In the beginning my Pioneer did not shut down, 5 years ago, but it's getting weaker as time goes by. I have never had another amp to run the Orion's, most are prices out of my league. And I have thought about trying to borrow a 4 channel from someone and try it with my Pioneer receiver to see how it would sound. The bass of the Orion really needs solid state so all tubes would not be good.
Now comparing the Super V to other speaker technology. I owned a pair of Soundlab Electrostatics back several years ago, I sold them for a reason. As for sound comparison, there is no comparison, the Super V will blow them away. All of us have a little things in a speaker that we tune into and like, for me it's the way a speaker works with the room it's in. A dynamic open baffle speaker, like the Super V or my Orions, will reproduce a much more realistic musical experience than a electrostatic can, I say this because of the radiation pattern of sound. A electrostatic like a Soundlab or Martin Logan is a open baffle design but the curve of the panel really is wrong. The curving panel is done to create a spread of sound in the front of the speaker to create a wider sweet spot than a non curved electrostatic like the designs from Roger Sanders, which BTW are much better than either of the pre mentioned electrostats. The problem with the curved panel is now the rear wave is compressed down to a very narrow beam, especially in the high frequencies. This narrow beam of highs has to be absorbed or it will bounce around the room like mad, look at Soundlabs site, they have a special panel to place behind the speaker to absorb that beam. With the dynamic open baffle speakers the rear wave from the speaker is almost identical to the front, this for me is where the magic begins. You DON'T want to absorb the rear wave of the speaker, give it room to breath, throw in some diffraction on the wall behind the speakers to scatter any reflections coming from the wall behind the listener and you will have magic in the making.
If you have never heard a speaker like the Super V or the Orion you really need to. Also Danny's omni polar speakers a great sounding due to the omni dispersion of sound.
A short story, several years ago I had two college professors come to my place to hear my Orions, now understand this was before I understood the proper acoustic treatment for my room so my room was really live. They didn't have high hopes when they saw the small untreated room with a Pioneer receiver and a Sony dvd player as a source. A month later I was building Orion's for one of those guys to replace his 12,000 dollar Martin Logans.
For me it's the way the dynamic open baffle works with the room that gives me goose bumps. The speakers and room acoustics are 90% of the sound, source 7% and the electronics is the rest. Listen to them and then decided for yourself.
