[Euterpe]

By Marc Philip, Editor www.magazine-audio.com Published June 2006

Not so long ago we  had the pleasure of auditionning Mr. JR Orion system from LinkwitzLab, a 3 way active system with each of it's  8 speakers individualy driven by its own amplifier channel  in an open baffle configuration in his listening environment.

The least that can be said about this experience is that the system represents in many ways the ''Holy Graal''  in sound reproduction  for many audiophiles.



Upon request from a mutual friend Mr. MD to Mr. JR,  an oportunity to listen to the Orion  in his  spacious quasi ideal listenning  environment was made possible for our  enjoyment .



The set up :

LP douze, Itock, Koetsu black ou Mission The Rose

CD player Music Hall cd 25.2 like drive coupling with Bel Canto DAC-2 +  Stereovox HDXV, AC power Wireworld Stratus on Bel-Canto.

Pre-ampli ligne Melos (Upgrade Melos Restoration) filter Bybee, AC Wireworld Stratus, RCA line Kimber Silver strike.

2 power amplifier 4 ways ADCOM 2535 L,  8 ways amplifier, 1 by each speaker, 2 tweeters, 2 mids and 4 woofers.

Power regenerator PS Audio P 300

Rack audio modèle Eva, steel and wood and floor shelf, inovaudio design (made in Canada)

1 module ASP Linkwitz Orion (Analog Signal Processing) electronic crossover

1 pair  "Open Baffle" ORION Linkwitz Lab

Style wine and music...




Altough the Orion's cabling  being very basic for many audiophiles, interconnects, connectors and speaker cables, Mr. JR  insisted that they remain. Nonetheless others have been implemented but the originals were recovered  as they did preserved   the proper tonal balance.



The discography partialy used for the listening session:

1 Chris Jones (No sanctuary here) 03:47
2 Blues Company (Cold rain) 05:44
3 France Gall (besoin de vous)Live Bercy 1993 03:36
4 Oscar Peterson Trio "You look good to me" 04:47
5 Monty Alexander Trio "Nite Mist Blues" 10:10
6 Georgia on my mind (jazz vocal) 05:14
7 Holly Cole (I can see clearly now) 04:13
8 J.Strauss (Tik-Tak Polka-Orchestre Pasdeloup en Répétition) 03:54
9 J.Terrasson (la Javanaise) 03:33
10 Jheena Lodwick (FIM) (Do that to me one more time) 03:57
11 Martin Xavier (Scene de la vie pastorale) 02:04
12 Musica Nuda (How Insensitive) 02:36
13 Patrick Husson (Casta Diva) 02:41
14 Rachelle Ferrell (Prayer dance) Montreux 1991 06:31
15 Sometimes I feel Like a motherless child (spiritual) 02:26
16 Vincent Bidal trio (La boheme) 03:33
17 Canon in D (Pechelbel) 06:43
18 Clochettes et sonnailles 03:09



Listener :

Mme Renée.B
Mr Marq.D
Mr Jacques.V
Mr Jacques.R
Myself.



Listening impressions:

It's quite a system and  an exquisite high-fidelity demonstration that we have been gathered for. Maybe not perfect  but truly a highly musical set-up. Above all the low end register is to be praised as it did in my first encounter with them, it is simply su-perb.

Not offtenly have  I heard  an acoustic  double bass or a fender electric bass guitar reproduced  with such a sense of veracity.



Perhaps the only aspects of the Orion I feel need attention are the mid-highs being slightly  shadowed and  a minor lack of detail in the highs due to the use of the low grade cabling , connectors and modest amplification.

That said, we must put into perspective that in context,  the Orion's as a kit with modest amplification will cost you around 6500$, may be 10,000$ as a turn-key system for a speakers, amps. and cabling. There is no way you will aproach or recreate such a musical reproduction performance unless you spend several 10's of thousands of dollars MORE.

Conclusion:

We are throughly convinced of the qualities of the Orion. We agree ''de facto'' of the immense potentiel of the properly implemented open baffle  for a respectable size room particularly in the bass register that I must say again is remarquable.



This article as been written by Marc Philip  independent writter to www.magazine-audio.com, all rights reserved, copyright 2006, texts and photos are the property of the author, under liscence commons: href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/

Enjoy music listening

[Marbles]

Nice write-up.

[95bcwh]

Last time when I listened to a pair of Orion, I was a bit disappointed. I thought there was some serious "roll-off" in high frequency resulting in lack of transparency. Some people called it "musical", but that's just not the way I prefer music to sound. I moved around the room and couldn't find any particular sweet spot. The bass is lacking in definition. That pair of Orion cost around $7k. That experience really got me worried, especially given how well reviewed the Orion has been. I was worried that the Salk HT3, which was very well-received in this forum, might turned out to be a letdown given that I had never listened to it.  Luckily, the HT3 never disappoint!

[ctviggen]

Interesting that you say that, as I've read other reviews that listed the Orions as having very detailed and transparent upper end.  Regardless, I think these are my next speakers (without ever hearing them).  I'm very interested in the design and theory.  When I buy and build these, I'll post a comparison between them and my RM40s, although the comparison won't be "apples to apples", as I'll be using completely different amps and interconnects.  By the way, if you choose to build the Orions, the cost is significantly less than 7k.  For instance, you could build these yourself using a flat pack of speaker materials (hard maple, unfinished) and putting the active crossovers together for about 3,450.  And I think the 7,500 cost INCLUDES amplifiers:  http://www.linkwitzlab.com/orion_us.htm:

"Completely assembled Orion speakers in custom colors, special finishes or construction from a variety of choices of hardwoods Active crossover/equalizer, ATI power amplifiers, Speaker cables, Interconnects" for $7,500. 

I have heard that the Salk HT3s are outstanding speakers, but I think the Orions also have the capability of being outstanding.  I think the differences between an open baffle and boxed speakers are going to make comparisons hard, however.  For instance, in my case, I think a comparison of Orions and RM40s won't yield a true "winner"; instead, one speaker will perform better in one area and another speaker in another.  Certainly those people with digital room correction are going to have to carefully consider the effects of open baffle reflections on the algorithm used to generate correction filters.  I've been giving this some thought, and it's going to be hard to apply digital room correction to an open baffle speaker.  Nonetheless, if you subscribe to the Linkwitz theory, then digital correction is not needed.  I'm not sure I'm convinced of that, but it's an interesting theory. 

Sadly, it might not be until the end of this year until I have the time and the money to build the Orions.  I'm also going to build amps (either Aksa, UcD, or SKA) to go along with the speakers, and I think building the amps is going to be the most time consuming part of the process.

When I build the Orions, anyone who wants to compare with their HT3s and lives near Connecticut, I'll gladly bring them for a comparison in your home.  Just let me know. 

[Euterpe]

Yes it is interesant design and theory.

By the way, results depend to the power amplifier rate and the room.

We have heard on this set up, a pair of Wilson Watt Puppy, and we agree all of us, Orion are very impressive.(this model for the review)

3450 $ US if you could build Orion system yourself, this is a real bargain.

I have heard with ATI amps, like Linkwitz recomended, but you could get better, imo.

Are there somebody use class T amp?
Orion's run on 8 way active, that could cost a lot of $$ at least, so, class T amp may be a way to go for less $$.

Let's go to try if I could get it