Constellation Audio - I am dissapointed

Roysen · May 18, 2013

Constellation Audio has for years promoted the remaining products in the Reference line quite hard on their website, on audio shows and in audio magazines.

Now it seems they have abandoned their plans for the Orion phono preamplifier and Sirius HD Digital Source entirely.

I hate it when companies create big expectations with potential customers and then completely ignore the expectations they have created.

If Constellation Audio does not release the Orion and Sirius according to specifications published and advertised soon I will never consider any of their products.

puroagave · May 18, 2013

Roysen said:
Constellation Audio has for years promoted the remaining products in the Reference line quite hard on their website, on audio shows and in audio magazines.

Now it seems they have abandoned their plans for the Orion phono preamplifier and Sirius HD Digital Source entirely.

I hate it when companies create big expectations with potential customers and then completely ignore the expectations they have created.

If Constellation Audio does not release the Orion and Sirius according to specifications published and advertised soon I will never consider any of their products.

i dont get it, did you give the dealer a non-refundable deposit for these items? was it included in your kids living trust and now it will have to be redrafted? did you now end up with a hifi rack of aesthically non-coordinated and miss matched components and the OCD side of you is going bonkers??

i'm being facetious of course but with soooo many options in the market place, imo this hardly is something to get worked up about.

Andre Marc · May 18, 2013

puroagave said:
i dont get it, did you give the dealer a non-refundable deposit for these items? was it included in your kids living trust and now it will have to be redrafted? did you now end up with a hifi rack of aesthically non-coordinated and miss matched components and the OCD side of you is going bonkers??

i'm being facetious of course but with soooo many options in the market place, imo this hardly is something to get worked up about.

Luxury Problem...lol...

microstrip · May 18, 2013

Roysen said:
Constellation Audio has for years promoted the remaining products in the Reference line quite hard on their website, on audio shows and in audio magazines.

Now it seems they have abandoned their plans for the Orion phono preamplifier and Sirius HD Digital Source entirely.

I hate it when companies create big expectations with potential customers and then completely ignore the expectations they have created.

If Constellation Audio does not release the Orion and Sirius according to specifications published and advertised soon I will never consider any of their products.

I also hope that this new does not confirm, mostly for the Orion phono preamplifier. For people who invested in a Constellation Audio system and are expecting for a great phono unit designed by John Curl I can imagine this is a serious drawback.

And yes, I believe in maximizing system synergy using when possible components from the some brand - I consider my own Audio Research Phono REF2 a great phono preamplifier, but when used with the Reference Anniversary preamplifier it becomes excellent - the only cloud in the horizon is now the REF10 phono!

I am sure that if I owned another preamplifier I would probably have to think about considering other phono preamplifier.

MylesBAstor · May 18, 2013

microstrip said:
I also hope that this new does not confirm, mostly for the Orion phono preamplifier. For people who invested in a Constellation Audio system and are expecting for a great phono unit designed by John Curl I can imagine this is a serious drawback.

And yes, I believe in maximizing system synergy using when possible components from the some brand - I consider my own Audio Research Phono REF2 a great phono preamplifier, but when used with the Reference Anniversary preamplifier it becomes excellent - the only cloud in the horizon is now the REF10 phono! I am sure that if I owned another preamplifier I would probably have to think about considering other phono preamplifier.

Francisco: Out of curiosity, what other line stages did you use with the REF2? Were they all run balanced?

microstrip · May 18, 2013

MylesBAstor said:
Francisco: Out of curiosity, what other line stages did you use with the REF2? Were they all run balanced?

Myles,
I tried it with conrad johnson ACT2s2, ART3 and the DartZeel preamplifier. Only with the DartZeel it was possible to use it in balanced mode.

Roysen · May 19, 2013

Sorry, but in my mind there are not that many options to the Orion and the Sirius.

The Orion was advertised as John Curl's ultimate masterpiece phono stage. In my mind that must be really something. Additionally it was supposed to have remote controlled operation of all adjustments including loading.

The Sirius was advertised as a universal player with a great USB input, an Esoteric VRDS-Neo drive which could play all formats from spinning discs including DSD, hi-Res PCM and DVD-Audio. It was supposed to upsampler all formats to DSD. I was really excited about this product too.

I have been in constant contact with Constellation Audio to keep up with their schedule for these products. Every time they have come up with a new silly excuse I don't believe for delay. Finally they wrote to me not to ask anymore. They would contact we when these products were ready.

After that I never heard from them again until the Sirius was suddenly removed from their webpage. Now they say that they can not make a better phono stage than the Performance Line phono preamplifier Perseus.

Please also note that the new Hercules II mono amplifier has been built into the cheaper Performance Line amplifier cabinet and that their great touch screen remote control Pyxis have been replaced with a normal metal chunk with rubber buttons.

