Linkwitz Lab Orions Speakers

Posted by Drew Eckhardt (A) on September 25, 2005 at 13:35:22

In Reply to: REVIEW: Linkwitz Lab Orions Speakers posted by Doc Jr 8156 on September 23, 2005 at 13:36:20:

I built a pair of Orions, have lived with them over two years, and agree with Doc Jr's comments.

>You say the cross over provides equalization so that the woofers provide true 20 Hz response. That means a big boost at the lowest frequencies.

The Orions have poles at 20Hz, Q=.5 meaning they're -6dB @ 20Hz and -3dB @ 30Hz. In-room numbers are very similar because velocity sources are not subject to room gain.

>Does the speaker (or the amp) appear to run of out power at the lowest frequencies when you turn up the volume?

The short answer is no. I find the Orions sufficient to reproduce full-scale orchestral workds at realistic levels an techno/rock beyond 90dBC SPL.

At the top of their range the woofers are very sensitive: 98dB/2.83V/1 meter at 120Hz. At 60Hz the number is still 92dB/2.83V.

The real issue is excursion not power. 60W per woofer is sufficient to reach linear limits at 20Hz. This can be used as a fail-safe to prevent damage - a small amplifier like Siegfried's ATI6012 will clip at low frequencies before bottoming the woofers but still have ample output at higher frequencies due to the sensitivity. Since the Orions are fully active the bass amp can clip without any effect on the tweeter/midrange. After thinking about this some I thought it was really slick.

A speaker driver's excursion quadruples for the same output level with each octave decrease in frequency. The voltage to get to that higher excursion remains constant until the driver rolls off due to its mechanical parameters. Even with a substantial boost to overcome that(up to 14dB on the Orion) you run out of excursion at low frequencies before power becomes an issue.

Dipoles also require an additional doubling of excursion and 6dB per octave boost in amplifier output to compensate for the progressive cancelation where the out-of-phase front and backwaves meet; this furthur limits output.

Bass limits at xmax (approximately the motor's linear limits) are about 82dB (meaning an attempt to play 88dB since the woofers are 6dB down at that point) @ 20Hz (woofer xmax), 100dB @ 40Hz (woofer xmax), and 109dB @ 80Hz (midrange xmax). Suspension travel should allow for another 3.5dB before the woofers bottom. This is not an issue because most music has little last octave content. Two exceptions are home theater LFE and perhaps organ music.

>As is common with subwoofers that respond well to 20 Hz, do you sense the acoustic of live recordings?

Yes. I think the real issues here are that low frequency extension allows for higher damping without compromizing output in the second octave which provides the musical foundation. It also reduces group delay at those frequencies so the sub-bass integrates better with bass and mid-bass.

>A dipole speaker suggests that careful placement is required (as anyone who has owned Magnepans has learned). How do you have these placed? What surface is behind them, and how far back is it? Have you found that some of the unique effects you report depend strongly upon placement? Do you have the speakers toed in? By how much?

Planar dipoles are a different beast. The Orion and Audio Artistry speakers cross-over to a conventional dome tweeter arround 1.5KHz and have some rear-wave attenuation above 700Hz due to the midrange basket structure. The Orion's rear-ward output stops. The planar membrane is also large compared to the wavelengths of higher frequency sounds so conventional planar dipoles become increasingly directional at high frequencies meaning the direct sound needs to be aimed more carefully and the reflections are louder relative to the reverberant sound than they are on a speaker with wider horizontal dispersion.

My thoughts prior to building my Orions were that the midrange should be like that of an ESL (which I really like) but that these differences would allow for a wider sweet spot with fewer placement problems. This seems to be the case.

My room is 13x19x8', the front half of the right wall has a short opening over my kitchen counter, and is mostly open after the middle of the room. It's carpeted, lightly furnished, untreated, and otherwise normal apart from an 87x49" projection screen a couple inches off the front wall. I have my tweeters 4' to front wall, 2.5' to side walls, and 8' apart. I listen 11' from front wall (7' from a line drawn through the tweeters per the documentation package recomendation) and 8' to back wall. My tweeters are aimed at the listener (30 degree toe-in).

Placement does not seem to be critical. Sitting closer (as in with the recomended equalateral triangle configuration) seems to help some with the wrap-arround sound stage.

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - REVIEW: Linkwitz Lab Orions Speakers - Doc Jr 8156 13:36:20 09/23/05 (16)

I've read speaker reviews since the 1960's (none have come close to the broad-based enthusiasm I read about the Orions) - Richard BassNut Greene 10:08:47 09/26/05 (5)

Re: I've read speaker reviews since the 1960's (none have come close to the broad-based enthusiasm I read about the Ori - Pepe Le Loco 10:38:40 09/26/05 (4)

In general the smaller the room, the more uneven the bass frequency response with monopole speakers - Richard BassNut Greene 11:08:42 09/27/05 (1)

Re: In general the smaller the room, the more uneven the bass frequency response with monopole speakers - Pepe Le Loco 21:03:22 09/27/05 (0)

Re: I've read speaker reviews since the 1960's (none have come close to the broad-based enthusiasm I read about the Ori - Drew Eckhardt 13:56:29 09/26/05 (0)

Re: I've read speaker reviews since the 1960's (none have come close to the broad-based enthusiasm I read about the Ori - macÂ Â 11:14:44 09/26/05 (0)

Linkwitz Lab Orions Speakers - Drew Eckhardt 13:35:22 09/25/05 (1)

Re: Linkwitz Lab Orions Speakers - Doc Jr 8156 21:20:11 09/25/05 (0)

Sensible Sound issue #105 - johnvb 16:35:10 09/24/05 (3)

Re: Sensible Sound issue #105 - Davey 17:20:12 09/24/05 (0)

actually - johnvb 16:42:19 09/24/05 (1)

Re: actually - Doc Jr 8156 18:50:24 09/24/05 (0)

Linkwitz Lab Orions Speakers - Fishboat 05:23:37 09/24/05 (0)

Linkwitz Lab Orions Speakers - jimmyjames8 17:31:18 09/23/05 (0)

some questions - Bruce from DC 15:38:05 09/23/05 (1)

Linkwitz Lab FAQ - macÂ Â 17:01:59 09/23/05 (0)

Follow Ups

Linkwitz Lab Orions Speakers - Drew Eckhardt 13:35:22 09/25/05 (1)

Re: Linkwitz Lab Orions Speakers - Doc Jr 8156 21:20:11 09/25/05 (0)

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