OK, just done this. Not sure what I'm 'feeling' for but I set the volume so that the bass drivers were moving ~2-3mm p-p at 20Hz. Well, I could feel vibrations easily all the way up to 100Hz (and beyond). But the driver excursion diminished with increasing frequency. Certainly there was no sense that there were more vibrations at 100Hz than say 63Hz.

My room dimensions are 5.5m x 4.3m x 3.2m. Could there be some sort of cancellation effect going on around 55Hz (300/5.5)?

Mani.

Joachim, did you try 16x AP? I think you need to in order for the filter to work properly.

Mani.

Ah, there's no question I'm a lucky man with life in general... speakers included. But we're all lucky to be part of probably the best audio community on the planet.

Mani.

Peter, some thoughts on your post above later, but for now...

I've just run a series of 1/3 octave band tracks (ripped from the MFSL 'Soundcheck' CD), from 20Hz up to 20KHz. It's clear that there is a 'suck-out' between ~40Hz and ~80Hz in my room. I've never noticed this before. The 20Hz, 25Hz and 31.5Hz tracks show plenty of energy (the 20Hz can hardly be heard, but it definitely energizes the room). There is a significant drop in energy on the 40Hz, 50Hz, 60Hz and 80Hz tracks. The energy starts returning on the 100Hz track.

The speakers no doubt need more burn-in, but maybe there's more to my currently lean low end? Any thoughts anyone?

Mani.

Well, I did as much due diligence as possible before deciding to put the cables under my floorboards and moving the NOS1(a) into my basement 10m away. There are three reasons why I'm confident these 10m cables, that I bought through Juan, are not playing any part in how the Orelos are currently performing:

1. With my previous setup (BD-Design amps and Celestion SL600s speakers), I tried these cables in the listening room alongside a bunch of other 1m cables. The 10m cables [at least] matched my 1m anti-cables in overall SQ, and importantly showed pretty much the same HF response and transparency.

2. Indeed, the 10m cables are transparent enough to easily show any changes in XX filters, different DACs, etc.

3. No one who has heard my Orelos has complained about a lack of HF. And it's there, surely, that the audible effects, if any, of long cables would be most noticeable.

In any event, I love having a listening room totally uncluttered with equipment and gear. So the NOS1a is definitely staying where it is. If in the future I feel something is lacking sound-wise, I may well try another pair of 10m cables. But right now, I have absolutely no inclination to.


Alain, I used the PM2 for a couple of days with the Orelos until the NOS1a arrived back. Let's just say that there's no way I'd even think about replacing the NOS1a with the PM2. There may well actually be more LF weight with the PM2, just like there is with my non-upgraded NOS1, against the NOS1a. But it's clear to me that this is a case of quantity over quality.

Contemplating using any DAC instead of a NOS1a is about as heretical a suggestion as can imagine in hifi 

Mani.

Thanks VJ. I'll start playing with the F-M settings when I hear something that doesn't sound right.

The only thing I've noticed with my current extreme F-M setting is that some vocals and lead instruments can sound a little recessed. But I really like this and find that on too many recordings, the lead vocals/instruments are way too prominent. I mean, just listen to the Mark Wilder mastered 1997 versions of 'Kind of Blue' and 'Time Out'. They are terrible. Unlistenable. The trumpets/saxophones blast out whilst the rhythm sections are barely audible. If you listen to earlier versions of these (on CD or vinyl) there's a much better balance to the sound. Interestingly, on the recent Mark Wilder 24/192 release of KoB, the balance is identical to the earlier versions. Much, much better. Oh, and whilst I'm on it, I wasn't very impressed with this 24/192 version of KoB when I first heard it. But with the Orelos (and NOS1a, and Custom filter) it now sounds very, very good.

Mani.

Fletcher-Munson

I'll admit to having not played around with these curves as much as it seems VJ has. Within the first day or two I determined that I strongly preferred the most extreme F-M curve (S=3, D=3, H=1) for all the tracks I played. And I've left the settings there ever since. When Nick and Paul were here today, we didn't even discuss, let alone touch, the F-M settings.

Mani.

Hey Peter, the Custom filter is totally phenomenal. Only now can articulate what I've thought about AP for so long. There's a certain 'nervousness' in the extreme HF that gives an edge to the music. Initially, it might even sound appealing. But after switching to Custom, you realise how much more natural the sound can become.

Thanks so much for listening to 'us' and pursuing this for us. I'm sure you've put it quite some hours on this... Well, let it be known that your hard work is much appreciated.

Mani.

Impressions after a couple of weeks

The more I listen to the speakers, the more impressed I have become. I mentioned in another thread that at some point you tend to transcend the usual hifi evaluation criteria. Even with their currently lean low end, there's a realism to the sound that just let's you relax and yet also pulls you in too. There's no question in my mind that these speakers are on a different level to any others I've ever owned.