XV-1 · May 19, 2013

Hmmmm. The phono stage is still on their website

I wonder what this means for their long term future, considering there are a new brand.

wizard · May 19, 2013

View attachment 9819

Altair II to the left, Hercules II to the right.

nirodha · May 20, 2013

turntable said:
Hmmmm. The phono stage is still on their website

I wonder what this means for their long term future, considering there are a new brand.

I agree that a manufacturer should only promise something when it is 99,9% ready to ship out. Off topic...on the "this will be the ultimate etc. etc...." anyone heard anything about the Avalon super speaker ;-) ?
Wim

south · May 23, 2013

nirodha said:
I agree that a manufacturer should only promise something when it is 99,9% ready to ship out. Off topic...on the "this will be the ultimate etc. etc...." anyone heard anything about the Avalon super speaker ;-) ?
Wim

Nirodha

Good point. Apparently any information on the new Tesseract disappeared from Avalon's website. This is quite strange, after all the hype and the technical paper they have posted. They had a picture of the speaker in what appears to be their listening room, so it was more than a project. I can find no information about any actual demo or listening session with Tesseract. Did they drop it?

I am a great fan of Avalon speakers, but in recent years their marketing policy seems a bit erratic.
South

XV-1 · May 23, 2013

south said:
Nirodha

Good point. Apparently any information on the new Tesseract disappeared from Avalon's website. This is quite strange, after all the hype and the technical paper they have posted. They had a picture of the speaker in what appears to be their listening room, so it was more than a project. I can find no information about any actual demo or listening session with Tesseract. Did they drop it?

I am a great fan of Avalon speakers, but in recent years their marketing policy seems a bit erratic.
South

Tesseract is still on the Avalon website

rockitman · May 23, 2013

Best Phono stage ever ? Really ? Come up with a specimen that demonstrates that.

XV-1 · May 23, 2013

rockitman said:
Best Phono stage ever ? Really ? Come up with a specimen that demonstrates that.

One of the principles of Constellation audio also forced the designer of Continuum turntable out of the company. Doh!

Does one think that Continuum (without a designer), let alone Constellation audio still be around in 5 years?

JackD201 · May 23, 2013

One passed away and now one of the other stars of the constellation is out? Ouch!

XV-1 · May 23, 2013

JackD201 said:
One passed away and now one of the other stars of the constellation is out? Ouch!

Sorry, I need to clarify. One or maybe two of the principles of Continuum are also principles of Constellation. The turntable designer is no longer with Continuum. Can't comment on who is with Constellation.

LL21 · May 23, 2013

From what I recall, Constellation was kind of an alliance of some of the great individual design/engineer names in audio coming together to cull their design input collectively into a series of uber cost no object, all-out-assault products. Perhaps that alliance is not holding together as well?

KeithR · May 23, 2013

Roysen said:
Sorry, but in my mind there are not that many options to the Orion and the Sirius.

The Orion was advertised as John Curl's ultimate masterpiece phono stage. In my mind that must be really something. Additionally it was supposed to have remote controlled operation of all adjustments including loading.

The Sirius was advertised as a universal player with a great USB input, an Esoteric VRDS-Neo drive which could play all formats from spinning discs including DSD, hi-Res PCM and DVD-Audio. It was supposed to upsampler all formats to DSD. I was really excited about this product too.

I have been in constant contact with Constellation Audio to keep up with their schedule for these products. Every time they have come up with a new silly excuse I don't believe for delay. Finally they wrote to me not to ask anymore. They would contact we when these products were ready.

After that I never heard from them again until the Sirius was suddenly removed from their webpage. Now they say that they can not make a better phono stage than the Performance Line phono preamplifier Perseus.

Please also note that the new Hercules II mono amplifier has been built into the cheaper Performance Line amplifier cabinet and that their great touch screen remote control Pyxis have been replaced with a normal metal chunk with rubber buttons.

Universal players are dinosaurs, sorry. No doubt why they discontinued development.

I like the CA gear. Smooth SS with a lot of resolution.

Roysen · May 24, 2013

KeithR said:
Universal players are dinosaurs, sorry. No doubt why they discontinued development.

Sorry but I have to disagree. Surely disc based playback is not a technology with increasing interest, but there are enough discs in ownership out there to make this technology last decades.

That is also why there are so many players supporting this technology on the market.

CA gear sounds nice. I agree. Their marketing however is simply not trustworthy.

Roysen · May 24, 2013

turntable said:
One of the principles of Constellation audio also forced the designer of Continuum turntable out of the company. Doh!

Does one think that Continuum (without a designer), let alone Constellation audio still be around in 5 years?

Marc Dohan forced out of Continuum? That was an interesting piece of information. Do you have anything indicating that is the case? I know Continuum Audio Labs inquired with Mika Huber (the man behind the Thales tonearms and the Audiostone turntables) but he declined their offer to join.

Constellation Audio - I am dissapointed

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