Orb Speakers Official Thread - Page 6

I've got a set of 5.1 Orb Mod 1 and Super 8 on the way. I'm hoping I'll like them!

I decided to go with the SVS and the 12" sub for the family room/kitchen/dining room/breakfast area (all rooms are open to the area housing the speakers) as I felt after reading numerous posts that the SBS+ the 12" sub would be a better fit for the size space.

I almost feel guitly buying such good gear for the 'family room' and not upgrading my HT components...oh wait...no I don't =D

Has anyone compared these two satellite speaker systems? I am considering purchasing the Orb system. I heard the Mirage Nano stat system demoed at local BB Magnolia and thought they sounded ok. Will the Orbs sound better or about the same? I would be looking at a 5.1 system with either all Mod1s or Mod2s across the front.

My room is 20 x 15 with cathedral cielings and a 12' sliding glass door on one wall and about 10' of 4' windows on an adjacent wall. I listen mainly to HT 80% and some music 20% (R&B, Jazz, Country).

Any information would be helpful.

John

If you do go with the Orbs get the Mod 2's that's a good size room you have.

This is an Orb thread, not a comparison thread.

My apologies. Just thought Orb owners might have already made this comparison. I will take it to another thread.

Lol, I have my Mod2 5.1 system in a 10x12 carpeted room.. LOUD and great sounding, and perfect for not stealing space in the room.

-b

[quote=John14620]Has anyone compared these two satellite speaker systems? I am considering purchasing the Orb system. I heard the Mirage Nano stat system demoed at local BB Magnolia and thought they sounded ok. Will the Orbs sound better or about the same? I would be looking at a 5.1 system with either all Mod1s or Mod2s across the front.

I listened extensively to the Mirage before I got the Orb mod2's. The mirage is OK, but the Orb's blew me away.

I have a question for fellow Orb audio owners -- what level relative to the rest of your speakers do you run the center channel at?

I'm having real trouble getting it dialed in properly, it just feels like it is missing something and turning up the level really isn't helping me..

Thanks!
-Brian

I have my center speaker at 0db just like the other front speakers...it seems balanced to me. My wife's favorite thing about the speakers is how much better she can hear dialogue than on our last system. My two caveats are that with almost any speaker system I've heard, I still feel like too many DVDs haven't found the right balance between the volume of the dialogue and special effects, and the proportion of each that goes to each speaker. Some DVDs seem to have dialogue in just the center channel, and extremely loud effects from 4 speakers (or 6) competing with that one speaker. It definitely varies from DVD to DVD, but if it sound remarkably better in 5 channel stereo mode instead of Dolby Digital, etc., I usually consider that a sign that my tastes are different than the person that made the DVD. I know it's not particular to the Orbs, b/c I've heard the same thing on other systems. I actually like the 5 channel stereo mode best for watching TV and listening to music, and DTS or Dolby Digital for most DVDs. I avoid Dolby Pro Logic of any flavor or any other DSP settings b/c they never seem to sound better than first choices.

By the way...I use that horse racing movie from a few years back as a test. During the race scenes, there are horses thundering from all around you, yet you can still hear the conversations coming from the center.

If your running a Mod 2 setup and your able to place the center in a vertical position like the mains try it and watch the improvement. Two of these things side by side seem to cancel each other out a little bit and turning them vertically really helps. On the one set I run in my rec room I went and bought a Infinity Beta C-250 center on a suggestion from a friend who tried it and that solved the problem pronto, just a major boost. It also matches up quite well with the Orbs sound wise which really surprised me. I'm always preaching about keeping everything the same speaker wise (timbre matching), so this worked out really well.

I just moved the vertical center orientation, doing some testing and it sound much better already..

Thanks!

-b

Seabiscuit?

Russ thank u soo much :-)......Ive been searching the forums for a week looking for a bigger cc that will match well w/ the orbs. I was actually goin to try the primus cc but if u've tested the beta series and it matched well w/ ur orbs then thats what I'm going to try out as well.

No problem...Just make sure you level match it.

I wanted to add that you can pick up the Infinity Center over at the HK Store on Ebay for about 70.00, that's what I paid for mine at the auction.

I'm new to actually looking more deepy into AV, but I discovered one thing recently. Up til now, I've always used RCA cables from the DVD player to the receiver. I was talking to an AV fanatic at work about my setup and Dolby 5.1 surround. He said that I am not getting Dobly 5.1 using 2 RCA cables, because that is a stereo signal (left and right). That never crossed my mind. So I went home and conducted a test. I popped in Star Wars Episode 1, still using just 2 RCAs. The THX demo came on. There was clearly sound seperation from front to back. this made me question how this works with RCA's. I'll figure that out later. Next, I unplugged the RCAs and used and optical cable and restarted the DVD. The THX demo came on and.....WOW what a difference!!! The sound was sharper, cleaner, and louder without me changing the volume. I did it again with the RCA's, and oh did it sound bad in comparison. I went back to optical and watched the first movie that I played with the Orbs (which I had only had for 2 weeks). My first impression when I first got the Orbs was, "well, they aren't as good as I was hoping after reading all the reviews and spending that much money, but they'll do." After installing the optical cable, the Orbs shined and now sound worth the money.

Cliff notes:
If you are using RCAs from the DVD player to the receiver, get rid of them and use an optical cable. The speakers sound twice as good and better balanced.

