In anticipation of my "nearly" new Orelino Speakers

[Scroobius]

I held back from posting about the sound of the Orelino's until my new babies and me got to know each other     Also I was apprehensive that I was going to go too far "overboard". But Mani has had a listen and so here goes.

So what do I think? in short WOW WOW they are stonking brilliant. I have not heard anything as good as this anywhere. Except maybe in a live unplugged concert with no speakers!

All my concerns about the bass evaporated as soon as I switched them on. They sound utterly different to both Peter and Mani's. More natural and life like - flowing natural bass. So why is that? we all have similar systems. It has to be the room  which should be an absolute dog for sound quality - everything is wrong about it - really!

The mid range is simply stellar the smoothest most natural liquid sound I have ever heard (and that includes very very expensive tube systems). BUT bybees are totally essential - I tried without but not for long!! Never before have I heard horns sound like this. Well actually they don't sound like anything - they sound like live music!! I AM A TOTAL CONVERT TO HORNS. Delicacy, tiny detail, dynamics, liquid natural sound. That is the lot of a horn lover (but only implemented like this maybe).

There was an edge to the sound initially but over the last two days that has all but gone as the system beds in. The sound has opened up and there are real people with real instruments in my room now.

I really do not get it with the bass. It would be easy to think that the room is reinforcing the bass region. But it cannot be as simple as that - I tried Bert's filter which lifts the bass fairly gently from 90 down to 25Hz and (in my room) it just thickens the sound and takes away the delicacy and accuracy in the bass. Out of interest I created a filter with less lift than Berts and even that spoilt the sound. Actually it spoils the overall sound not just the bass. So what I am saying is that with such small changes to the bass from filters what is the room doing? it must be subtle and it does not spoil the sound at all - in fact completely the opposite.

But what of tone? instruments sound completely natural. A double bass sounds like a double bass no bloating or smearing - it just sounds like a double bass but with the tiniest details revealed with the strings. The tiniest little breath taken by the performer is revealed.

Trumpets, sax it just goes on - so little colouration they all sound like real instruments. Piano is awesome all those natural overtones without smearing and distortion.

So while I get all excited really there is nothing to get excited about at all because the sound is just natural and lifelike - maybe getting excited is not what I will doing for long but just listening to music.

Imaging is excellent (and always was with previous speakers) and that is also ridiculous because in this room which is very live and reflective has a maximum delay between direct and reflected sound of just 4ms well below the minimum of 20 (ish) required for good imaging. So sound stage should be a mess but it just is not  Not that sound stage bothers me much. Just saying!

When I was at Peter's I played an album I regard as being one of the very finest recordings. By Dick Olsher featuring Lesley Olsher. I played it at Peter's and sat there speechless it sounded dreadful - recessed and undynamic. I could not believe my ears. Peter scoffed and took it off immediately. But here Lesley Olsher is standing in the room and behind her in the conservatory are the instrumentalists. Sounding absolutely superb (I played it for Mani).

Just a note that my room always had standing waves and nothing has changed I still get those standing waves but significantly reduced. Except in the conservatory where there is the Mother of all bass reinforcements. Mani heard that as well.

I am listening with Peter's "as designed" bass filter and do not feel even slightly inclined to tweak it. Generally I listen with Fletcher Munson switches flat except for the mid which is down one notch. That seems the best overall but I do dial in different settings with some albums and on low (dinner eating) volume.

I will soon be trying 50 ohm  coax with 50 ohm connectors and will let you know how I get on!!

I tried to get a good picture but it is difficult without proper lighting - the speakers look much better than the attached picture suggests. I will get better pictures and post - watch this space.

Oh yes apart from a dog of a room acoustically the speaker centres are "just" 2m apart and I sit 6.5m away from them. And that is all totally wrong as well isn't it?

By the way Mani and I both prefer the deeper section of these Orelino's to the flatter section of the MkII's - just saying we feel that aesthetically they are easier on the eye.

