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What's new

 

 

Accurate sound reproduction 
. . in a home environment 
. . . . with ORION+
. . . . . . and PLUTO-2.1

This website was started over 10 years ago. 
Have you caught on to dipoles, and omnis, and what stereo is capable of? 1) 

 

Here are the ORION+ loudspeakers.

You can purchase them as a complete, custom-built system from Wood Artistry, including all electronics, cables and interconnects and ready to be plugged into your preamplifier. 

You could also build up everything yourself from the available extensive documentation, material lists, and blank printed circuit boards. We can even help with pre-cut wood and assembled electronics. Depending on your construction skills, time, and money, there are several ways to obtain a pair of these outstanding loudspeakers.  

Your search is over!
ORION+ will be the last loudspeaker! 

 

My observations and promise:

It is possible to reproduce a stereo recording in an ordinary living room such that listeners have the illusion that the two loudspeakers have disappeared. When they close their eyes, they can easily imagine to be present at the recording space, as they listen to the phantom audio scene in front of them. 

The vast majority of loudspeakers that have been sold - the typical box speakers - can only produce this effect to a limited degree because of a fundamental limitation: they radiate sound into the room with different intensity at different frequencies and angles, though they measure flat on axis. Consequently the many reflections from room surfaces are sonically colored in a way that is characteristic for box loudspeakers. We always recognize the sound as coming from a box rather than being live. It is the generic loudspeaker sound.

It has been a fascinating journey for me
to come to this understanding

Loudspeakers with frequency independent, constant directionality such as omni, dipole or cardioid loudspeakers, cause reflections in a room that are essentially delayed replicas of the direct sound and which are therefore less colored. Your ear/brain perceptual apparatus does not get confused by sound replicas. Instead it compares them to the familiar acoustic behavior of your room and readily blankets the redundant information and thereby the room. This automatic brain response is related to the Precedence Effect in psychoacoustics and is essential for creating the illusion of "being there" by withdrawing attention from the living room acoustics.

It has been a fascinating journey for me to come to this understanding. Early on, electrostatic panel loudspeakers had intrigued me, because they seemed to do something fundamentally right when properly set up, and this despite their obvious limitations. I can see in hindsight that a few loudspeaker designers had pointed to the benefits of omni-directional loudspeakers. The ORION+ has demonstrated to me what more is possible in 2-channel sound reproduction, provided that the recording contains natural spatial cues and is not merely an artificial sound mix. 

Accurate sound reproduction is in reach for you too. Surprise yourself with the believability of the illusion when two loudspeakers properly stimulate your room, ear and brain. You find yourself lost in music and space.

Hearing, Loudspeakers and Rooms       Accurate Stereo                  Siegfried Linkwitz, August 2009

 

You have come to a website with a wealth of useful and practical information about loudspeaker design, electro-acoustic system design and about perception of sound from loudspeakers in normal rooms. I have been active in this field for over 40 years, motivated by my love for music and by a keen interest in the difficulties of reproducing music realistically in the home. 

After retiring from Hewlett-Packard Co. (now 'Agilent') with 37 years in R&D of radio-frequency and microwave electronic test equipment, I pursued my investigation of the loudspeaker-room-listener interaction with refreshed energy and time. In the late nineties I had developed the Beethoven/Dvorak/Vivaldi line of open-baffle loudspeakers for Audio Artistry. My objective has always been the development of cost effective loudspeaker systems for two-channel sound playback of the highest accuracy. Occasionally I experiment with surround sound. Video sound and moving pictures are of low interest to me, but digital photography has rekindled my lifelong fascination with pictorial expression. 

On this site you will find the essence of what I have learned from designing, building and listening to many different types of speakers. Fortunately, I was rarely bound by commercial considerations or restricted by market expectations. I was free to search for the parameters that are truly important to realistic reproduction. Throughout this search, my sonic reference has always been the non-amplified original performance. 

You can use the information in these pages to learn about sound reproduction, room acoustics, loudspeaker design and related subjects in order to build your own speakers, to understand the theoretical background behind different designs, or to optimize what you own. Five projects are described in full detail: 

- PHOENIX, a full-range, open-baffle speaker with separate dipole woofers
- THOR, a sealed box subwoofer and its addition to ORION or other speaker
- ORION, a compact and highly refined open-baffle speaker with integrated dipole woofers
- PLUTO, a small size, closed-baffle, omni-directional speaker
- PLUTO+, a full-range, omni-directional speaker with outstanding performance

Construction drawings and complete technical explanations of their design are provided. I also sell blank printed circuit boards to simplify the assembly of the crossover/equalizer electronic circuits.  

 


PHOENIX main panel and separate dipole woofer in W-frame

A study of the PHOENIX project will give you useful insight into the theory, design and construction of an open-baffle speaker and the necessary line-level crossover/equalizer. The completed system allows you to experience the room-acoustic benefits of dipole radiation. 
Adding just the dipole woofers of PHOENIX to your existing system could correct low frequency boom problems. 

 

THOR is a sealed-box, monopole subwoofer. It could extend your sound system's very low frequency capability or it can be added to the ORION in a Home Theater setup. The theory, design and construction details given in these pages make building the THOR a worthwhile first do-it-yourself project.

 

     

ORION with optional THOR subwoofers behind it

The ORION loudspeaker has a smaller footprint than the PHOENIX to fit the widest range of domestic situations. It is an open-baffle loudspeaker of the highest sonic accuracy and refinement. It incorporates not only what I learned from previous exercises, but also takes advantage of the latest in driver technology. You can purchase construction plans for it as well as all necessary assemblies. You can build it yourself from grounds up, at an estimated cost of $2200 plus 60 hours of your labor, or you can have it completely built by us.


