Blumenstein Ultra Fi

[jimiclow]

I'm really interested in getting the Orcas to pair with my upcoming SEX build.
Don't get me wrong but it seems like Clark comes up with a "new and improved" version every year.
I believe in designing something ang getting it right the first time.

[Jim R.]

So, you built your stereomour perfectly, just as you wanted it to sound, right from the beginning?

Speaker design, especially when so deceptively simple a design as the Orca, is a process and *nobody* gets it right the first time.  You learn, you listen, you ask for and get feedback, you experiment, and when something offers a consistent improvement, even if ncremental, you incorporate it.  Guarantee if you buy the Orcas and stands that Clark is making right now you'll be more than happy. Just like all those who bought older versions and still think they're great.

I for one very much appreciate people that strive for that last ounce of perfection -- IMO way too many audio companies call it good enough before it is truly optimized, and then many owners will tweak from there.

These are artisan pieces, made with care and constantly striving for best quality, not injection-molded plastic assembly line pieces.

-- Jim

[jimiclow]

Thanks Jim.
My Stereomour already sounded perfectly from the start. I only lowered the B+ voltage so those used 45's I got from ebay will last longer.
I presume you just got '13 model. What is the difference compared to the '12 model? I have until the end of December to decide.

[Jim R.]

Jimi,

Apologies if I seemed snarky -- that was not my intent.  I'm just grumpy today after pinching my sciatic nerve this morning.

I was just trying to make the point that these are fine speakers, even the much older design caramelized Orcas I have, and the ones long before that as well.  You just havve to remember that these have all sold mostly by word of mouth, so even the old birch ply ones were apparently impressive enough to get people to keep buying them.

Honestly, right now I don't see how they can get any better, but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to experiment with some different mountings and speaker cabling, and if I find something interesting, I'll surely tell Clark about it.  That doesn't mean it will make it into production as he always builds and tests new things himself and does a lot of critical listening before incorporating the changes.  However, they also have to be reasonable to produce, resonable in cost, etc. -- much like many of us will tweak capacitors and such, and roll tubes until we find just what we like from our BH amps, though rarely do those kind of changes get incorporated.

Also, with the Orcas being pretty much built on demand, it's much easier to incorporate minor changes without scrapping a whole production run.

Clark has really good ears and makes sure any changes don't compromise any of the existing sound, only enhance it, if even a little bit, and considering how many of these he's built in the last 6+ years, It is really hard to imagine any real earth-shattering changes at this point.

Anyway you slice it, this is a great speaker and far more than it's size and scale would everhint at.  And they're just absolutely beautiful to look at and touch.  I of course can't see them, but I can get a very good picture in my mind's eye of how they must look and I just happen to think the Orcas and the Nagas are some of the most beautifully proportioned, reasonable sized speakers I've ever experienced, and I never fail to get lots of "Wow! What are those?!" comments when friends see them.

S.e.x. 2.1, Orcas and a decent source and you have a system that would be nearly impossible to top for the money.

-- Jim

[jimiclow]

No problem Jim.
Thank you for sharing your experience with the Orcas.
I'm more inclined to buy a pair now. The SEX kit is still in transit but it should be operational by the end of the month.
Good luck on your SEX build!

[Hank Murrow]

Well, I set up my pottery in the Glen Richards/Honeychurch gallery for their Mingei Show, and waited until the thousand or so folks showed up between 4 and 8pm Saturday for the opening. Afterwards, stimulated but exhausted, I spent the night with Paul and Ashley Birkeland at their lovely new home south of Lake Washington. Sunday morning after breakfast Paul and I drove over to Clark & Molly Blumensteins' home to audition the latest version of the Orca+Subs on their BH gear, mostly listening to Vinyl. Hey Jimiclow, don't fear to buy this season before the needed and modest price increase goes into place. I have been listening to my Blumensteins now for more than eight months and they are the Bomb! They just get better each passing month____ and Clark can make most of his upgrades available to you at very nominal cost as they are evaluated and approved by Clark & Molly's ears. Then we piled into Paul's pretty Hyundai to visit the Growers' market in West Seattle, and motored over to Phinney Ridge to share a fine Thai meal at the Royal Palm there.

