@audio-Karma, curious to know where/when a review for the Orchestalls reference speakers might be available?
I’m curious on hearing others thoughts with Orchestalls speakers as I shared very similar impression with your friend. I too felt that Orchestalls was one of the top two exhibitions (for my ears) at Axpona 2022. The other was the Wynn Audio room w/ a setup probably north of $400K total (just a guess) in a large hall w/ one narrow sweet spot… but at that one seat at the very front, the sound was most amazingly refined and captivating. Maybe not quite at the same level, yet Orchestalls presented similar musical refinement in a much smaller hotel room setting (may I say with much better bass response) and far modest supporting gears/system. I visited the Orchestalls room three times during the show and were impressed each and every time along with other amazed visitors in an always packed room. That’s a very rare occasion from any audio shows I’d attended over the years. Despite my many pre-conceptions against others’ solid/boxy cabinet design and “unique” multiple drivers arrangement, I was so impressed with their systems that I made an impulse decision to purchase their smallest demo speakers (500RT) which luckily turned out to be my best purchase/decision I’d ever made over my 20+ years of audio journey. And even paying full price on the demo speaker and more so a getting slammed by my wife after… it was still most well worth it (things we pressed through in our hobby).
Honestly even though I truly enjoyed the presentation of Orchestalls speakers at the show, I did question how these speakers will actually perform at my home which is a quite bit bigger and open than a jammed hotel room especially when pairing with my own gears. Now that I’ve lived and tweaked with these speakers for over a month in my setup, I’m quite gladly to say that they are even better than I’d originally expected. While I still don’t understand how these small (yet extremely heavy) two-way speakers (w/ small 7” drivers) are able to produce such amazing full range sound, their sound is well balanced from room shaking yet accurate bass to detailed/textured mid; and resolving/airy high. To be fair, my humble system is still very modest in price (especially at today’s show standard) but unlike other speakers (ranging from ~$2,500 to $20k) I’ve the pleasure owning/listening at home to-day, these 500RT are by far the most balanced and coherences sounding of all. That makes them also the most enjoyable and versatile speakers I’ve the pleasure of owning so far. Comparatively, the 500RT are able to bring out the most nuances from the recording along with realistic timbre & accurate imagining. And just as importantly, they manage to create excellent scale and soundstage (something fundamental yet quite difficult to achieve for proper orchestral music reproduction). Another important speaker character for me has always been the ability to disappear in the room when I close my eyes. These 500RT not only disappear completely but they are the only speakers that manage to create a soundstage that’s well beyond the physical boundary of my listening room. And for that, it’s much easier to envelop myself within the music, and often with good recording, giving me almost the sensation of actually being in the venue.
I suppose one drawback (if even that) I found so far is while the 500RT is not picky with amplification, they do require a bit of quality power to drive them well. I tried SS and tube amps and while both paired well, I found the best sonic result when driving them with a pair of higher power (100W) tube mono blocks. But even with these higher power amps, I can tell the (8) 6550 tubes are running much hotter than usual driving the 500RT. I believe they’re certainly taxing my amps, and while I hope the tubes can last longer …only time will tell.
I no longer doubt that Orchestalls speakers are geniusly designed and made. Being a cable believer myself, I’m always curious if a great design can really “rule out” the important of cables like some non-believers had claimed… so much so that even the exhibitor decided to use the generic lamp cord type speaker wires & interconnects at the show while still able to achieve great sound. Honestly, I very much hoped that will be the case so that I can sell of all my expensive cables (at least the speaker wires) and never looked back. Unfortunately, these 500RT turned out to be more sensitive to cables (or any component) upstream, and that they reveal every little change I made to larger degree than any other speakers I had in the past. I did ask the speakers designers at the show why they didn’t use better components/cables/racks, etc, and if they don’t believe in tweak. The main designer briefly told me that he believes cable, tweaks are for each individual to experience and use to their liking. For them, they just want to present the basic/pure form of their speakers at the show. Now I think about it, it’s actually quite a brilliant approach because if they would had paired with other ultra high-end components/cables at the show, I would not be as impressed nor would I know just how much sonic performance were actually from their speakers alone.
One other rare yet most admirable aspect of Orchestalls is that their speakers are design by a Korean father & son team who are truly passionate with orchestra music and audio, and with their whole family (who also came to help at the show) supporting them behind. I believe their main career is actual some type of production engineering with their manufacturing facility in Korea. Yet talking to them at the show, I couldn’t help but felt their genuine personality and great passion with music and speaker design. This is certainly not your typical corporate or business-oriented exhibitors at show. I have no doubt that the father & son are more “audiophiles” at heart who walk-the-walk than most visitors and exhibitors at the show. And it’s also their exceptional passions and humble characters that gave me the faith to take the plunge with their speakers… and I’m so glad I did. I only wished I would have purchased one of their larger models instead. Anyhow just want to share my experiences with this fairly new brand on the horizon at the show and at home. Sonically speaking, Orchestalls is truly a top-quality speaker brand which punch many levels above their pricing-triers.
