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

Yes, there’s some repetition in this thread, and I get the feeling no new points will be added.

What are the pros?
You don’t need any power amplifiers,
you have a point source,
cardioid characteristics,
you get bass reproduction from this tiny enclosure that rivals that of large floor-standing speakers
Three-way active system
DOS Bass
Large diaphragm area in a relatively small enclosure
A control panel that can be operated from the front and—perhaps the biggest highlight for me—an all-aluminum enclosure.
According to the measurements available so far from Nuyes and Stoneeh, the manufacturer’s ambitious claims largely match reality
All for around 800 euros

The downsides >
Apparently, quality control could be improved
Some users (not all) notice the speaker’s inherent noise
Some users need a different dispersion pattern
Anything else?

If I were to recommend speakers to someone right now for around 800 euros each, the Palmers would definitely be one of the possible options.
Amir’s review probably won’t change that, unless he finds a previously unknown flaw, which I don’t expect.

You neglected to mention the ‘brand recognition’ orange crayon around the driver.
 
Exactly. When connected with a "Funk" preamp ("MTX-Monitor") the ORBITS 11 behaved excellent.

The likable Korean Insta YT ... audio influencer chose open anolog, that is not ideal.
But the competitors are surely not unhappy about it.

Suddenly he had 3 ORBITS 11 more to measure. He accepts Kakao Pay, buy me a coffee….

KR

Any evidence for the accusation?
 
I couldn't decide whether to put it under "Pros" or "Cons."

99EFCCD2-E135-4E5C-A974-0CA0D7BC10FD.jpeg
 
Exactly. When connected with a "Funk" preamp ("MTX-Monitor") the ORBITS 11 behaved excellent.

The likable Korean Insta YT ... audio influencer chose open anolog, that is not ideal.
But the competitors are surely not unhappy about it.

Suddenly he had 3 ORBITS 11 more to measure. He accepts Kakao Pay, buy me a coffee….

KR
Exactly. When connected with a "Funk" preamp ("MTX-Monitor") the ORBITS 11 behaved excellent.

The likable Korean Insta YT ... audio influencer chose open anolog, that is not ideal.
But the competitors are surely not unhappy about it.

Suddenly he had 3 ORBITS 11 more to measure. He accepts Kakao Pay, buy me a coffee….

KR


That is a very rude thing to say. You have disparaged a competent reviewer by implying they write biased reviews to favor other companies—even suggesting they have been paid off.


Please mind your manners and show some respect.
 
Respect to @Nuyes for the effort in obtaining a few monitors to test. IMO, it shows the value of measuring a few examples of the same item rather than just one, and by doing so in this case suggesting issues with quality control. Though it was only measuring self-noise here.

It could just as easily apply to other gear, be it speakers or electronics, where one example measured well and received a positive review but QC was in fact lacking during production.

Shame multi-testing isn't practical to do more commonly, and not just with audio gear for that matter -)
 
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Exactly. When connected with a "Funk" preamp ("MTX-Monitor") the ORBITS 11 behaved excellent.

The likable Korean Insta YT ... audio influencer chose open anolog, that is not ideal.
But the competitors are surely not unhappy about it.

Suddenly he had 3 ORBITS 11 more to measure. He accepts Kakao Pay, buy me a coffee….

KR
Baseless ad hominem attacks should be removed by the admins and trigger the ban hammer.
 
If you don't mind a little bit of healthy scepticism… Geithain claims that their speakers are cardioid down to 32 Hz. To me, that’s still very much unproven. First, because I haven’t been able to find a single independent measurement confirming it. Second, because the design is essentially a very conventional coaxial, which generally allows decent directivity control down to around 200 Hz, but rarely below that.

From what I know about cardioid designs in the low frequencies, you need to create phase opposition either with woofers firing in the opposite direction of the front-facing drivers, or with a side slot that introduces the required phase shift. Even then, in real‑world conditions, you rarely get a true cardioid effect below 100 or even 200 Hz, at least not in the sense you get with subwoofer arrays in live sound, where driver spacing is much larger.

Typically, what you get instead is an improvement in directivity in the low midrange, which helps with reflections from tables/consoles and with SBIR, but rarely with room modes.
If we have no evidence that a phenomenon is real, and no explanation for how it could occur, a skeptical stance should lead us to assume the claim is false until proven otherwise.
 
