Bookshelf Speaker Reviews

Orb Audio People’s Choice Speaker System Page 2

There Be Dragons mingled the life story of a controversial Catholic saint with the agonies of the Spanish Civil War. In tumultuous battle scenes, whizzing elements achieved fast, clean trajectories—from front to back, side to side, diagonally, and in every possible direction—while the sub did a decent job with explosions. The score, recorded at AIR Studios, featured light-textured and plangent strings, acoustic guitar, and a solo cello—this last one benefiting from the higher sub crossover.

Rainfall, fire, blasting muskets, the roar of crowds: These were just some of the challenges Anonymous threw at the Orbs, showing off their resolution, versatility, and surround continuity. I don’t think much of the film’s premise that Shakespeare was an imposter who didn’t author the plays and poetry attributed to him. But wow, what a busy soundfield, what epic sweep! The system was at its best with rowdy theatrical crowds in the wraparound milieu of the Globe Theatre, making me feel the space and passions unleashed within.

Subwoofer
Performance
Build Quality
Value
Pristine and Refined
Yundi Li’s CD of Chopin’s Scherzi/Impromptus matched its pristine and refined pianism with a pristine and refined recording. This album, auditioned both early and late in the review process, laid bare the problem with the sub crossover. At 100 to 120 Hz, the left keys—and even the middle ones to some extent—lacked the necessary weight. But at 150 Hz, the physical balance of the pianist was restored. Once I was satisfied with the bass, I was free to enjoy the pianist’s glittering glissandos and subtle rhythmic sense.

The late Scott Appel advocated for Nick Drake’s songwriting long before it became fashionable. In Parhelion, he delivered beautiful covers of “Hazey Jane,” “Road,” and “From the Morning,” as well as original songs also worth hearing. I liked the way the Orbs, with their exemplary clarity, allowed me to hear the voice sometimes submerged beneath low-rent studio echo. Appel was also an astute student of Drake’s guitar technique, and the Orbs conveyed all the right harmonics, intonation, and touch.

A Scarcity of Miracles by Jakko Jakszyk, Robert Fripp, and Mel Collins has been in heavy rotation around here since its release. The Panasonic disc player couldn’t handle its lossless DVD-Audio soundtrack, so I turned my attention to the lossy DTS 5.1 version. When A/B’ed in the same system, they’ve sounded so close that most listeners would be hard-pressed to tell the difference. The Orbs offered fully developed guitar-synth, saxophone, and vocal textures without becoming unduly toppy. Tony Levin’s potently melodic Chapman Stick and bass-guitar playing were well served by the sub—it delivered pitch and a sense of his touch better than its $399 price would indicate, even without the use of equalization. Timbre matching between the dual Orbs in front and single Orbs in back gave the carefully constructed 5.1-channel mix the evenness it demanded.

Conclusion
With the People’s Choice package, Orb Audio stakes a claim to high-end performance in the sat/sub category. While it’s subject to the limits of compact sat/sub sets in general—mainly midbass integration—it also has tremendous appeal thanks to its high resolution, breezy sonic personality, gorgeously minimalist look, and literally tough-as-steel build quality. It is an A-list sat/sub set.

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COMMENTS
TheMattGosselin's picture
Submitted by TheMattGosselin on July 12, 2012 - 1:27pm

Both the Nucleus and the A'Diva (either in regular or Ti) use a single full-range driver, either conventional plastic or made from titanium.

thelrdintexas's picture
Submitted by thelrdintexas on July 17, 2012 - 11:20am

With my Onkyo receiver Audyssey set the crossover frequency at 150 and I had the subwoofer's crossover disabled because of that. Your review suggests to me that I am slightly confused over this issue.

thelrdintexas

For the last two years I have used the Orbs with 4 mods for center channel, 2 mods eacg for left and right front, 2 mods each for rear and 1 mod each for front high, right and left.

I have been very pleased with their sound.

Rob Sabin's picture
Submitted by Rob Sabin on July 18, 2012 - 2:15pm
Mark usually sets the crossover in his receiver rather than in the subwoofer, but it's not really relevant whether you do it in the receiver or the sub. If you do it in the AVR, you should indeed set the subwoofer to bypass or crank it wide open. As for the crossover point, this is always a judgement call based on your room and the subwoofer placement. Crossover with small satellites like these should be set to optimize two sometimes opposing goals: insuring that there is no obvious, audible frequency gap between the sub and the satellies (which often suggests a higher crossover frequency) and having a low enough crossover point so that the sub gets a minimum of upper bass frequencies that could make it easier to localize. This will be affected by where the sub is located in your room and the effect of boundaries and furnishings, in addition to how low the satellites go. 125-150 Hz is by no means an unreasonable crossover for such tiny satellites, but you can only tell what sounds best by listening in your room.
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