Blumenstein Ultra Fi

[Clark B.]

Stephen, this customer is without subs right now.

[Doc B.]

I will suggest to everyone to add a BUF sub or two. As amazing as the Orcas are, it's even better with subs! We're going to have a near field setup with a sub in the lobby here at BHQ next year.

[Hank Murrow]

I second that, Doc. I was playing the First Impressions disc of "Cantate Domino" yesterday, and those low organ pipes sounded just like they do in the organ loft. Most of my collection does not go so low, but it is real nice to hear the subs when the music does reach for the bottom octave. Hope to see you on Friday the fourth for some listening.

Cheers to all Bottleheads!  Hank in Eugene

[Natural Sound]

I second that, Doc. I was playing the First Impressions disc of "Cantate Domino" yesterday, and those low organ pipes sounded just like they do in the organ loft. Most of my collection does not go so low, but it is real nice to hear the subs when the music does reach for the bottom octave. Hope to see you on Friday the fourth for some listening.

Cheers to all Bottleheads!  Hank in Eugene

I plan on ordering a set of Orca's with a single sub. I think that will be better in my small listening room. Hopefully that will be enough.

[tdogzthmn]

I figured the Sub was a necessity for me due to the variety of music genres I listen to.  I dont think Metal or Trance would quite satisfactory when listening through only the Orcas.  Do the current subwoofers use a black or sliver driver?  I've seen pictures of both on the Blumenstein site but I was not sure which was the current iteration.

[Jim R.]

dogz,

The current subs use the black woofers -- these are the paper cone ones.

-- Jim

[dhherring]

This may be blasphemy, but what about using a sub other than an Orca.

My problem is that I just do not have the space for an Orca sub in my planned listening area.

I really would prefer an Orca sub (if I even need a sub), but the physical size is just not practical.

I wasn't going to bring this up until I actually had a chance to hear the Orca's in my environment, but since the subject came up.........

Don

[Natural Sound]

This may be blasphemy, but what about using a sub other than an Orca.

I thought about this as well. For me it was more of a budget problem than a space thing. I already have two subs from my SEXy project.

I don't see why it wouldn't work. You would just have to figure out where to set the crossover point. That should be easy enough with a little experimentation. Even then it may not be as good as Clark's offering. But it could be a stepping stone for someone until they can dig up some more funds or clear some room for the sub.

[Jim R.]

Folks,

Realize that you can place the orca subs on the side or back as well and they aren't super heavy.  When you can upgrade, it will be well worth it -- they really are tuned to match the Orcas perfectly -- in tone, covered range, and dynamics.

Hope this helps,

Jim

[Clark B.]

This may be blasphemy, but what about using a sub other than an Orca.

My problem is that I just do not have the space for an Orca sub in my planned listening area.

I really would prefer an Orca sub (if I even need a sub), but the physical size is just not practical.

I wasn't going to bring this up until I actually had a chance to hear the Orca's in my environment, but since the subject came up.........

Don

I do have to nod my head to anyone who is willing to just experiment with the subs they've got around and see how well the Orcas work with them.  I did this for years before coming to the Orca Sub.  That Dayton sub that goes with the Sexy project should get you down the road a stretch.  I've got a few customers who use them. 

However, Jim Rebman's comments on the Orca Sub echo mine as well.  I have never heard a sub blend like the Orca sub unless is was really expen$ive!  We've been shipping Orca Subs with the black paper cones since this summer, but our photography is not all up to date.  Hopefully when things wind down after we've shipped everyone's order in January we'll have time to go in and add some new content to the website.

This is really important to understand for those who are serious with their Orcas:  The crossover style and overall Orca/Sub system design was modeled more along the lines of much higher end speakers: separate cabinets for the drivers, each with its internal bracing optimized for the demands of each respective frequency range.  Separate subs from sub amps/crossovers makes a big difference in terms of vibration transmision, and ours just happen to be inexpensive to our customers because we opted to not get a custom aluminum blah blah blah machined to house the conventional amplifier components.  We are just using a modified Dayton to get it all biamped because that's all you really need.

But - acoustically speaking, they benefit from many of the same considerations that really high end speakers do in their setup, distances from surrounding objects, and room treatment, component tuning, and break-in.  Yet, they will also sound just fine thank you very much if they are pointed all cattywonkus - one trying to fill the dining room and one pointed to the attached living room or etc.

