Planar Speaker Asylum

Posted by amandarae (A ) on October 25, 2005 at 22:11:44

Although I can only listen sparingly lately, a few weeks ago, I had a very sad experienced(feeling actually!) which I think will affect me in the very near future.

IMO a maggie will never reach the dynamics of a cone speaker. It's strenght is the midrange no doubt. Although bass sounds very truthful and is adequate, compared to a decent cone speaker (bass only!!), they are not quite "endowed" if you know what I mean?

So, when my brother completed his Orion (Linkwitz Lab), I was very eager to hear what 4x10" Peerless subwoofer in dipole config bass sounds like. To cut to the chase, I think what I heard was the best speaker I happen to cross-path with lately. Not only the bass but everything across the board. But, but, it has a box and box are no good you might say.........well this speaker has the purity of the Maggies midrange, with the bass kick of a box speaker(actually better and my preference because its a dipolar I think), and boxless!!!!

Above is the actual photo of my brothers Orion which lately, I became a frequent customer. It is open baffle(boxless), with 2 each Peerless 10" sub driver in push pull, Seas mids and tweeter, ACTIVE Xover (before the amp) and 4 way driven.

The real beauty is, my bro uses a 12 CH ATI amp (very affordable!!!), Sound king speaker cables (cheap!), and RadioShack interconnects. I really hate to admit it but my 1.6(stock) with Mye stands, ICE H2O Signature amp(sold it a few weeks ago for lack of use) and/or Threshold Stasis S500, Purist Audio interconnects, Acoustic Zen Speaker cables, Supratek Preamp(Tungsol VT231, Mullard 5AR4 Metal base, RCA Black Plate 6l6GC, Telefunken ECC88, Mullard M8080, etc.) is no where near (ouch!) the sound of these Orions. I brought my preamp, and other equipment(CD player with Telefunken 12AX7) over and tried it with them to the Orion and come up with the same result: this speaker is better in all accounts than my 1.6. Come to think of it, I thought my set up sound so much better already compared to a few months ago.

For the record, my brother's equip are Manley Shrimp pre, Teres 160 with OL Illustrious, Shelter 501, K&K Phono pre, Tribute Step-Up tranny, and Ah! Njoe Tjoeb CD player.

Before I get flamed, my intention in posting this is to inform and not to "thrash" the maggies. I own the 1.6QR for Godsake!! Besides, I already spent so much in electronics and accessories trying to make my 1.6 better. I believe that the Orion is a world class speaker even with the "budget" amp and cables and will easily compete with Magnepans, irregardless of model.

Oh well, maybe I should start building one!

Fire away!!!!!

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