Sigfried Linkwitz Interview - Orion and Pluto Loudspeakers

[dippywatcher]

I am thinking of writing a book about my old speakers but I didn't think anyone would be interested...

I wanted to manufacture and sell my newer subwoofer but am relatively flat broke, not working and I needed to build a few units before I could then send them at my cost to three capital cities before I can get them reviewed...

And this is Australia, not California.

I could never jet around and demo my tatty looking homemade

"rig"... a pity.

No fancy hardwood. MDF and housepaint on the sub

[dippywatcher]

I am so glad I googled and stumbled across this thread....

again... Hi Mr Linkwitz!

[JiveDadson]

I have heard these in a large living room. In the midrange and treble they are quite good, as one would expect given the quality of the drivers and the custom equalization. But where they shine, astonish really, is in the bass. It is preternaturally clear. Dipole design does it.  (My own subwoofer uses the same driver, but with a passive radiator. It is "only" great.) The dipole configuration cancels out sound production toward the sides, ceiling, and floor. It's not for small rooms though.

[dippywatcher]

@JiveDadson You don't know at all that the dipole design does it. You have just discovered what I call the lost octave. Welcome to the club... oh, hang on do you OWN a pair? Did you BUILD a pair? Let alone design a speaker system..... Does any system you've heard RATTLE stuff in the house.... at 10 Hz? I have chased down distortion (in tone tests) to find it was oven grills and sliding kitchen windows, even the front door. They all their own resonant frequency. Does your stereo do that?

[muflonator]

dippywatcher: I just love guys like you, everything is wrong, you did everything much better long time ago and the best man from the industry is Omar Bose for you, are you joking? Bose is the worst example of bad designs sold with huge marketing. Did you listened to the Orion speakers and/or compared them to other ? Actually lot of VERY experienced audio reviewers were very excited about them even in direct comparsion with big names like BW Nautilus and Wilson Audio.

[dippywatcher]

@muflonator Bose isn't perfect but it was a raging commercial success. 901 series IV's in a smallish room were astounding at the time. What have you designed, fabricated, calibrated and listened with? My system was a four way, 2 channel split spectrum design, completely designed, fabricated and built by me (except for the spkr drivers, ha ha ), 30 dB/octave slope butterworth active filters, 60 w rms per channel (7 channels). Stereo. It used to put gear twice the price to total shame RSVP

[dippywatcher]

@muflonator

Linkwitz never got successful, even in California (!)

How can that be? Too expensive? No. Look at the Infinity top of the line.

$20G and they are manufactured...

And yes, my power amplifiers are discrete, not LM12 based.

So a lot of work, time and effort went into every single aspect of the build.

I did not need to resort to custom equalization, because I chose the crossover

points to suit the drivers.

In those days (1984) you couldn't get designs off the internet.

~115 dB SPL!

[dippywatcher]

@muflonator

Amar Bose was one of the leaders, there were quite a few others.

Ziggy Linkwitz says any old "box speaker" is just on a plateau and cannot get too near a dipole design. Is that really so?

What is the point in a speaker system which needs a Big room to sound good?

Some of the best small systems I heard were Sonabs, but you needed a small room and had to have reflections. Limited but nice bottom end. Silky mids, treble...

VERY experienced audio reviewers are just paid writers...

[dippywatcher]

@muflonator I have heard a few Bowers and Wilkins and Wilsons. Let's see now (this is ages ago) JBL of course, LS3/5A BBC near field monitors (tiny long throw VC), AMW4100 using KEF drivers (B139 woofer), Jim Rogers (don't remember the models), A few CV's, rough as guts but loud..., Yamaha planar orthodynamic array flat panels, Quad ESL's (not good), some stuff I didn't like as much was Pioneer, Tannoy, studiocraft (by bose). AR's. Kenwood, (ho-hum...) I own vintage STAX SR5 "cans"..

[widhibrata1]

Hi Dippy, sounds like your system is better than SL's Orion. Please post a video of them in Youtube so we can see.

