Over the years i have built several home systems, including amps and speakers. This, at least for now (what isn't) is the fruition of all that work.
Twelve months of careful, sometime spainstaking fabrication. It started when i had the opportunity to visit Mr Linkwitz and hear first hand his Orion speakers. I have been fortunate to hear many great systems, including Macs, Sonus and a $100k steinway, and to my ears this was one of the most spectacular. Mr Linkwitz sells the plans to his system and warns that it is a serious undertaking but as my audition had demonstrated well worth the time and effort.
The system is comprised of dipole speakers, 5 drivers per channel and a fully active crossover. It requires 8 channels of amplification.
The primary drivers are seas excel with peerless woofers. I fabricated my baffle from reinforced CNC milled 1/8" aluminum plated. The sub section is isolated from the front baffle with neoprene and spacers.
I understand the tendency of owners to wax lyrical about their own gear, the DIY kind, but in all honesty, in terms of speakers and amplification I am extremely happy with the digital front end. The Benchmark DAC is superb, all the reviews and occludes are right on the mark. The Mac offers a great interface and ease of use.
The analog front end is more laid back. The channel separation is a little fuzzy. It may be the cartridge or the somewhat dubious Linn tonearm wiring which is something i need to investigate.
Thanks for looking and comments. I anticipate many, many hours of listening joy
I have diy SEAS Froy speakers. Humm...wonder how they would sound as dipoles?
I've seriously wanted the DAC PRE but it was out of my budget. I did run the DAC1s variable outputs to an AES tube power amp powering my SEAS Froy3s and I was blown away. And I've always been a Linn fan, as an owner in the past. You almost have my perfect system.
System edited: Added VTI equipment rack. Follow my trails and tribulations as i attempt to remove unwanted foot fall from a rack mounted turntable... not pretty
Hi Gary, Nothing really special about these Orions except that they are the latest version which uses a rear firing tweeter wired in series to the front tweeter with a small resistor to slightly lower the output. The rear firing tweeter has its own baffle which is probably why from the image the baffle looks like a continuous tube. The image is misleading as the mid site completely free. Check out the following link to the build thread on DIY Audio:http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/156315-orions-completed-aluminum-baffle.html One of the posted images is a photograph of the rear. The base unit goes low but is not a sub woofer, again it is two woofer wired in series with the rear facing back. The cabinet appears closed but the front and rear are acoustically transparent. Each channel is 5 drivers all configured to produce the sound of a single dipole speaker. The baffle is fabricated from aluminum plate, broken and milled. Let me know if you have any other questions. I would be happy to offer what help i can. Cheers Meil
I have always wanted to hear the orion system but have never had the opportunity. The open baffle is of interest. I use active crossovers in my system as well and I am happy with the results. Certainly not mainstream on these boards but I assume this isn't of any concern to you as you built the Orion system.
I am familiar with the constuction of these speakers however, I have never seen anything like yours. Your baffle looks like it is constructed from a tube rather than one plate. I like the idea of plate rather than wood and if I ever build them I would probably make them from plate stainless steel. I am also confused with the subwoofer attached rather than built as as separte unit. Doesn't this interfere with the open baffle concept for all the drivers on the main baffle? The same goes for the tube concept of the baffle. Doesn't the back of the tube interfere with the open baffle concept?