 

PLUTO is a much smaller and lower cost 2-way speaker that captures many of the desirable characteristics of ORION, yet is based on the conventional sealed-baffle speaker concept. PLUTO is self-powered and well suited to a very wide range of applications and environments. It can be build at a cost of only $700 and 30 hours of work. 

You can also purchase PLUTO ready built and, if desired, add subwoofers at a later time. Thus you would enjoy a loudspeaker system that seriously rivals ORION, but is better suited to smaller listening environments.

 

 

      

 

PLUTO can be upgraded to PLUTO+ by adding two closed-box subwoofers with outboard crossover/equalizer electronics and power amplifier. This 3-way system is a worthy alternative to the ORION and in many respects its sonic equivalent, though at considerably lower cost and simpler construction.

Whether sealed baffle PLUTO+ or open baffle ORION, they each offer highest accuracy and highest value in their respective approaches to loudspeaker design, though they differ significantly in their cost to you. 
Going to higher priced exotic components in the ORION System is unlikely to improve sonic accuracy. 
Likewise, I would not know how to reduce the cost of PLUTO+ and preserve its ability to deliver a similarly satisfying illusion of reality. 

My motto has always been to be "true to the original, as it was recorded". I want to reproduce a recording without adding or subtracting from it either because of the loudspeakers or the room. On this website you find information that allows you to build, to purchase, or to design loudspeakers which exemplify the pursuit of accuracy.


To get a taste of the large number of considerations that enter into the design of a loudspeaker you might read a ground breaking "Loudspeaker System Design" article. It was published 1978 in Wireless World magazine and describes a three-enclosure loudspeaker with active delay and crossovers using drivers that were highly regarded at the time, KEF T27, B110 and B139.

And then listen to a talk given 30 years later about accurate sound reproduction from two loudspeakers in a living room, to hear and see what more has been learned.

 

    

My Toneburst Test Signal CD allows you to evaluate your listening room's interaction with your speakers, particularly at low frequencies. The Sound Pictures CD gives you clips from my own recordings that I use to assess the accuracy of my loudspeakers. 

Consider a pair of reference earphones that you equalize to your hearing in order to find out what is really on the CD you have been listening to, and what your room and speakers are contributing.

Read about how loudspeakers should radiate sound uniformly and how they should be placed in the room so that they disappear sonically and the room opens up to the recording venue.

Check out the topics that are listed in the column on the left hand side of this page. I hope that the material presented here will add to your understanding of what is necessary for accurate sound reproduction. Regrettably, much misinformation and outright nonsense has been published to promote certain "high-end" audio products. The power of suggestion works exceedingly well, when listeners do not trust their own hearing. I recommend to re-calibrate yourself frequently. Listen closely to all sorts of non-amplified sounds in order to recognize and remember natural sonic scenes. Without a reality based mental reference it becomes an endless and futile pursuit to listen for differences between speakers and equipment in order to find the least falsification and the closest illusion of live sound. 

 

  • Check out the ORION Users Group for the exchange of ideas, for questions about ORION and PLUTO and to make contact with owners. 

  • Look at the Site map to orient yourself when searching for specific information.
  • You can purchase the up-to-date content of this website on CD.
  • My supplier of complete ORION and PLUTO Systems is Wood Artistry L.L.C..
  • Translation into other languages of the whole website or of specific pages is easily accomplished by using SYSTRAN. The results can be obscure and comical due to literal translation of words, but they may still help in understanding the original English text. As an example see the translation of the website into French.  

 

1)  Provided that you and the two loudspeakers are optimally placed in the room, that the loudspeakers are capable of illuminating the room uniformly at all frequencies, and that the recording contains spatial cues, which are familiar to you from natural hearing. 

CAUTION: The content of these pages may change without notice as I learn new things or find better descriptions. The designs presented here may change as I make new observations or gain more insight. I see myself as a seeker of truth, though I now know that every person is, and ultimately truth is a construct. There is only this. Maybe what has been done here points you to it. Audio has overwhelmingly been a hobby for me, for my own pleasure and love of music. I enjoy to share what I found and possibly to dispel a few misconceptions. My interest is not on the business side, though I like that my activities pay for my hobbies. You may not agree with some or all aspects of my designs, the approach that I take to them, or the theories. I have no problem with that. Just do not ask me "what would happen if ...". Changes that you make to the designs are for your own pleasure and at your own risk. But if you learn something worthwhile, then please let me know. I have received increasing amounts of email. I have responded to every legitimate letter that made its way through the Junk Mail, even when it meant repeating what has been published. There is an ORION/PLUTO Users Group with people who can help you. Go there first. I will still respond to every email, but you may get redirected. I consider my writings in these web pages as brief and to the point. I labor over every sentence and word and provide little redundancy. Read thoroughly and maybe more than once. I do not write for the rank beginner, but for those who have been around the block. You may need to study up. The links in my text are for that. You may find what seems like an inconsistency here and there. Look at the date of the page for when it was last updated. I am not going back over every page to bring everything on it up-to-date.  I have not been standing still since I started this web in 1999 and with the idea of a brain dump of my previous findings so they would not get lost to the audio community, and with the PHOENIX as an example, so you could test my findings for yourself. In 2006, I thought I would go into a support and maintenance mode. No new design. Stuff happened, more enjoyment to share. Be forewarned, I am sowing seeds of discontent. 

 

----  ALL there is, is this, as YOU dreams  ---- 
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Last revised: 02/01/2010   -  © 1999-2010 LINKWITZ LAB, All Rights Reserved