My brother Tommy and I have a mutual friend name Tim. The last time I saw him was at his house in Dallas, Texas. At that time Tim had a NHT SuperZero (5 identical) + SW2P subwoofer system (5.1) and a Harmon Kardon AVR-247. The funny thing was I had the same exact setup at the time. At dinner Tim said he was thinking of changing speakers. He said he was considering $10K Martin Logan speakers.
However, it has been a few years since I’ve seen Tim. Fast forward to this weekend. Tim came over to visit my brother, and I asked him if he ended up with the Martin Logan speakers.
Tim smiled and said, “Not quite, I ended up with the Linkwitz Lab Orion dipole speakers.”
I said, “I would love to check out your speakers.” So we all agreed to come to Tim’s house.
Tim’s living room is pretty much typical; open space that measures about 18’ x 20’ x 10’ furnished with leather sofas, carpet, and curtains. The speakers were placed about 3’ from the side walls and 3’ from the front wall. He also upgraded his HK to the AVR-3600 & HK BD player. The Orion speakers were powered by the ATI AT6012 amp + the Linkwitz ASP/crossover.
I wasn’t planning on auditioning speakers, so I didn’t bring my usual CDs, but I had my compiled CD in my car. Tim also had some classical and instrumental music CDs.
They say great minds think alike. I say great speakers sound alike!
The Orion sounded so much like the Revel Salon 2!
The first song I listened to was The Eagles “Hotel California”. I just had to listen to that bass guitar amid all that drum and everything else. Just like the Salon 2, the Orion reproduced the bass guitar with so much clarity and authority; I did not have to strain and focus completely on it. It sounded like it was playing right in the room. It was distinct with great resolution.
But what really surprised me was the bass output! Man, the bass was tight and low! It was powerful and deep. It was real bass. Just like the Salon 2, the bass was more like real-life tight bass. I was immensely impressed.
They say speakers are about compromises. The Orion may not have the same magnitude of bass compared to the RBH T3/P or T2/P or the Def Tech BP7000 for the ultimate home movie explosion experience, but the Orion had great tight deep powerful bass that shook the walls. The Orion speakers have absolute pristine resolution in the bass, midrange, and tweeters.
The other songs were “Superman”, “Time After Time”, “Don’t Dream It’s Over”, “Island In The Sun” from the Smallville soundtrack, “Six Feet Under” from the Deadzone soundtrack, “One Headlight” by the Wallflowers, and “Closing Time” by Semisonic.
I listened for clarity and resolution of vocals and instruments, deep tight bass, and accurate imaging. The Orion delivered this consistently. Whether it was female or male vocals, the Orion reproduced it with extreme life-like clarity. Whether it was bass guitars or kick drums or pianos or violins, the Orion reproduced it with life-like resolution and accuracy.
For percussion instruments, Tim had a Zar Bang “Persian and Middle Eastern Percussion” CD. The 2nd track “Rumba de Cajon” was a treat. The Orion reproduced the hand drums with awesome impact and tightness. It was utterly amazing. This is not my genre of music, but those hand percussion drums sounded so incredible. I have never heard drums so tight and powerful!
I also listened to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, Mozart’s Piano Concerto #20, and a Pachelbel Canon Baroque Favorite CD. The Orion reproduced these classical masterpieces with absolute clarity. The dynamics were tremendous. From the soft notes to the rousing orchestra climaxes, the Orion towers were absolutely convincing.
If you ask, I couldn’t tell you which speakers are better – the Orion or the Salon 2. Great speakers do sound alike. And both the Orion and the Salon 2 are great speakers IMO. They are both world-class speakers that use the best drivers and crossovers.
I guess there are pros and cons to each speaker. The Salon 2 speakers are more readily available, but they also cost about $10K more (maybe less on the street). The Salon 2 speakers are also more highly praised by more “experts” like Stereophile, Home Theater Magazine, Sound & Vision, and The Absolute Sound. The Salon 2 speakers have more prestige. But the Salon 2 towers are not unique and are like any other speakers in one regard – they are passive monopole box speakers that can be driven by one power amplifier per speaker.
The Orion speakers are more customizable; you get to pick your own wood, color stain, and finish. They are certainly more unique in that they are dipole active speakers and are quad-amped so they require 8 amps for a pair of speakers. The Orion’s active crossover is an outboard device, unlike the passive speakers which house the crossovers internally.
At this point, I am leaning towards buying the Orion. The sound quality is unsurpassed, and the uniqueness and customizability is a refreshing delight.
I saw a fine looking red color Orion picture on the Linkwitz website a few months ago. I had some fun with Photoshop and made a mirror image of one speaker. Then I colored the grills red. I’ve been using this Photoshop- Orion as part of my signature picture for a few months now.
After hearing the Salon 2, I was going to remove the Orion from my signature picture and put the Salon 2 back into my signature. But after hearing the Orion speakers, I can safely leave my signature picture exactly the way it is now – with the red Orion. I don’t know how the Orion will look upon completion with the red color stain though. I just know I like the color red.