Rmaf 2008

[Lynn Olson]

And now for something completely different - the Linkwitz Labs Orion.

The (analog) active crossover and equalization is the best active-crossover system I've heard so far, with the smoothness, elegance, and seamless quality of the best passive crossovers, combined with the characteristic big dynamics of a multi-amped system. The 12-channel (!) ATI power amplifier, at a modest US$1799, sounded really good, with no transistor edge or hardness - of course, multi-amping reduces IM distortion by not exposing any one channel to a wideband input signal, thus reducing amplifier coloration significantly.

The bass is surprisingly deep and powerful for petite dipole system - I heard a room-filling 22~25 Hz, with no stress or strain from the pair of 10" drivers on each side. They must be low distortion indeed to do what I heard them do.

Of all the "mainstream" 87~90 dB/metre efficient speakers with Scan-Speak/Vifa/Seas drivers, the Orions are probably the best-sounding and best-engineered. They make the heavily-advertised $30,000 to $100,000 "Class A" speakers you see in the magazines sound pretty bad.

The truly surprising thing is that the OMA and the Orion have nearly the same voicing - on the slightly warm side, with no upper-midrange hardness or harshness, and balanced for classical music. And both play a lot louder, and more effortlessly, than you'd expect.

[Lynn Olson]

The Emerald Physics CS1 wins another mention in the "most-improved" category. The things I didn't like about the CS2 last year are pretty much gone, and the CS1 has much better overall tonality and dynamic reach. The people at Emerald Physics told me that they replaced the (really bad) stock analog electronics of the Behringer digital equalizer and crossover with new electronics of their own design, and the system has an all-new crossover - maybe different drivers too, based on what I heard. Another gratifying surprise at this year's RMAF.

Maybe it sounds like I'm gushing, but the sound at this year's show is much, much better. Frankly, last year I was pretty disappointed - I only found a handful of rooms that sounded even halfway decent. This year there were many more, maybe 7 to 10 that were excellent, which is unusual at any hifi show.

Part of the problem is the typical nasty hotel-room sound you always get at shows, but there are times when a lot of advances move through the industry on a broad front. This year was one of those times. There were a lot of Alnico and field-coil loudspeakers, not just the single-driver models, and there were a lot of interesting turntables, too, with 3-phase AC synchronous motors and sophisticated motor controllers.

This year's RMAF had more of a "big-show" feel to it, with many more exhibitors, and attendance by the "big wheels" of the press (I saw Atkinson and Valin) and the high-end industry. More than one exhibitor mentioned that they were not going to the CES this year, which surprised me. Lots of people in the hallways too, more than I remember from last year, and more people coming early and staying late.

A really good show, professionally presented, and well-attended and enjoyed by all. Congratulations to everyone that made it possible.

[CLS]

Originally posted by Lynn Olson
And now for something completely different - the Linkwitz Labs Orion.

The (analog) active crossover and equalization is the best active-crossover system I've heard so far, .....

I have an impression that the xover is full of OP amps in a number I lost count. So in the end, that's a really successful engineering!

[Lynn Olson]

I spent a fair amount of time scanning the manual, the schematic, and looking at the circuit board, and there are a lot of HP/Tektronix details in the circuit.

Just a few examples; the op-amp board has an elegant synchronous-tuned 3rd-order Gaussian lowpass filter at 140 Khz to protect the op-amps from RFI and slewing; the ground-plane layout looks good from the viewpoint of RFI susceptance and power-supply transient response, the power supply uses a pair of inductors to current-limit the pulses going into the PS capacitors, and the electrical filter shape for the midrange would be fiendishly difficult to do passively - a pair of asymmetric humps on both sides of the passband with the large hump towards the bass end.

Most active-crossover speakers are just slapped together with stock 24 dB/octave slopes dialled in on the Behringer or similar gizmo and the resulting sound is rough, disjointed, and fatiguing. Sorry, no cigar.

Good speakers need to lot of fine-tuning to get the right phase complementarity in the crossover region and driver-response sloping to remove the dominant colorations from the driver. This is standard practice with a quality passive crossover since the Seventies (thanks to Laurie Fincham of KEF), but still not that common in the active-crossover world. Linkwitz takes the rigor required in the best passive-crossover practice and applies it to a fixed, analog crossover with the minimum of user adjustments - and the end result is a lot better than you'd expect from glancing at the schematic.

I don't much care for opamps or solid-state amps, but I must admit the sound in the Linkwitz room was one of the best at the show - and those small hotel rooms were a difficult environment to contend with.