Just after I bought these I started to regret I already had a great sounding system what on earth was I doing spending all that money when I was not even sure about the sound. I can tell you that I woke up in the early hours of the morning a couple of times in a cold sweat thinking about it. Turns out it could be one of my smarter decisions.

Paul 

PS

hey, I always want to be right you know !

Now I forgive you Peter for always wanting to be right!!

Seriously Peter and Bert thanks for all your hard work!!

[christoffe]

Oh yes apart from a dog of a room acoustically the speaker centres are "just" 2m apart and I sit 6.5m away from them. And that is all totally wrong as well isn't it?

Hi Paul,

congratulations for the phantastic sound and your report.

The room and your listening place is an "enigma" , but it works.

Have a wonderful time with your amazing sound.

Joachim

[christoffe]

Hi Paul,

may I get details from this CD.

Dick Olsher featuring Lesley Olsher

Thanx

kind regards

Joachim

[PeterSt]

Hey Paul,

My first remark should go to the picture itself. What a beauty.
And if that is not photoshopped, then your camera is nicely off by some miles so now it looks so good. ha ha.
Or you put up some large red light somewhere ?

Yes, beautiful.
Peter

[Scroobius]

My first remark should go to the picture itself. What a beauty.

No photo shop involved if you are referring to the photo of the single speaker then I had the front white LED light from my bike resting on a banana (to lift it up a bit) out of sight behind the chair but in front of the speaker. The camera had a flash and I took a light reading out of the middle of the wings of the speaker so flash was on pretty much full power.

If you ask me why it looks nice then I would put it down to the banana!

[PeterSt]

hahahahaha

[PeterSt]

So Paul, congratulations it worked out man !
But you now tell a few things I like to check over here.

When I was at Peter's I played an album I regard as being one of the very finest recordings. By Dick Olsher featuring Lesley Olsher. I played it at Peter's and sat there speechless it sounded dreadful - recessed and undynamic. I could not believe my ears. Peter scoffed and took it off immediately. But here Lesley Olsher is standing in the room and behind her in the conservatory are the instrumentalists. Sounding absolutely superb (I played it for Mani).

First off, earlier on you surprised me as well about some observation you did not tell while being over here, and at least that appeared to be something from a dream. But never mind that, although of course it's on my mind. So ...
Never mind what I told about in "Mani's" thread, I don't recall this. Or do I ?
Heck, I know myself. If YOU would have told about a pristine recording which over here turns out to be the worst (up to me scoffing about it) then most 100% certainly we together would have sorted out the why, and we would have started changing settings. But we did not - not at all.

If course I did scoff about a record - sh*tty Elvis Costello stuff. OK, the "sh*tty" is a subjective opinion, but at least I recall that we were BOTH talking about this. And about my memory : when that was on we walked downstairs. Haha.

You know the stupid thing ? what I recall from your "music requests" is that they were all about good recordings. And "finally someone who is able to come up with fine test music instead of stupid ever Diana Krall's". I even told Bert about it - you can ask him.

And now you claim to have listened to one of these (sounding sh*t) without even discussing it ? OK, this latter is my conclusion and it is explicitly not what you are saying.
But I can also not imagine that you where here for more than one day, being totally unsatisfied (so to speak) and I forget every drop of that ?
Nope, my memory is too good for that - just saying.

This is not meant to be negative, but I do like to understand what's being said. I hope this is OK ?
So like Joachim asked - please give me the details of that recording. That is, if you are not afraid of hearing me back about this with a maybe completely different view on things than you just expressed about it. But of course, if all is right I will recognize it plus my scoffing about it. And THEN - and in the end it is all about that Paul ! - then I will see how to improve on it.
As you know, my Demo Gallery also contains the stuff wich does NOT play, so it can be improved upon. This one should be in there too - in the case the described situation is correct.

Sorry to be a bit (too much) pretentious, but with such kind of things I'm puzzled. And of course, if you hear something and are not honest about it (is a good recording and such but still sounds like sh*t) and pretend all is OK, then well, what to say (about the usefulness).
So, curious !!

