Has anybody had experience with the Orions?

Carlos, thank you so much for the offer. I might take it... ;). The Gradients are also very interesting with their bass radiation configurability and their coincident tweeters. And they only require a single amplifier. You must be very happy with them. Is good to know that somebody is having success in attacking a major problem for high-quality playback at home, namely the room acoustics.

Regards,

I have always tought that dipole speakers have an inherent advantage against conventional designs whose main priority is the supression of back radiation and box resonances "ad extreme". Mr. Linkwitz has observed that a good dipole, under the right conditions, is capable of fooling our ear-brain system into creating the illusion of solid objects in front of us. He says that something seems to just "snap in", at least more so than boxed speakers such as the Magicos.

GREGM: The drivers are about 1,5k altogether. The xover is very complex for a lame diyer -- but shouldn't be a problem for you.

Greg, in the past I had fun making mods to several crossovers, including the ADS C2000. That one was crazy. I believe we counted 43 or so modifications! It was fully op-amp based. Nowadays, there are very good sounding op-amp designs, but a discrete design still is a must for the highest quality. This would mean dedicating many hours of design time, which at this moment I can't afford. Another disadvantage the Orions have is their need for 6-8 channels of amplification. The cost of such pile of amps could easily top the speakers' price themselves.

JSADURNI: I lived for a while with Lowthers on open baffle on top of Altec 416, Bazzilla style (bought the plans but strayed from the original design) and realized open baffle is not my cup of tea, at least untill a get a bigger room!

Jorge, I had a similar experience when I heard the big Magnepans (Timpani's) at Heaven Sound. They were very fast and neutral, but seemed to enlarge everything including the human voice. This is no surprise, as big panel speakers produce planar frontwaves, totally different from the way instruments and humans radiate sound. OTOH remember that the Orions have conventional drivers (of the highest quality though), and that might give them advantages over panel type speakers, at least in small spaces.

FISHBOAT: One criticism I've heard is that they (any dipole type) sound "big" all the time...even when the music doesn't call for it.

Fishboat, I don't know about sounding big, but according to Mr. Linkwitz they are capable of conveying the full range of acoustical spaces, from dry to wet. Can anyone confirm this?

Regards,

Jmaldonado,

I don't detect anything out of the ordinary at the crossover points and, no, they are not adjustable.

Tim

according to Mr. Linkwitz they are capable of conveying the full range of acoustical spaces, from dry to wet. Can anyone confirm this?

Yes, the restitution is palpably correct.

In my opinion the Orion’s combine some of the best attributes of the different speaker types;
The startling dynamics of horns, the crystal clean clarity of electrostics, the seamlessness of planers, the beautiful extended highs of a ribbon, and the realness of an omni-polar. Do they exceed the ultimate absolute attribute of each individual speaker type? My answer is no… BUT they absolutely do the best of combining all their strengths that I have heard or owned. Once you hear them and an active system there is no return. Considering the price they are the best speaker bargain in audio IMO. I have not heard the MBL’s or the active TAD’s, but would like to, so cannot comment on how they would compare but they of course are many thousands more…
They show you what a superb EE can do when audio is his passion. His credentials are impeccable as is his baby.