the first track, the title track and set the AV receiver to deliver a .1 channel along with the stereo channels. We dropped the level on the NSW a little below maximum and sat back to marvel at the sound of Prince. Any audio set up with more than one channel renders its sound onto a projected soundstage.

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One can use this concept of a soundstage to define and evaluate the speakers' integration with each other plus the overall strength of the soundstage. Its room seemed filled up with every hit of the kick but it didn't quite shake the room so we went back up to the sub and cranked it once again to maximum. This time we got the desired effect and it was just what our Bowers & Wilkins bookshelves needed on the lower end. However, we noticed some distortion coming from the cabinet as the driver seemed to be vibrating a little too much for the cabinet to handle. If only there was a bass reflex port on the rear or the front of the cabinet. it would've been a great help.

We dropped in 'Night Watch', a crazy, blood-thirsty action flick by the Russians that has more low-frequency effects than a subwoofer test CD. We skipped through the DVD, letting it play through some bass pumping transitions such as the one that goes through a rapid metro train only to come to a sudden stop at our main character. The train really seemed like it was bursting through our test studio, the rumble being just enough to get the effect that was desired. We thought there might have been a little more in the lower frequency range so we dropped the cut off knob down to its lowest point at 50Hz but there seemed to be nothing coming out of the subwoofer. Giving the woofer a couple more inches would've solved this problem but it would've given rise to another one -the price, which would go drastically up.