Yet I am starting to realize that because most speakers in the Orcas' price range are too "blunted" to reap the same benefits from the same tweaking, all this talk of the Orcas' huge performance potential can be a little confusing to newcomers who might just be looking for cool bookshelf speakers or something and don't know about their back story or pedigree. 

And so: The answer I must resoundingly give is that they will work really and truly well in both high brow and low brow applications... its all in the way they are setup and amplified.   We can offer you our pertinent expertise whichever application you can dream up to be considered.

Merry belated Christmas, or reasonably co-incident holidays everyone!  Hope all was enjoyed.

Best,

Clark

[Clark B.]

I will suggest to everyone to add a BUF sub or two. As amazing as the Orcas are, it's even better with subs! We're going to have a near field setup with a sub in the lobby here at BHQ next year.

Dan, here's one of the things we are making you: 

http://www.blumensteinaudio.com/orca-floorstanders/ 

This is my personal favorite Orca setup so far.  I suggest feeding it with either Stereomour or Beepree feeding Paramounts, depending upon the size of your room (mostly).  This new model was designed to get essentially the same performance as Orcas on Floorstands and a pair of Orca Subs sat beside.  Yet this "Orca/Sub Floorstander" saves livingroom space and helps to ease the speakers' setup; i.e. to make the setup much more similar to a typical audiophile two way floorstander - that's meant to be out into the room. 

[Clark B.]

But yet, for the folks thinking on a tighter budget, I need to bring attention to this other photo, bottom right of this page:  http://www.blumensteinaudio.com/orca-sub/)

The Orcas are a totally modular system: you can initially use no subs, just one sub, or put the Orcas/Subs in many possible arrangements until the room frees up a bit to allow for our traditional audiophile floorstander type speaker, or whichever direction your system should choose to take itself.

The pertinence of our upcoming price increase to this discussion is that people on a budget can purchase some of their bigger and more important components (like the speaker cabinets) pre-price increase, and then add accessories, sub amps, stands and things that won't be going up as much in price down the road.

We will have some really fun new content going up on the website after Jan 1st.  It should help people understand our system setup recommendations a lot better.

[Natural Sound]

But yet, for the folks thinking on a tighter budget, I need to bring attention to this other photo, bottom right of this page:  http://www.blumensteinaudio.com/orca-sub/)

Clark, How important is it to have the sub in the center like that? Can it be off to the left or right as well? -Tom

[Clark B.]

But yet, for the folks thinking on a tighter budget, I need to bring attention to this other photo, bottom right of this page:  http://www.blumensteinaudio.com/orca-sub/)

Clark, How important is it to have the sub in the center like that? Can it be off to the left or right as well? -Tom

Tom, In short, just place a single sub wherever it fits in the room and is reasonably close to the fullrangers.

In general, the sub being in between the speakers is less of a factor until the Orcas are pretty far apart or there are other room factors that would come into play like corners you would either want or not want to use as boundary reinforcement for the subwoofer's output (depending upon how well your room would deal with boundary reinforcement)

And so the big factor in the way that our sub gets placed is that you can choose the placement of its port/driver/binding posts and that these options allow a level of tailoring the sub's cabinet to be able to fit into cramped spaces without getting the "wrong kind" of boundary reinforcement.   Basically I'd say try not to point the driver or port towards anything that is less than 6-12" away, and you are prettymuch good to go.

For instance, the subs can be laid down on their backs underneath a coffee table or placed directly against a wall.

Thanks for the questions!

-Clark

[dhherring]

I do have to nod my head to anyone who is willing to just experiment with the subs they've got around and see how well the Orcas work with them.  I did this for years before coming to the Orca Sub.  That Dayton sub that goes with the Sexy project should get you down the road a stretch.  I've got a few customers who use them. 

snip...........

Yet I am starting to realize that because most speakers in the Orcas' price range are too "blunted" to reap the same benefits from the same tweaking, all this talk of the Orcas' huge performance potential can be a little confusing to newcomers who might just be looking for cool bookshelf speakers or something and don't know about their back story or pedigree. 

And so: The answer I must resoundingly give is that they will work really and truly well in both high brow and low brow applications... its all in the way they are setup and amplified.   We can offer you our pertinent expertise whichever application you can dream up to be considered.

Merry belated Christmas, or reasonably co-incident holidays everyone!  Hope all was enjoyed.

Best,

Clark

Clark,

Thanks for your commentary which helped me come down to earth so to speak and remind myself just what the goals are for this system I'm putting together.

Don