Just checked it out on Ebay and b/c of my previous experience w/ Infinity...I have to buy them new, but the price is real attractive tho.

You guys have me curious now. I have my 3 fronts placed horizontally. What difference are you noticing orienting them vertically? I don't want to hassle with changing around brackets, etc. if there is not much difference. If there is a big improvement, I'm all for it though.

I would also suggest that you consider digital coaxial. I moved from optical to coax because I felt like it provide a full, more rich sound. The optical connection tended to be too bright for my taste. I should also mention that Lucas Studios recommends digital coax over optical.

What??? Digital coax carries different data than digital optical? Sounds like audiophile superstition. But that's a debate for another thread.

Alright, first of all I should say that I have really enjoyed the discussion on this site. Very informative.

So, my wife and I are purchasing a new home and the family room will be the HT for now (until I can build and finish out a media room in the basement). The home has 5.1 pre-wiring with junction boxes installed on the ceilings. The home was contracted by someone else and apparently form was more important than function because the the room is an acoustic nightmare.

The family room is 20 x 16 and has 11' beamed ceilings and two large openings which presents a couple of problems....

One, I am not sure that I am going to be happy with the sound coming from 5 - 6' above the listening level. I am used to the speakers being at ear level, but as this is the family room, and that it has been prewired, I am trying to work with the existing configuration. Based on my research, the ORBs sounds like they have good imaging and that they do pretty well at filling large rooms with sound. I suppose my biggest concern is the voice reproduction being so far from the monitor. Any experiences/recommendations that you could share?

Secondly, the gang boxes are about 3-4" from the (4x4") beams in the front of the room and I am concerned that if I use the Orb Multiplate mounts that the speakers won't drop below the beams and I will get a lot of echoing with at least some of the sound waves bouncing off and down from the beams. Any ideas on how I may be able to drop the speakers down further, or if this will really be an issue.

I will be hooking the speakers up to a SONY STR DA3200 ES which I expect to have good sound reproduction capabilities. I have been pleased with my existing SONY AVR (STR 989...?) but needed the multi-room/multi-source and built in IR trigger capabilities.

Any and all suggestions welcomed. Thanks again.

Not sure that I understand. Digital Audio Coaxial cable carries the same audio signal that the optical does it just does not have to convert it to light (optical,... glass) then back.

I can say from my experience that digital audio coaxial did produce a better sound than my digital optical connection. It also seems to be a lot more durable than the connectors on the optical cable. I'm no audiophile, but do strongly consider the recommendation of George Lucas and the Lucas Studios.

Durability is a real difference. Otherwise the 1's and 0's either arrive or they don't. Either path, barring cable failure, will be identical.

You mean front speakers that high , or surrounds?
If it's the fronts, forget that the wall wiring exists and just get floorstanders or bookshelves.

I have a similar situation in that the vaulted family room is continous with a large kitchen, etc...typical open floor plan. The TV/audio in this room has the do-everything task for music and home theater. I just got a couple of MOD 1's and a sub to replace a pair of B&W bookshelfs (601's). I would predict the Orb's could work for you, even mounted above the listening area; I think with some clever mounting (maybe a bracket you construct) you can get them directed at the seating area. The Orbs have a smooth broad sound stage and have the characteristic of projecting quality sound across a large room. So far I have much more dynamic range in audio for movies and music compared to the full range bookshelfs.

jrwade, have you considered running wires down from the boxes and mounting them somewhere lower? maybe not ear level, but at least away from the beams?

flat wire or taperwire can be made invisible. as long as you're careful to get good solid connections, you should be fine with the quality of the connection

Example:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=100-015

Or something similar that you can tolerate.

My experience is, put them in the right place from the beginning or you'll be moving them later on.

Just an update. I got my Mod1 5.1 set the other day. So far only have a 2.1 setup as the others will be going on wall mounts soon (no stands for those to try them.

Still playing with finding the ideal placement of the Super 8 sub and finding the best blend between the sub and sats. I can still tell they are a sub/sat system but the more I play around the better the blend is getting.

The look of the polished steel is fantastic by the way.

Will report back after more testing.

Dear fellow Orbs owners:

Hmmm... I have my Orbs for nearly two years, today my super8 subwoofer begin to "hum", even when I turn the volume all the way to zero, the "hum" is still on. I took the sub into my 2-channel room and plug it into a dedicated circuit, it still "hum". I guess the time is finally up with this unit. Even then, I consider myself a little unlucky, two years is considered a little "short" for a sub to develop any problem. So now, I'm faced with a few choices:

1) Should I send the sub back to Orb for repair (pay repair charges)?
or
2) Should I get a new Super8 sub?
or
3) Should I get a Hsu or SVS sub??

I'm really tempted by Hsu or SVS... but they're a little more expensive, and I'm not sure if they will match well with the Orb speakers.

What do y'all think?

barry

I made that same mistake setting up the system w/ RCA cables at first. What a difference the digital audio and optical cables made. I'd bet a lot of $$ that there are plenty of people out there doing it w/ the RCAs right now. Probably not anyone smart enough to track/down read AVS, but the average person probably doesn't know about optical cables yet.

95bcwh...send your sub back to Orb. I've broken 2 different things in the system (sat once, sub once, both clearly my fault) and they fixed them for free, and paid return shipping to me, both times. They really are as nice as everyone on here says.