Satisfied, we went to nearby Hawthorne Audio to look at turntables, and Paul found that the one he was thinking about had not been purchased by anyone, and I found a 'mint' VPI table that Matthew was willing to sell to me sans cartridge and Arm, as Paul offered to give me his Rega 301 arm, and Andy of Cartridge repair in Issaquah had rebuilt my BPS EVO lll while I was in Turkey and Crete this Fall. So now I have a superb table to go with the BH Customs Eros phono-stage that Paul built for me a year ago. I have a large(1200) collection of mint vinyl going back to 1960, that I have not been able to listen to for 20+ years, so I am especially excited to re-visit these treasures played through a complete Bottlehead/Blumenstein system___ my 'final music system'(sure!), so long-deferred. Clark & Molly, Paul Birkeland, Paul Joppa, & Dan & Eileen have created something very special and apart from the mainstream audio world, and have made it available to all of us at modest cost. Bravo All!

Cheers! Hank Murrow

[Wormwood]

Hank,

Did you notice any difference between what you have in your home and what Molly & Clark are running at their home/showroom? That is, is there any build/spec difference between what you have and what is currently being offered?

Just wondering


Stephen

[Hank Murrow]

Dear Wormwood; No, I did not hear any differences that were integral to the system. The differences I heard were largely ascribed to differences in our respective rooms. Of course, my cat Shino does not run across the turntable when vinyl is running! Just kidding, Clark. Shino knocked over one of the Orcas just minutes ago, so I will be thinking about the bases for them soon. BTW, my amps produce about 3.5 watts, and I can use about 1/2 of the 28 steps of the TVC attenuators before ear protection becomes necessary. I love them.

Cheers, Hank

[tsingle999]

Spent the night evaluating speakers. Started out just playing and enjoying the orcas then added the hawthorne open baffle subs in and that really filled it out. My friend was here who has listened to the abbys a lot and was doing stuff and the music was playing. i asked him what he thought and he didnt even realize the abbys werent the source. He had a hard time believing it was coming from the orcas!
Anyways i added a pair of omega ts1 speakers (8" fostex based dual ported) and my own 8" fostex modded in a parts express box with a passive radiator (the holy grail design from fullrangedriver.com). the omegas have the strongest bass and the most forceful presentation. The orcas are the more laid back presentation and expansive soundstage of the 3 pairs.  I listened to a bunch of types of music with the sub on and off.  The sub is set to blend with the abbys and i didnt really get it to blend well with the orcas. I think i need to hear the orcas mated with their subs. I actually enjoyed all 3 sets of speakers. The omegas i will sell and didnt seem to come out in The comparisons that well because they are so forward in their presentation but i would lose myself in the music with them more than the others. They had the strongest bass but not as toneful as the holy grail. But when i plugged the abbys back in it made me appreciate them more too.
The orcas are beautiful and well made and do remind me of a musical instrument. They have a more delicate sound quality to them like a nickel transformer does. I look forward to hearing them with the subs if the finances permit!
Picture of the test kitchen:

[Clark B.]

Thanks a bunch for the review, Taran!  

I'm really honored that they situate themselves in good posture among your other rather tall and burly speaker designs (they are assuredly the Napoleon of the bunch!)

The Abby's, I am especially encouraged in the sound comparison because I hold them in pretty high regard, having had them in my life since 2003 or so when I first met Terry - and promptly picked up a pair of Cain and Cain's shortly thereafter!  You might say that the Abby's, and then the SEX amp I eventually built for them are what got me hooked on Single Driver/Single Ended Triode speaker/amp configs as opposed to being a "solid state into headphones" audiophile as I was previously to meeting Terry.

I'll mention this in part to answer everyone's questions regarding the evolution of the Orca's sound quality: the serial numbers of the used pair you picked up put them as having been produced around 10 months ago.  They should be pretty well broken in at this point if the original owner gave them much play.  But if they didn't get much play (which would be very unfortunate!), then you can expect them to open up even a bit more over the next few days/weeks/months.  

As you might imagine, with a speaker this small, we are really pushing the envelope in order to keep up with the massive scale of the other competing speaker options out there (literally, in a sense - every other good sounding single driver design out there just dwarfs the Orcas in physical size - Even the Feastrex designs that I am playing with).  

But I'd offer the notion that it is because we've been pushing the envelope all along and will continue to do so that every Orca owner has something special - and is part of a unique journey towards genuine discovery - into how good these speakers can possibly sound?  