A word about the lean low end. As I've mentioned, it's improving with time anyway. But there are 3 things that I've found have really helped:

1. Filling the wings with sand. This was a right royal PITA to do, with each of the 4 wings taking about 55Kg of sand... But I'm so glad I went ahead and did this. There was a slight 'hollowness' in the mid-bass with the wings unfilled. This totally disappeared with the wings filled.

2. The NOS1a. I haven't had an unmodified NOS1 here to compare, but compared to my Pacific Microsonics Model Two, the bass of the NOS1a is more prominent, and better in every way conceivable.

3. The Custom Filter in XX. This has been a godsend for me. So much more natural than AP in the HF, which surprisingly has such a big effect low down, giving the impression of an extended LF.

More thoughts later...

Mani.

Initial Impressions

Right from the off, my initial impression of the Orelo speakers was positive. It was clear that these were going to be different (in a good way) to any other speakers I ever owned. Here's what I thought pretty much immediately:

1. No horn 'honk' from mid/high horn

Nada. Nothing. You close your eyes and, apart from the sheer mid/high dynamics on display before you, there's no way you'd think you're listening to a horn.

2. A clarity like no other

Only once you've heard a speaker with such low distortion from top to bottom do you realise that you've been listening to distortion for so long. But lack of distortion low down takes getting used to, especially on tracks that you're familiar with on other speakers.

3. A very lean low end

Just no bass punch whatsoever. The low frequencies were there alright, but just had no attack.

Point 3 improved considerably last Friday after I played a pink noise track continuously for a couple of hours. There's no doubt in my mind that the bass punch will just continue to improve with time. I'm going to be passing a 20Hz track through the speakers for prolonged periods in the next couple of days to see if I can accelerate this loosening-up process.

Mani.

I'm starting my own thread to share my thoughts on my Orelo MkII speakers. Although I've had them for almost two weeks now, I wanted to wait a short while before posting my thoughts for 3 main reasons:
1. I wanted to give the speakers a little bit of time to burn-in
2. I wanted to form my impressions over multiple listening session over a period of time
3. I wanted to wait until Nick and Paul (Scoobius) had been over to take a listen and not influence their thoughts on the speakers beforehand.

I'd encourage Nick and Paul to share their thoughts in this thread. For my own part, I think I'll spread my thoughts over a number of posts.

Mani.

Thanks Joachim. I think my current test CD has all that I require for now. But I'll keep the Isotek in mind for the future.

Cheers, Mani.

Thanks Peter.


Ah, so it is possible to repeat a track in XX. Great!


HQP still works perfectly with the current driver and the NOS1a, right up to double-octo... but only with the 44.1 base rate. All 48K base rate files still work but are played back more slowly. I guess it is this that will be fixed with the new driver.


Really? Feeding the tweeters with >22KHz won't help them? OK, if you say so.


The woofers move around 5mm p-p with the pink noise track, at the volume I'm playing it. But, I've got some LF tracks on my test CD that I'll try.

Thanks again...

Mani.

I thought I'd try helping along the burn-in process of my Orelo speakers by playing a 'pink noise' track on repeat for a couple of hours.

Firstly, I have no idea how to repeat a track with XX. Is it even possible? (Please let me know if it is.) So I decided to use HQPlayer for this burn-in process.

I downloaded 3 pink noise tracks: 44.1K (10 seconds), 176.4K (30 seconds) and 192K (30 seconds). All three tracks play perfectly through Foobar on my office desktop PC (with a Juli@ card).

HQP through the NOS1 plays only the left channel of these tracks! Even with no upsampling, only the left channel plays. And also on the desktop PC in my office, HQP only plays these tracks on the left channel.

So, I decided to try XX just to see what's going on. Well, XX plays both channels (phew!), but with constant silent interrupts. The duration of the interrupts is dependent on the SFS and whether AP is used or not.

I have a 16/44.1 pink noise track that I ripped from one of my  test CDs. Both XX and HQP are perfectly happy playing this track in native or double-octo form.

I'm tempted to download Foobar on my main music PC just so that I can play the hires pink noise tracks back (the higher frequencies might speed up burn-in?).

Before I do this, does anyone have any idea why XX and HQP are not happy with these files, and why they are playing them back so differently?

Mani.

Oh, wow! I am so, so sorry to hear this. I only met Eric once - he kindly offered to pick me and Paul up from the railway station and drove us to Peter's place a couple of years ago.

We spent the evening listening to music and eating and drinking. It was obvious even in the short time I spent with him that he was a special human being.

My sincerest condolences to Michaela.

Mani.