[Bret L]

On May 12, 9:46*pm, Boon wrote:
On May 12, 7:07 pm, Bret L wrote:



I've heard a couple different Orion installations, with very
different amps, in different rooms. They are not exactly my thing, but
they certainly are a remarkable design. They do certain things
extremely well.

The "mainstream" (sic) high end audio industry (sic) likes to pretend
they do not exist.

They are far superior in terms of what they do presentationwise to
many of the popular high end saloon speaker brands. Since they are not
a saloon vendable product and Linkwitz does not buy full page ads in
Stereopile this presents an issue for the high end press.

I don't own an Orion installation, and I have no plans to do so in
the near future. I personally prefer the articulation and delineation
of a god horn setup, and although I readily acknowledge the
superiority of electronic crossovers and multi-amping, I am content so
far with the passive crossover network driven by a halfway decent tube
amplifier. But the Orions and Linkwitz lab certainly have proven to
be a good revelator of high end bull****.

Maybe, maybe not. Linkwitz is a good designer and has a great track
record, but the prices he charges for a finished pair of Orions is
hardly a good value. If Scott was able to build them for next to
nothing, then he could have done a lot worse.

There's no cheap way around it, because the drivers are expensive.
Usually one supplies the amps, the assembly labor _und so weiter_ and
buys the XO kit and flatpack with plans and then the drivers from
Madisound. Linkwitz does not want to manufacture and really no one
buys them complete but rather in the CKD configuration. The link shows
that the minimum feasible cost is going to be about $3000 and that
isn't including wood. The flatpack wood kit is $1310 alone.

http://www.linkwitzlab.com/orion_construction.htm

Not that they are the same thing, but finding an old pair of Klassic
Klipsch speakers and fitting them with modern tweeter, midrange horn
and crossover can still be done cheaper than that. People get rid of
cosmetically nice K-horns or La Scalas with blown drivers much cheaper
than you can build the cabs. The only Klipsch driver you want is the
woofer and they are pretty cheap. Of course that doesn't include
amplifiers but with a Klipsch some pretty cheap amps work OK.


Now Nelson Pass' First Watt "kitchen table" amps are truly interesting
designs that sound great...and he charges fair prices for them. I
reviewed the F3, and it offered all of the sonic benefits of a great
SET amp without the hassles and idiosyncracies. I wouldn't mind owning
one in the near future.

I think Nelson Pass is a decent guy (and yes, I know...again
irrelevant) but I am not a huge fan of these minimal designs. I think
his work with Threshold was a lot better.