Palmer ‘ORBIT 11’ @ Purité Audio

[Matt_Holland]

Can you please report on the all important (despite being scientifically useless) knuckle wrap test?

 

[Purité Audio]

I have to have my ( old ) ear extremely close to the woofer , right next to it before I hear anything.
Personally I don’t find the tangerine front LED that distracting.

Keith

 

[Purité Audio]

Can you please report on the all important (despite being scientifically useless) knuckle wrap test?

It feels and sounds just like rapping a thick piece of aluminium!
There is no resonance.
Keith

 

[Matt_Holland]

It feels and sounds just like rapping a thick piece of aluminium!
There is no resonance.
Keith

Nice, thanks. Looking forward to your sound quality impressions, particularly some subjective thoughts on how they compare with your other products.

 

[goat76]

Nice, thanks. Looking forward to your sound quality impressions, particularly some subjective thoughts on how they compare with your other products.

And since we are here on ASR, I don't think it's too much to ask for some gated frequency-response and distortion measurements.

 

[Purité Audio]

And since we are here on ASR, I don't think it's too much to ask for some gated frequency-response and distortion measurements.

I am sending one away for Klippel measurement.
Set-up is an approx 2 metre equilateral triangle, at the moment ‘toed-in’.
They aren’t short of bass!
Set the ‘far from wall’ option and reduced ‘low’ on the ‘PAD” option by -4dB and that is the speakers 1.5 metres away from the front wall.
Good for parties!
Keith

 

[Matt_Holland]

I am sending one away for Klippel measurement.
Set-up is an approx 2 metre equilateral triangle, at the moment ‘toed-in’.
They aren’t short of bass!
Set the ‘far from wall’ option and reduced ‘low’ on the ‘PAD” option by -4dB and that is the speakers 1.5 metres away from the front wall.
Good for parties!
Keith

Roughly what are the dimensions of your room, Keith? Subjectively, do they "fill the room".

I still find it amusing that some people (in the main thread) were suggesting that these would not play loud enough to be a HiFi speaker. From your initial listen, Keith, do you think they work as a HiFi speaker? Or is it like the reverse of the example of the (much smaller) active KEF LS50 Wireless being definitely a HiFi speaker and not a studio monitor?

 

[Purité Audio]

The room is about 5x7m but for compact loudspeakers I usually set them up across the room ( which is the more benign option ) and create a smaller listening triangle as above.
Out of the box they reminded me of the Devialet ‘Phantom’ just too much bass, having said that you can always EQ, better too much than too little.
Just set them firing ‘straight’ which I prefer, Palmer in their instructions show a 30° toe in, ime co-axials tend to sound better straight.
It will be interesting to see the full suite of measurements.

Keith

 

[Purité Audio]

I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t use these domestically, EQ is a must though imho.
Keith

 

[Matt_Holland]

Interesting you find the bass too strong as the at hasn’t been reported by others. Unless the others just didn’t mention they had to use the EQ.

 

[Purité Audio]

Went down to -6dB had quite a few speakers in this room and at those positions A6B for example.
Keith

 

[90sNintendoKid]

Thanks Keith, I'm fine with EQing speakers....I'm trying to contain my excitement and I am pretty sure I'll be arranging a demo and buying at least.......5.........depends on whether they are too heavy for K&M speaker poles for my Atmos channels.......then it would be 9.

 

[Purité Audio]

Interesting you find the bass too strong as the at hasn’t been reported by others. Unless the others just didn’t mention they had to use the EQ.

I think I may have been a little too harsh, playing perhaps at a little too enthusiastic a level .
Listening to them this evening they sound fine, perhaps male voices, Leonard Cohen for example have a little less body, I will compare with AsciLabs S6B tomorrow for another perspective.
Keith

 

[staticV3]

I think I may have been a little too harsh, playing perhaps at a little too enthusiastic a level .
Listening to them this evening they sound fine, perhaps male voices, Leonard Cohen for example have a little less body, I will compare with AsciLabs S6B tomorrow for another perspective.
Keith

Using full-range speakers w/o room correction rarely works out well as boomy/overwhelming bass is the likely outcome.

It's a no-brainer then to run some MMM measurements and knock down the peaks as shown in the graph.

 

[Purité Audio]

Really!
As I mentioned, I am pretty familiar with the room and in that orientation it is pretty benign, particularly with the speakers placed away from the front wall.
I will measure tomorrow and compare to Asci’s S6B, which have a similar bass extension.
Keith

 

[Salt]

As mentioned before, the Palmer are auditioned here in a small room, where before a 12" woofer driven BR enclosure was tested. Subjective impression of both speakers is the same in respect to depth and clarity.
The room as is is more than suboptimal, but arranging the point of listening according to room modes helps ... just listened to Yello and had real fun.

Sidenote: they are driven via analogue XLR, and -50 dB on the RME preamp is more than moderate Volume ... never seen this before, won't even want to imagine what -30 dB on volume control would do ...

 

[Purité Audio]

The take away for me is that there is nothing to dislike about the Orbits.
Keith

 

[Pearljam5000]

How do they compare to Genelec Ones?

 

[Purité Audio]

Don’t have any Gens here at the moment PJ, the Orbits have a lighter tonality compared to AsciLab, which I prefer but that could easily just be my personal taste. Gens/Kiis had a lighter balance compared to D&D8C, generally the weightier ( lower mids/upper bass ) balance was preferred but you soon be acclimatised to the Gens and of course you can just adjust their target to taste.
As has been stated the Orbit may not be the best or your particular favourite loudspeaker but they are remarkably good particularly when one considers the price.
Keith

 

[goat76]

How do they compare to Genelec Ones?

I would be highly disappointed if you don’t end up with a pair of Genelec speakers, and I think you will never put it to rest if you go with something else.

I suppose you have a pretty good idea by now what Genelec model will suit your listening room size and intended listening distance, so just save up until you have the money needed for those, and don’t set for any second choice.

Gooo Genelec!!!