Description

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
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Components Toggle details

    • Benchmark Pre DAC 1
    .
    • Mac Mini
    Mac Mini connected to 1TB external USB hard drive. Controlled by iPhone remote
    • Linn LP-12 Sondek Ittok
    Custom tweaked Linn Sondek. Removed AC motor and added DC maxon with 12V battery power. Controller afford 0.1% speed stability
    • Linn Ittok LVII
    .
    • Zu Denon 103
    .
    • EAR 834P
    .
    • ATI 6012
    12 Channels required for Dipoles
    • Linkwitz Orion Orion ++
    Custom built active dipoles. The culmination of 12 months of hard work

Comments 4

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I love the simplicity and purity of your system.

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.

Congrats!

mjcmt