I've been using Normans for over (gulp!) 30 years! (I got my first in school). They were originally manufactured here in LA, (Burbank actually) and the big attraction they had was very fast service for walk-in repairs (which I took advantage of many times). The strobe business was fairly new at the time and for many years you could go into almost any commercial studio and see banks of Normans all over the place. As technology enabled units to get smaller and new manufacturers started to come along, Norman kind of sat on their butts and let these upstarts jump ahead with lighter gear and better accessories. Eventually they were acquired by their current owner and moved to Minnesota, and thus lost their "quick repair" edge, but by that time their main tech had opened his own shop in the middle of Hollywood, and brands like Dynalight, Profoto, Balcar and Speedotron had made some major inroads in the local market. Today in fact, you can hardly find any Norman equipment to rent at the pro shops. I have three large packs (2000ws & 4000ws) with heads and accessories, and my ex-studio partner has another five packs and even more heads. We still borrow from each other, and you've never seen a more tired looking set of lights. They still work fine and we can still get Silvino to fix them (I still have my original 30-year old pack). I recently acquired a set of hardly used White-Lightnings for traveling. The Normans do weigh a ton (at least the old ones) and are impractical to fly with.
Anyway, none of this is relevant to your question because you're looking at new stuff I assume. I didn't even know Norman made "hot" lights, so I looked up their catalog online and still don't see any (of course, the modeling lights could be considered "hot" lights, but that's it). Here's the catalog link if you want to check. All I can tell you is I've had a lot of good experiences with mine, and it does look like the new owners have done a lot of new product development in the last few years to keep them competitive. I would buy more in a heartbeat if I needed them (but I don't!).
http://www.photo-control.com/norman/catalog.htm
One thing to remember - aside from the accessories, durability, weight, and power control issues, most strobe systems are similar and its a matter of taste and budget. The "color" of the system is in the flash tube. You can buy them in "clear" or "UV-corrected", which is a tad warmer. Other than that, the color is dependent on your light control accessories - umbrellas, softboxes, reflectors, STUDIO WALL color, and gels. Its not what you have, but how you use the light modifiers and accessories to get the effect you want. If you look at my website, all the studio shots were lit with my Normans, usually a wide variety of such accessories.
Regards,
Andy Pearlman
Andy Pearlman Studio