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It could just as easily apply to other gear, be it speakers or electronics, where one example measured well and received a positive review but QC was in fact lacking during production.
First, there is no confirmed QC issue here. Difference is likely due to component differences. I doubt any company performs end of line self noise test.

As to your easy suggestion, should I test two more Asci C8C instead of the Palmer?
 
First, there is no confirmed QC issue here. Difference is likely due to component differences. I doubt any company performs end of line self noise test.

As to your easy suggestion, should I test two more Asci C8C instead of the Palmer?
Yes, please do. I want to see everyone lose their minds.

Just kidding .
 
First, because I haven’t been able to find a single independent measurement confirming it
They have measurements on their website, unless you want to say that they are wrong or lying you could just look at those:

1773513240055.png

AsciLab F6B Horizontal Contour Plot (Normalized).png


At 32-125Hz there is significant attenuation at the back of the speaker, whereas a traditional speaker is completely omnidirectional at these frequencies.

The cardioid ports are on the back and not the sides of Geithain speakers. The concept is very different from the Orbit 11, the cardioid ports only interact with the woofer, the tweeter has its own housing (it's plenty directional anyway) and the midrange is open baffle with damping material around it.
They have published some articles on their website.
 
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If you don't mind a little bit of healthy scepticism… Geithain claims that their speakers are cardioid down to 32 Hz. To me, that’s still very much unproven. First, because I haven’t been able to find a single independent measurement confirming it. Second, because the design is essentially a very conventional coaxial, which generally allows decent directivity control down to around 200 Hz, but rarely below that.

From what I know about cardioid designs in the low frequencies, you need to create phase opposition either with woofers firing in the opposite direction of the front-facing drivers, or with a side slot that introduces the required phase shift. Even then, in real‑world conditions, you rarely get a true cardioid effect below 100 or even 200 Hz, at least not in the sense you get with subwoofer arrays in live sound, where driver spacing is much larger.

Typically, what you get instead is an improvement in directivity in the low midrange, which helps with reflections from tables/consoles and with SBIR, but rarely with room modes.
If we have no evidence that a phenomenon is real, and no explanation for how it could occur, a skeptical stance should lead us to assume the claim is false until proven otherwise.
There are a few true bass cardioid speakers around, though I only know of line arrays that qualify for this. d&B have been prominent in this regard, though I'm not a fan of their cardioid lineup. Terrible phase response and they only go down as low as roughly 70Hz. Same for adamson.

I got to see and hear this new line array at ISE this year and the performance was very impressive. Controlled directivity down to 30-something Hz, cancellation at back and sides. They had a small groundstack of these on a rotating table while playing some bass heavy tracks so you could experience the drop in low end spl. Impressive stuff. Absolutely not practical for domestic use though unless your listening space is the size of a 500cap venue.

I am not aware of small scale speakers that are capable of full band cardioid performance.
 
I haven’t been able to find a single independent measurement confirming it.
Sound & Recording (Anselm Goertz) has measured the 944K1:
Key quote:
The rear attenuation caused by the bass cardioid is 6-8 dB and corresponds to the information in the datasheet.
 
As to your easy suggestion, should I test two more Asci C8C instead of the Palmer?
I wasn't implying you should, as that wouldn't be practical for one person to do on a regular basis, and i didn't intend it to come across like that. It was more about how it would be nice to test a few different examples of the same speaker in an ideal world
 
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Meanwhile there are two (if we include the manufacturer's, three) reliable measurements, and soon there will follow #4 and #5 by Amir and Erin.
So at least 4 samples will have been tested in the near future.
 
Joachim Kiesler at ME-Geithain was the first to develop the Cardiod bass speaker.

There is no doubt that Geithain has cardioid bass.
But the passive cardioid midrange of the Palmer seems inspired by side slots in D&D 8C.
And the cardiod hype was started by the active implementation in Kii Three.

Palmer did however create an unique (to my knowledge) passive cardioid implementation including top/bottom slots for vertical directivity control.
Combined with the coax they have better vertical polars than D&D or Kii speakers with less narrowing at mid/high crossover.

Downside of the coax is limited directivity control towards low frequencies due to the bass speakers taking over at 250Hz.
To avoid notches in the in-room frequency response by rear-wall reflection, the speakers will probably require very close positioning to the wall.
 
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