We consistently ask ourselves this question and so the Orcas are consistently good.

Cheers,

Clark

[Clark B.]

Hi All, Happy thanksgiving!  Molly and I are thankful for, well, each other(!)

...and we are also so very thankful to the truly wonderful and supportive community of friends we've met through this forum, actually.  Getting a little more active in the audio scene this past year myself, and introducing Molly to it as well, has really enriched both the music listening aspect, and just general life enjoyment as well.  So many good times!


As a quick update, I realized this morning that I might have been a little vague in my last post about our product development plans/methods.

Firstly, I have to make this clear - There is no "new" version of the Orcas or Orca subs coming out any time soon.  As many are suspecting, the Orcas and Orca subs are at a point now where things have profoundly slowed down in the realm of getting them to sound any better (which is a good thing, because they are at a really good place right now and have been for some time.) 

It's like when an athlete plateaus.  It might take years for another "leap" to come to the design, because there are just not a whole lot more incremental improvements to make.  That's not to say that we don't have our eyes or ears open to any possible ways to improve, It's just that now we are shifting our focus to consistently and quickly deliver the level of performance that has come to be expected. 

We do, however, have a few really exciting add-ons coming to the product range - a center channel in the wings, terminated speaker wires that we just released, a new/cool way for the Orcas/Orca subs to be mated together as floorstanders, a small tweak to the Orca stands. 

Currently, I'm working on updating our own home stereo system from the ground up, actually.  All new sources -digital and analogue, and some new amps...and even a huge new audio rack to put everything on. SUPER EXCITED!

But still...Are there any NEW fullrange designs coming out?

Often we get asked (by people who have yet to hear the Orca) if we make anything "slightly" bigger than the Orca.  The answer is that yes we would definitely be making a slightly bigger speaker if we weren't getting this good of sound from such a small one. 

So instead, we are looking to make a speaker that is much bigger.  Feastrex drivers that are substantially more expensive than the Orcas, yet they do actually get louder without distorting - and especially importantly and a little bit more intangibly - without compromising the agility or beauty in the way the music is reproduced. 

The extra volume capability of the Feastrexes certainly costs, and anyone who is familiar with the ultra high end scene knows that the prices and sizes of speakers in this realm can get really out of whack.  And so, In our design efforts with Feastrex, I hope to make a Feastrex design that will become the "Orca" of the high end scene in a sense.  Something that is reasonably sized, reasonably priced, unreasonably good.

Ok, well I hope everyone enjoys their families and friends this holiday, and into the next!

Cheers!

-Clark

[Natural Sound]

Dear Wormwood; No, I did not hear any differences that were integral to the system. The differences I heard were largely ascribed to differences in our respective rooms. Of course, my cat Shino does not run across the turntable when vinyl is running! Just kidding, Clark. Shino knocked over one of the Orcas just minutes ago, so I will be thinking about the bases for them soon. BTW, my amps produce about 3.5 watts, and I can use about 1/2 of the 28 steps of the TVC attenuators before ear protection becomes necessary. I love them.

Cheers, Hank

Hank, I just noticed something from the photo you posted. It looks like your sub cones both face the same way. Is there a reason for that?

[Hank Murrow]

Yes Wormwood; Clark got confused in the harried run-up to delivering my Orcas and Subs, packing two identical subs instead of a mirrored pair. In January, I will return to Seattle to let Clark remove my wonderfully broken-in drivers and install them in new cabinets which will be mirror-imaged, and I will return to Eugene with the 'new' pair. He and Molly are fastidious in their customer service, and so they pair beautifully with Bottlehead and Eileen's devotion to the same ethic.

The curious thing is that when brought out around 35" into the room they sound just fine, but having them as designed will make them easier to place.

Cheers, Hank

[tdogzthmn]

I have some Orcas on the way, and will have my extra sexy S.E.X. 2.1 completed soon.  I do have a question regarding the impedance switches which my amp will have installed.  Would my Orcas be able to take advantage of the Balanced output capabilities when I flip that switch?  What setting would be most appropriate for use with these speakers? 

Thanks, and I'm very much looking forward to getting some listening time done!

[Jim R.]

Dogz,

The setting should be 8 ohms and as for the balanced mode switch, it won't hurt, but not sure how much difference you will hear as it apparently is most audible in the lower bass.  Only thing to do is try and report back :-).

-- Jim