On an actually more important note : Thank you for such a fine and detailed report Paul ! So nice to read ...
Best regards,
Peter

[PeterSt]

Yo Paul, I realize I must emphasize this more :

*Of course* my memory won't be that good that I can recall all what I scoffed about. But it is not about that. It is about me not recalling that you told this and that should be a fine recording while it sounded like a drag. So it is a kind of guarantee that that did not happen ...

Peter

[Scroobius]

And of course, if you hear something and are not honest about it (is a good recording and such but still sounds like sh*t) and pretend all is OK, then well, what to say (about the usefulness).
So, curious !!

I cannot remember exactly what we discussed about it not much IIRC. I simply asked you to put on the track I said it was a good recording and after a short listen you said something like "but it is so recessed" and clearly you did not like it because we moved quickly on. I did not comment further at the time because I was starting to question in my own mind if it actually was a good recording - after all this was Peter's reference system. So that is completely "honest". It was only when I heard it again on the Orelino's here that it became something worth mentioning.

But hey this is really an unimportant point.

Of course I remember discussing Elvis because I nearly tripped down the stairs ha ha!  and that reminds me I have not put on the Elvis test track from hell yet must do that tonight. Of course we both agree about sh***y Elvis recordings.

By the way you can find the Lesley Olsher ("Jazz Me") recording below if you want to hear how good vocals can sound with no hint of sibilance then this would always be the album I would put on. Because it was recorded in Dick Olshers home it has some quirkiness to the sound for example the piano sounds "woody".

http://www.blackdahlia.com/blackdahliamusic

It is an interesting site and there are details about how the recording was made actually at Dick Olsher's home!!

Also there are speaker kit instructions available on the site including the "BassZilla" which I toyed with the idea of making - glad I did not though.

By the way am I the only one that thinks that the Diana Krall are not particular brilliant recordings? They sound OK but there is sibilance on the vocals and just sound like a typical modern in your face recording to my ears.

But I can also not imagine that you where here for more than one day, being totally unsatisfied (so to speak)

Hey I bought the Orelino's how can I have been unsatisfied!!!

Cheers

Paul

[PeterSt]

Thank you Paul. I will look into it.

Peter

[PeterSt]

So about the Olsher album ...

I traced it down and at the 10th of July, 11:21 am we played this; can't see which track(s). With the notice that this was your second day Paul, I can not imagine the slightest that this has been about SQ or whatever. But who knows ...
Fact is : I just listened to all the tracks in there for more or less minutes and ALL are the best imaginable. So open and so well recorded. Okay, maybe things have changed (like listening through the BNC IC's) but still.

So that's it. I have to believe you but at least at this moment I can't imagine it and "today" I also will not agree that this is "bad" or something; the very contrary !

Obviously the night before at least I consumed too much of stuff which *will* have caused a certain level of delirium at my side the next day. So we can stick to that. If you can do the same, that's it and it's 1:1. Of course this was no so for that football match which puts me in the minority.

ha ha

Peter

PS: The Vuelta seems more interesting these days than the Tour de France; watch out for "general acceptance" next year(s).

[Scroobius]

Fact is : I just listened to all the tracks in there for more or less minutes and ALL are the best imaginable.

Glad you agree. Also I should have pointed out I was feeling slightly "jaded" and so probably did not have my best listening ears on!!!

The Tour has lost much of its magic. Vuelta is always good more individual efforts almost as though the cyclists are winding down after the tour and just in it to enjoy some end of season racing. I really enjoyed the Tour of Britain there was some great racing this year. It came close to us (near Henley) so about 10 of us from the local cycling club went up to watch. Great fun the cyclists came and whoosh they were gone. Just saw Wiggo though.

Next year a group of us are thinking about doing Milan San Remo which is about 290k in one day. We need a big Peleton to get enough speed to do it in a day. It is pretty much flat. Anyone interested?

Cheers

Paul