Palmer ORBIT 11 Cardioid Coaxial 3-way studio monitor (MSRP 799€/899$)

[Ratterbass]

Can we please, please keep this general talk out of this thread? It's already long enough and the actual content relating to the product in question gets absolutely drowned by all the BS that has been discussed ad nauseam for at least 70 years without reaching a conclusion.

There are threads for this. Please use them. It's highly irritating.

 

[BVK]

Oh wow, I catched up to see if anyone else had given them a spin, and damn, there are a lot of assumptions and views about what audio engineers do, prefer, think and/or choose and some of them are completely detached from the everyday reality of the working audio engineer

While you might not agree with everything these couple of users have been telling you about the job the last couple of pages, I can assure you, they aren’t taking you for a ride.

 

[Purité Audio]

Loudspeakers are transducers, changing one form of energy to another, you make the ‘art’ the loudspeaker should simply accurately reproduce that art.
Keith

 

[goat76]

I think a person with the right skill ste can pull a high quality master from this speakers.. for mixing, 100% for listening, well compared to my Focal aria evo x 2 they just sound directionally diferent, but pleasant listening and i beleive the sounds of instruments come out of the orbit are close to real ones.. enough of subjectives, will come back here with some (not amar level) measurements.. if worth posting..

I’m looking forward to see your measurements. It would be nice if you took the time to make some measurements well suited for a gated visualization, as regular non-windowed in-room measurements doesn’t tell us much about the actual response of the speakers themselves.

 

[stoneeh]

Hello ASR.

This is my in-depth review of the Palmer Orbit 11.

Contents:

- measurements of on and off axis frequency response, phase, decay behavior, harmonic distortion, multitone distortion, maximum SPL in free field environment, ...
- preset comparison
- comparison to manufacturer data
- measurement comparisons to other speakers
- sound sample (with music)
- practical impressions
- and more

Information / disclaimers:

- the speaker was purchased new, not loaned or a test sample.
- if you see an ad on this video, it is from the music copyright holder. My YT channel is not monetized as of this date; I do not receive any monetary gain from it.

Enjoy!

EDIT: Per ASR commercial policy, the following offsite link has been removed and replaced by a static graphic...

 

[stoneeh]

Sorry to interrupt, folks.

But after 1 1/2 days of non-stop slaving on data aquisition, compilation, and video editing, I can share -> Palmer Orbit 11 in-depth measurement review

Tldr: manufacturer data is for the most part correct - the performance claims for this speaker are legit.


Here are some charts that you may use here on the forum; if you need any others from the video, shoot me a message. Also don't hesitate to ask about anything else.

 

[olieb]

Awesome! Thank you!
Measurements do not disappoint at all!
This coax looks like an astonishingly good design (quite wide even in HF with only a bit of narrowing around 1.5kHz).

EDIT:
Did you use the manufacturer's THD (at 96dB spl) to compare with other speakers? The spike at 2.5kHz seems to be absent in your measurement.

EDIT II:
I love your setup! Lovely place. Is there a reason you did no flatten out the "walls" at the sides? I would be afraid it creates some reflections, but probably the effect is small.

 

[heflys20]

At the price they're selling these for, I imagine they'll sell truckloads of these things.

 

[Tassin]

Very well done.

 

[KVR]

Thank you for the measurement!

 

[RT.]

Sorry to interrupt, folks.

But after 1 1/2 days of non-stop slaving on data aquisition, compilation, and video editing, I can share -> Palmer Orbit 11 in-depth measurement review

Tldr: manufacturer data is for the most part correct - the performance claims for this speaker are legit.


Here are some charts that you may use here on the forum; if you need any others from the video, shoot me a message. Also don't hesitate to ask about anything else.

View attachment 514201

View attachment 514200

I guess the vertical directivity is almost the same? It can not be absolutely the same since the housing front is not square. But anyhow it should be very similar? Is my assumption correct? Have you made any distortion measurements so far as well? Taking the pricepoint into consideration this is definitely one of the best speakers you can buy right now if there are no, so far not measured, flaws. I am deeply impressed about what I can see so far. I already like to say right now thanks for the engineering work done by the Palmer team. May @UffdiePalme can tell the team about.

I have just realized you shared a complete review on YouTube which should answer my questions. Thanks for your work.

 

[olieb]

Also don't hesitate to ask about anything else.

You calculated the predicted in room from the horizontal polars only, right?
There is a significant left-right asymmetry around ≈5kHz (40°-50°) that seems to influence the PIR (but not the power response DI).
Any ideas about that?

 

[stoneeh]

I guess the vertical directivity is almost the same? It can not be absolutely the same since the housing front is not square. But anyhow it should be very similar?

Manufacturer data matched very well with my measurements on everything else, so I can only assume this will be the case for the vertical directivity as well - meaning you can most likely trust the manufacturer graph, which has been linked here in this thread.

The NFS boys get to sneak one in on me on vertical directivity, which in this case is hard for me to perform, since it would require me to lay the speaker on its side, where its woofers are located. The NFS doesn't need that, it can measure the vertical with the speaker standing normally. But if they take too long, I might just 3D print a custom permeable tripod platform for the Orbit and perform the measurement that way.. because there's just an immense hunger out there right now for every bit of information on this speaker, as major or minor it may seem.

