Parts Express Orian Speaker Review

[im_gumby]

I have, it is not a well-engineered driver. And it isn't even cheap. I have intended to remeasure, but the on-axis performance is very poor, and the off axis has odd behavior as well.
Zaph Audio has measurements:

Zaph|Audio

I was never able to get the tweeter and woofer integrated. I have debated going back and trying DSP crossovers. It isn't an elegant design, and none of the issues inherent to coax seem to have been addressed like proper loading of the tweeter into the woofer cone.

Full range and coaxial are apples to oranges. And a whole new set of tradeoffs.
Seas does make a very competent looking coaxial driver, but it is a midrange only, not a woofer, which solves one of the problems of coaxial speakers (the misnamed Doppler distortion) with the tradeoff being no bass extension.

Not what I said at all!!! Some of the coaxials are a tweeter stuck in the middle of a woofer, coax doesn't magically fix anything, in fact the opposite at times. Genelec has done great with Coax too. Many others too.

Coax doesn't make it easier to build a speaker that sounds good. It is one way to go though.

I checked out the Zaph Audio site... that's from 2008.
Do you think Seas may have fixed the issues in the past 15yrs?

Ok, so I guess the hate for coax is more out of frustration.

 

[ryanosaur]

Ok so it seems like the issue is that if you're starting from scratch, taming a Coax is going to be more of a challenge that just starting w a 2 way design.
But you'll still have a challenge in choosing your drivers and your XO just a lot easier.

It's all trade-offs. A simple 2-way can be a very complex thing. So much depends on the Drivers and the goal you are building for. I did a mod where the crossover went from a handful of components to around 16 or 17 per Speaker. The resulting improvement to the standard Dayton BR-1 Kit was stunning. The original Mod required a new Tweeter, too, but after prices went up, the Designer switched back to the stock Tweet and fixed some XO changes, actually improving on the previous iteration.
Still a lot of components to do it.
But a good example of one company saying, "good enough," while another person said, "I think this can be better."

 

[im_gumby]

Should add.

In terms of coax, I think Tang Bang seems to have the best value.

But w.r.t Seas... then seem to have gone the full range route?

And to your point about a mid range / tweeter coax...
Sure. So do you go 3way or do you go w a separate sub?

 

[DMill]

I think this goes to show why DIY for mainstream designs (any monkey coffin) is a tough proposition these days. Commercial designs are just too good to justify the effort.

For $675 you can have this reasonably decent but flawed 8" coax 3-way. But, you have to build it yourself, paint it yourself, and find an amp to drive it.

Or spend another $120 and get the undeniably superior and very similar active Kali IN-8s and call it a day.

Or even save a few bucks and get a used pair.

I agree. But there is something anmazing about building them. i think of some old Genesis lyric about trusting a country man vs a city man. And trusting a man who works with his hands… They are quite lovely and appreciate the OP and this post.

 

[MAB]

I checked out the Zaph Audio site... that's from 2008.
Do you think Seas may have fixed the issues in the past 15yrs?

Not really. I just think that it’s not the best driver. The discontinuous interface between the tweeter and woofer cone is poor design. It’s not a matter of fixing, it seems bad design. Feel free to ignore though.

Ok, so I guess the hate for coax is more out of frustration.

I have no feelings either way. I have coaxial speakers and non coax that I love to listen to!