[Lynn Olson]

More audio-porn from the Classic Audio Reproductions room, showing their full range of field-coil compression drivers and bass units.

[angeloitacare]

hello Lynn

thanks for your sharing your impressions at RMAF.

It would be interesting to know who does the field coil conversions.

Angelo

[caninus80]

Hi,
What means " balanced for classical music"
My friend listen jazz- trio, piano, vocal etc.
and think about buying orions from Linkwitz without listening because in Poland its not possible.

Best
C

[serenechaos]

Originally posted by Lynn Olson
The Oswald's Mill Audio horn system. This and the new Classic Audio Research T-1's (which have nothing in common with the previous T-1's) are the two best horn systems I've heard to date.

The driver lineup, according to Jonathan Weiss, is a GPA 803 (Altec 515 cone with a lighter magnet), his new phenolic-diaphragm compression driver mounted on a wood conical horn, and a RAAL supertweeter with an Alexander-designed short horn. Superb crossover integration - absolutely seamless and natural-sounding, and wonderful bass and upper-bass from the big Altec/GPA driver. More than one person remarked it was the best they've ever heard a piano sound, and I had to agree.

You thought so?
Really?
What were you listening to?
My first thoughts were that the drivers had distinct voices, and you could hear right where they crossed over, and my wife leaned over and said that's a nice mid, but you can sure tell where it changes to the high or low driver.

Not even in the same leauge as the BD...


We both also thought the x-overs were great in Linkwitz Orions, but details really were pretty obscured on complex material compared to some other systems...
She said they drove her crazy, and couldn't listen to an entire song...


What always amazes me @ these things is how different people hear the same things differently.
Maybe we spent too long as musicians, and listen "differently" to the "wrong" things?

[badman]

Originally posted by serenechaos


You thought so?
Really?
What were you listening to?
My first thoughts were that the drivers had distinct voices, and you could hear right where they crossed over, and my wife leaned over and said that's a nice mid, but you can sure tell where it changes to the high or low driver.

Not even in the same leauge as the BD...


We both also thought the x-overs were great in Linkwitz Orions, but details really were pretty obscured on complex material compared to some other systems...
She said they drove her crazy, and couldn't listen to an entire song...


What always amazes me @ these things is how different people hear the same things differently.
Maybe we spent too long as musicians, and listen "differently" to the "wrong" things?

The tone of your post notwithstanding, there is no such thing as 'bad show sound'. Unless something is truly terrible (improperly designed speakers driven into distortion or with major speaker-based FR anomalies), it's best to chalk it up to show conditions. Often they're thrown together based on business reasons (hey, we can show with last year's amp of the year!) or the rooms just don't work with the speakers.

OR your ears are tired. When I go to shows, I spend a lot of time outside, as much as a third of the day, just getting my ears refreshed. This was a great aspect of CES prior to the interior days- the outside based hotel had plenty of space to relax your ears. VSAC this year was a very small show, and there wasn't the usual 'mad dash' to cover everything, so had lots of time to rest ones ears there, too.

So, try not to be so confident in your perceptions, the dynamics of showing a hifi rig with only a day or less to set up and tune, and with potentially unknown gear (Oh no, we forgot a CDP, let's borrow one!) can really screw the pooch. And oh yeah, let's not forget the SPL wars. Many great speakers just don't sound good quiet, just as many don't sound good really loud. And the show tends to favor the loud ones, since everyone winds up turning it up to drown out the HT demo across the hall. And all these variables are compounded by different listener preference, different material being played back at different volumes, different listener positions, etc.

It's much more complex than can be simply stated as a value judgement.

[tktran303]

<sigh>

For a dose of reality please book a visit at your local recording studio and look what your music passes through before it gets to your CD or vinyl record.

All the pots, switches and op-amps in mixing desks, all kinds of utilitilarian cables.

The RMAF starts to become bigger and bigger and crappier and crappier to me. Sorry, but increasing BS and exotica just like all the other shows.

http://blog.stereophile.com/rmaf2008/the_music_gun/
http://blog.stereophile.com/rmaf2008/101108marigo/

I change the placement of my speakers, or move them from one room to another, or even visit someone with the same speaker (but different room and ancillary equipment) and they sound sufficiently different. I also have the luxury of listening in near complete silence.

I don't know how anyone is supposed to come up to externally valid conclusions in a room with handful of other people milling about and nextdoor. I would be surprised if anyone at the show could pick a speaker that they could keep on a long term basis.

At least with a car show there is not pretense of how they might perform. You really need a test drive in your own environment...