You calculated the predicted in room from the horizontal polars only, right?

Yes, correct. Since the vertical should be almost identical to the horizontal, I'll assume the "full" CTA-2034 won't look all that much different - but well, actually, assumptions are an annoying habit.

There is a significant left-right asymmetry around 5-6kHz (40°-50°) that seems to influence the PIR (but not the power response DI).
Any ideas about that?

No, sorry.

 

[Salt]

You could screw them on the back to whatever you want and thus move in any direction ... just thinking.
Thanks for the measurements, great job.
Think we can wait for Klippels now.

 

[RT.]

Hello ASR.

This is my in-depth review of the Palmer Orbit 11.

Contents:

- measurements of on and off axis frequency response, phase, decay behavior, harmonic distortion, multitone distortion, maximum SPL in free field environment, ...
- preset comparison
- comparison to manufacturer data
- measurement comparisons to other speakers
- sound sample (with music)
- practical impressions
- and more

Information / disclaimers:

- the speaker was purchased new, not loaned or a test sample.
- if you see an ad on this video, it is from the music copyright holder. My YT channel is not monetized as of this date; I do not receive any monetary gain from it.

Enjoy!

Very well done video on your YouTube channel. Subscribed.

 

[TK_IIVI]

Question; how do speakers like this that have woofers mounted on the sides behave as the distance between them shrinks? For example, in an LCR setup where the center speaker effectively greatly diminishes the distance between the speakers compared to an LR setup. Are there problems to contend with or are the frequencies low enough from that driver that there's little difference between side and front facing drivers?

And thanks of course!

 

[goat76]

Sorry to interrupt, folks.

But after 1 1/2 days of non-stop slaving on data aquisition, compilation, and video editing, I can share -> Palmer Orbit 11 in-depth measurement review

Tldr: manufacturer data is for the most part correct - the performance claims for this speaker are legit.


Here are some charts that you may use here on the forum; if you need any others from the video, shoot me a message. Also don't hesitate to ask about anything else.

View attachment 514201

View attachment 514200

Seeing your measurements (which look mighty fine for this loudspeaker), and taking the subjective listening impressions by the early adopters in this thread into consideration (which have been both good and somewhat bad), it couldn’t be more obvious that personal preferences are still as important as they have always been when it comes to sound reproduction. You can like them or even dislike them, even when comparing them to other loudspeakers that also measure really well.

 

[RT.]

Manufacturer data matched very well with my measurements on everything else, so I can only assume this will be the case for the vertical directivity as well - meaning you can most likely trust the manufacturer graph, which has been linked here in this thread.

The NFS boys get to sneak one in on me on vertical directivity, which in this case is hard for me to perform, since it would require me to lay the speaker on its side, where its woofers are located. The NFS doesn't need that, it can measure the vertical with the speaker standing normally. But if they take too long, I might just 3D print a custom permeable tripod platform for the Orbit and perform the measurement that way.. because there's just an immense hunger out there right now for every bit of information on this speaker, as major or minor it may seem.



Yes, correct. Since the vertical should be almost identical to the horizontal, I'll assume the "full" CTA-2034 won't look all that much different - but well, actually, assumptions are an annoying habit.



No, sorry.

I just subscribed to your YouTube channel. Well done. It's absolutely impressive how well they compare to Genelec (my favorite studio monitors I've heard so far) in the test report. Especially when you consider the price. The next step for me now is to visit a Palmer dealer near me here in Germany. I will either use them in a second listening room or even replace my not-so-good active speakers, which are fine with EQ, in my home theater. So far, I've been using Adam Audio's T7V, which I'm happy with, but I think this would be a whole new level, at least close to my dream setup with Genelec 8331a. So far, I only have one pair of Genelecs for stereo listening, which I really like.

 

[Salt]

I just subscribed to your YouTube channel. Well done. It's absolutely impressive how well they compare to Genelec (my favorite studio monitors I've heard so far) in the test report. Especially when you consider the price. The next step for me now is to visit a Palmer dealer near me here in Germany. I will either use them in a second listening room or even replace my not-so-good active speakers, which are fine with EQ, in my home theater. So far, I've been using Adam Audio's T7V, which I'm happy with, but I think this would be a whole new level, at least close to my dream setup with Genelec 8331a. So far, I only have one pair of Genelecs for stereo listening, which I really like.

If you don't find a dealer or want to listen at home PM

 

[kharan]

Sorry to interrupt, folks.

But after 1 1/2 days of non-stop slaving on data aquisition, compilation, and video editing, I can share -> Palmer Orbit 11 in-depth measurement review

Tldr: manufacturer data is for the most part correct - the performance claims for this speaker are legit.


Here are some charts that you may use here on the forum; if you need any others from the video, shoot me a message. Also don't hesitate to ask about anything else.

View attachment 514201

View attachment 514200

Gobsmacked by how good this is at its price level. Regardless of price level tbh.

And thank you for the review of course, awesome job.