Ok..the wife is tired of looking at the booshelf speakers...SHE actually had a freind tell her about ORB spekers, and I took a look at the website.

wow..looks cool...IF they sound as good as they look (and the reviews say they sound)..might be a good deal. $1000 buy 5 'pairs'. I'll hook them to the 1070 (and probably a new LF1 as my old sub is hitting the 5 year old point and is starting to hum).

anyone got a thumbs up/down on the ORB's???

I heard them at the HES in NYC a couple of years ago. They sounded pretty good, although that's based on a quick listen in a hotel room.

I think they have a return policy so you may just want to try them out in your own space. Good luck!

I have a set of Anthony Gallos (www.roundsound.com), which the Orbs are based on. I can't find his name now, but the guy who started Orb Audio used to work with Anthony Gallo, and must have his name on some of the patents since Gallo hasn't sued.

I love the Gallos. They are great, even better if you get the wallflower stands as you really minimize reflections from nearby surfaces and diffraction from the speaker is really low due to the spherical design. Because of this the imaging can be really great.

Personally I would stick with Gallos, but I know a lot of people are happy with Orbs.

It is my understanding that the differences are that the Orbs are thinner in the metal cabinet, and I would guess that they don't have the S2 material. While on the Gallo site the information about S2 seems very market speak and snake oil it actually exists and has a positive effect. Basically it is polyolefin flakes that the speaker is filled with rather than normal damping material. Since the polyolefin is very dense it causes the speaker to couple with it in the lower ranges helping output, while high frequency content is unable to couple and is not enhanced.

Recently I listened to a bunch of the newer Gallo stuff, and all around I thought the A'Diva Tis sounded the best, but any of the Ti line sounds pretty good. The Micros are just a hair edgier than the A'Divas which are pretty darn smooth. Of course I also heard the Reference 3.1's which blew everything else out of the water, but I doubt you are looking for a $3000 set of floor standers at this point...

Hi Dave,

Your situation sounds familiar. I purchased the 990/7125/LFM1 combo and ordered 5 mod 2’s and 2 mod 1’s for my 7.1 system.

Unfortunately, I had to send the LF1 back to Outlaw because my wife freaked out about the size. It was so beautiful……


Let me digress though ….


Prior to purchasing the orbs, I went to my local stereo shop and checked out the Gallo Due Speakers. Movies sounded great to me, but music did not. The stereo guy agreed, as all good stereo sales people do, and replaced the Gallo subwoofer with a Nola T-Bolt. What a difference! However 5 dues and the sub would run me about $5k. So back to the orbs….

I ordered just the speakers and purchased a smaller Definitive Technology SuperCube II
($2K Total)

While I was waiting for my speakers I started wiring my living room. (The wire for the Orbs can be no larger than 14 Gauge or it will not fit into the posts. ) Once everything was set up, I watched the Incredibles and it sounded great. I was very pleased with the sound quality. The next day I listened to some CDs and I was disappointed. I spoke with the folks at orb and they were helpful checking settings and wiring. They suggested that while the SuperCube II and the Super 8 were similar in specs they were not the same.

I ended up sending back the front 3 mod2’s and keeping the orbs for my rear surround speakers. Right now I am using B&W 603S2’s and the matching center channel. I would try the orbs with the super 8 and see if you like them. The folks at orb are very helpful and have a similar business model to outlaw. If you don’t like them send it back.

Ted

good advice. Luckily, I have a great spot to 'hide' a subwoofer where the wife doesn't see it, so I can get the LF1 if I want (My old Infinity is still doing its job tho).

but..I'll check the orb's out at some point.

The Outlaw subs are too large for my room (WAF). Need a sub no larger that 12x12 that can fit inside my a/v cabinet which has speaker cloth on the front. The available space inside my cabinet is 20inches wide 15 inches high and 21 inches deep. With no back to the cabinet and cloth at the front, ventilation should be no problem. Thoughts appreciated.

No larger than 12x12? Yike. Others may have some thoughts, but aside from a DIY sub of some sort the only thing that occurs to me right off are the Sunfire subs ( Signature and Solitaire12 are 13x13x13, Solitaire10 is 11x11x12, and Junior is 9x9x9). I don't have any good feel for price on those, but it's not a number your wallet is likely to thank you for. There may also be some small Dayton subs at PartsExpress that could fit and would cost a lot less.

If we simply focus on fitting in the space available in the cabinet rather than sticking with the 12x12 limit, there might be a few other options. I guess you could even lay an LFM-2 over on its side and fire it through your cabinet's cloth, although you'd need to put a felt or foam pad (exercise mat material perhaps) under the sub to keep it in place and to protect the nice finish. It wouldn't work as well as the Sunfires would, but it's likely to do a better job than a little sub from PartsExpress even when placed in such a different orientation.

gonk,
You are correct. I am open to anything that will fit. Am waiting on my 1070 to arrive.

You might give Outlaw a call and see if they see anything fundamentally insane in my idea of a tipped-over LFM-2 (beyond the simple oddity of the idea itself, that is). If they don't see any obstacles to doing it that I've missed, the LFM-2 would certainly be an economical approach. Anything you put in there will need some serious vibration isolation. Something like this (neoprene isolation pads) would keep the sub from transferring vibrations to the cabinet.