No he did not tell me that he was planning to employ built in subs. In fact they are very close lipped about their plans. I’ll be visiting them a week from Monday but I doubt they’ll share their plans with me. They are a small company and move very deliberately. Here’s what I’ve been told: they have no plans to make a stand alone sub, they have no plans to make a less expensive line ala Magico, Lyra will stick around a while, it would be cool to make a flagship, they won’t do anything until they are certain that it is a big step up. It took 2-3 years to finish Orion. My guess is it would take a similar timeframe for their next speaker whatever that is.
Rockport Orions with a subwoofer?
- Thread starter Cincy2
- Start date
Dear all, I am intrigued by the Orion as a Cygnus user. I have a small room of 20' x 17'. I am not interested in subs. Rather the 13'' woofer of the Orion and its proximity to the floor gives me pause. It is not possible for me to audition Orion in my location. Those of you gentlemen experienced with both Cygnus and Orion, could you please share how different is Orion bass from the Cygnus? The last time I had 13" woofers in my room was Avalon Isis and it was problematic.
Thanks a lot.
Thanks a lot.
Hi JiminGa, this is off topic.. but if you have heard the Lyra, how would you compare the bass of 2 drivers vs the Orion’s 13”? Thanks.
Ationg, that is an interesting question. The 13 driver couples with the room differently than the 10s. I spent a good amount of time at Rockport listening to the Lyra. The crossover is also different going from 7 mid to 13 vs. 6 mid to 10s. Both have more internal volume vs Cygnus which makes a real difference. The Lyra has a real springy mid/upper bass which is fantastic. The Orion has a very natural mid/lower bass which I love because I ended my 25 years playing with subs when I bought the Orion. The truth is you would love either one. You’d have to listen in your own room.
I'm anxious to try my new Orions (arriving Thursday this week) with and without the B&W subs. I know the subs had a positive impact with my Magico M3's and currently with the B&W 802D4s. I don't know what to expect with the Rockport design. It would be nice if they were not required but it won't matter either way as long as I hear a positive difference.
100%, 1000% you will be doing your Orions no favors by adding those subs. You are comparing subs with 7 and 8 inch woofers to the most precise 13 inch driver on the planet. The Orions midrange driver has extraordinarily low distortion as well. I know all of the arguments for subs. I’ve read the papers and the book chapters about smoothing/evening bass response. I used subs for 20 years. Right now when I listen to my Orions it’s the purist expression of recorded sound I can imagine. I encourage your experimentation. I have no doubt that there is a track here and there that would sound extra cool with subs but you just bought the cleanest purist speaker I know of. Let it sing! My dealer flew 3 guys in on a Wednesday and they left Saturday afternoon spending 3 days making sure everything was dialed in perfectly. They shipped boxes of set up gear to make sure it would be perfect. They “shot the grade” across the tweeters and midranges so they were exactly at the same height. Definitely spike them even if on hardwood this makes an audible difference. They spent hours shifting less than 1 mm at a time. 3 people listening as well as measuring for minute differences. It’s that level of tuning that will allow you to hear all your speaker is capable of but will also make it impossible NOT to hear the subs when engaged. I know I’m over the top but you are in for something special.
Enjoy the trip! Take a good long while to get your set up right. I’m sure you’ve got tons of tracks to test it. One fun one to try is Terminator by King Promise. The version with young John. Breezy Afro pop buts it’s got some percussion that comes in 1/3 way through which should convince you no subs are necessary. It will shake the house. Small room acoustics are tricky and if you are satisfied with what the Lyra gives you it will solve a whole lot a headaches down the road. What’s your favorite kind of music?
I need to mention that subwoofers are used to compensate for room acoustics issues, including deep dips and high peaks in the bass response.
so, even if you have a big bass driver in your speaker it might not stand at the best room position or creat an acoustical problem that the use of a subwoofer can help to eliminate.
Of course they can compensate for issues involving small room acoustics. That’s the good news. The bad news is that in this application I predict it will will be a net negative. I utilized various dual subs over 25 years with and without active crossovers each set up over days with the best set up guys and they will not improve properly set up Orions in my opinion. Subs will be very cool with certain recordings. By all means I’d love to have him experiment with them. It’s a fun adventure. He may love subs. I fully understand the theory behind multiple subs smoothing out in room response and allowing for ideal location of low frequencies not having to be co located with the main speakers. To me adding subs ( no matter how expensive/ good) to the Orions 13 inch woofer is like adding coke to cognac. The Orions bass is that good.
Joey,
The room is 19.5 feet wide and 24 feet long. A while ago I fell down a very deep rabbit hole chasing headphone perfection. I sold the M3's. While I enjoyed headphone listening a lot it never really measured up to the immersive experience of real two channel audio. I wanted a pair of Orions but due to the lead time involved, I purchased the B&W 802D4's as an interim solution. Those have now been sold and will be shipped after the Orions are in place. Along the way I upgraded to a Wadax server and DAC, CH Precision preamp and CH Precision power amplifier. I hope this is the end of the journey.
Adding a subwoofer and integrating it into a stereo system can be challenging unless you really know what you're doing.
I have several friends who managed to achieve this integration using a Trinnov ARC or DSP crossover in decent to large spaces. One uses Zellaton Evo speakers, while the other utilizes Avantgarde Trio with four basshorns
Magico also incorporates subs in their demos like M9, M6, S3, and so does YG.
So, if you're willing to put in the hard work, integrating a subwoofer to address acoustic issues can be accomplished.
This was true in my case. When I had my M3's, the room created a huge base suck-out at around 60Hz. Moving things around either screwed up the trebles or made the bass worse. The subs were rolled off at around 75Hz and filled the hole nicely. The improvement was not insignificant.
Eric
Similar threads
 | Steve Williams Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator |  | Ron Resnick Site Co-Owner | Administrator |  | Julian (The Fixer) Website Build | Marketing Managersing |