Orion speakers

[Stefano]

Hi to you all folks, has anyone of you builded or heard the Linkwitz's Orion speakers? They seems to be very interesting for domestic use and no so difficoult to build, even if they require 4 different amplifiers.

[cyclotronguy]

The Orion can be spectacular sounding.

Cyclotronguy

[Stefano]

Have you ever listened to it? Driven by wich amp?

[Drew Eckhardt]

They require six channels of amplification although when wired in parallel the woofers hit 2.5 Ohms. Using a channel on each woofer gives you more amplifier options though.

I built a pair and found that they were the best speaker I've heard. The short summary is that they do nothing wrong - when you first listen, the sound is very natural and nothing really stands out. Listening more you notice that the bass is unequaled, there's a wonderful openness and clarity to the midrange, there's a lot of detail and texture to the music, different recordings don't have the same spatial signature, etc.



My Orion page

[Drew Eckhardt]

One more very important point - they _really_ minimize the room's effects. 10dB bass peaks from room modes disappear. You have a phantom image closer to the side wall nearest a speaker, although it's still well within the tweeter flange with the wall just 2.5' away.

[jleaman]

Drew those are really nice i like your speakers. how do you like the sound of them 10" drivers. ? Do you feel that they put out enough bass.?

[Drew Eckhardt]

Originally posted by JasonL
Drew those are really nice i like your speakers. how do you like the sound of them 10" drivers. ? Do you feel that they put out enough bass.?

Qualitatively, it's the most natural bass I've heard from any speaker in any room. My room modes are nearly gone, the bass is very clean, notes decay as they should, double bass and drums just sound right.

Sitting 7' from a line drawn through the tweeters 8' apart in my 13' W x 19' L x 8' H listening room/theater it's more than ample for full-range use on electronic music (rock, techno, the ocassional enya disk) @ 90dBC average, symphonic music at levels subjectively comparable to what I get in the middle of my local concert hall, and other acoustic music at realistic levels (although I've never really checked those with my SPL meter). For home theater, I currently limit excursion using a 2nd order high-pass @ 80Hz although I'm switching to LR4 @ 40Hz because of the decrease in bass quality on movies.

The Orion equalization rolls off second order with poles at 20Hz, Q=0.5 (-6dB @ 20Hz) so they work great full-range when bass output is reasonable. However, at xmax with a 15" baffle depth output should be 118dB @ 80Hz, 100dB @ 40Hz, and 82dB @ 20Hz. Suspension travel runs out after another 3.5dB. Hence the sub for home theater work...

[sfdoddsy]

I don't have the Orions but I do have their kissing cousins.

I agree with everything Drew has said, and I think you'll find pretty much every review has been equally positive. There are a bunch of them on the Linkwitz site.





Cheers

Steve

[David B]

Not to be redundant, but I heard the orions at a recent event and would fully agree with all the wonderful things others have said about them. I was particularly impressed with great sense of staging and localization regardless of where I stood in the room. THe whole room is the "sweet spot".

[PaulHilgeman]

My dipoles do the same thing. With a relatively close spacing, I get a sweet spot that is pretty much as wide appart as they are. I still get good imaging way off to one side of what the standard sweet spot would be.

-Paul Hilgeman