[dippywatcher]

@widhibrata1

Yes I think so.

I built a conventional system, just (4)split spectrum.

I found a way to "copy" a Janis W1 roughly.

I was poor, young and on a limited budget.

However, I achieved a better result than the Bose 901 series IV which was pretty good at the time.

I did not have the money and test equipment access which a professional HP RF engineer had and I was 22, not in my forties.

Considering the limitations I faced, the results were spectacular.

Write me back if interested...

[dippywatcher]

@widhibrata1

I will put up some stills of what I have left.

The subwoofer is in my hometown and I can't retrieve it, but built a

better one using 4 x 10" drivers in a tuned cab (peaks around 24 Hz).

The bass drivers have been mauled by my (long dead) pet cats and one

squawker internal fuse popped. My system is decommissioned.

The ferrorfluid tweeters were replaced by less than perfect others,

but even configured three way they are pretty good. I planned to patch it all up.

Maybe I will...

[dippywatcher]

@grabngonuts: S.L. has addressed the issue of time alignment. Read his website.

I don't think they're beautiful... Also must be the only speaker system which operates the midrange right through it's resonant frequency using a notch filter.

Crazy design. 2 stars.

I don't understand gullible people going ape over such a flawed, pricey design.

I did better in my early twenties. My current subwoofer is good to well below 10 Hz, for example.

[grabngonuts]

beautiful, but should have time aligned voice coils. Hell, I cant make a speaker that beautiful.

[dippywatcher]

@ziherr: Nonsense...

[dippywatcher]

@groscaca69: Thanks, Man. Most of the gear is still with me (I've moved around a bit). It's mothballed as I now listen to a lot of MP3 music and you can't play mp3 on a very high fidelity system without getting pissed off (as the system easily resolves the distortion in the MP3, frustrating but true). I also have ancient headphones (STAX SR5) which are mind blowing. I don't use them anymore for the above reason. Also had my entire CD collection stolen in 2003, which kind of

got me down (!)

[dippywatcher]

In my twenties(1985) I designed and built a four way split spectrum stereo which would eat this monstrosity. I pulled it down out of respect for the neighbours because it was too loud... Very flat system...with a real subwoofer. Could manage 115 dB spl in a lounge room (make your ears ring!).

Hi,Mr Linkwitz!

[groscaca69]

@dippywatcher yes, you are very good! where are they?

[dippywatcher]

over-rated and have design defects...

[DuckinF9ck]

they look soooo ugly

[zepaola]

orrible.

[ziherr]

one of the best speakers money can buy

[wersuss]

strange speakers

[pcfxer]

Awesome, thank you so much! There are two things I love - acoustics and suspension. The maths are incredibly alike - hence the Bose suspension.

Mr.Linkwitz has inspired me to do two things; become more Maths based and yet through the two philosphies (linkwitz vs. Bose) I kept the "artistic" part of design as well.

[dippywatcher]

@pcfxer Orions are flawed, no subwoofer and over-priced...!

Can't believe so many people fall for this guff...

There are (were) professionals around who design speaker systems...

This and all other S.L. designs were never a commercial success.

As Barnum (or was it Twain) said "A fool and his money are soon parted".

Amar Bose knows more than S.L. ever did imho (about audio).

Scamming f***in' free masons...

[tskjaerpe]

This is the grand master speaking. If you ever heard the Linkwitz Orion, you never look back. By many considered the best speaker - period.

[dippywatcher]

@tskjaerpe Yeah by all his references (phoenix, Orion,...) I imagine

Herr Linkwitz is

a free mason, but don't know whether he's a "Grand Master" of the lodge...

Back to audio, he has a brilliant website, great speakers but quite flawed...

I agree with him that valve amps are hopeless, though!

If you own a pair of these Orions why not prove how good they are with an

undoctored video of a real-time spectrum test using pink noise.

That I would really like to see.

Greetings from Australia.