Hi there Dsound,
Yes, the Orcas were changed from a rear mounted driver to a front mount to alter the frequency response of them to become a sound that is geared more towards the upper volume capabilities of the drivers and cabinets themselves.
The rear mounting gave emphasis and a pleasant brightness to the midrange which works well with the ears' frequency response at lower volumes (<65db avg. SPL's), where the midrange (>1000,<5000) can be slightly boosted to enhance the intelligibility of music at those lower volumes.
We had a companion product at the time which was called the Naga, which had surface mounted drivers, flatter response, and was put into a backloaded horn for slightly greater power handling. This was our "living room" model, and got around 82-85db SPL's max from ~6-9 feet away.
Over time we wished to balance out the capabilities of both speakers into a single model that would be our "super speaker."
So the newer, surface mounted Orcas' sound is flatter, which is what the ear needs at the higher volumes I was chasing in the design (for livingroom or desktop use (by customer request)), and now they are even a somewhat bass heavy sound within their >~80-85 hz to 20k+ frequency range (which you wouldn't guess from a 3" driver, but I've got the graphs and testimonials to prove it.).
This surface mounted, slightly midrange deemphasized sound is more geared towards the longer listening sessions we wish to encourage as well, and the slightly larger cabinets take advantage of the prodigious maximum excursion and bass making capabilities of the drivers as well by tuning them a bit lower in practice than they can be simulated in design software.
We were gradually able to unleash these capabilities about a year ago as certain cabinet bracing, bass reflex tuning, and driver frame dampening/tuning processes were optimized as well over the years. The Orcas haven't really changed in the past year, which is what's freed us up to devote our design capacities towards the bigger Feastrex models and etc.
I know that the look is pretty dissimilar between the recessed and surface mounted drivers, but for us who have seen and heard the difference (and countless other experiments that never made it to market), we view the change as simply a gradual evolutionary process of refining the sound of the speakers for enjoyment by the general audiophile public and also to pass muster for more rigorous professional uses.
We are now making what we feel are some of the most balanced and well rounded, and even magical sounding with SET amps, set of compact speakers you can buy at any price.
No, we didn't invent the "little speaker, big sound" ilk of small bookshelf speakers, but we've been the first to successfully produce a true single driver bookshelf design that sounds good without even a scrap of damping material or BSC that runs happy with 2 watts at under a $3000-$4000 price point. Why? we wish to "proliferate the beauty" of such a brutally-elegant concept rather than to guard it behind high price tags.
In terms of production numbers, we switched to the surface mounted drivers at around pair #75, 2 years ago. Just last night a woman came by to pick up her pair of Orcas, #250. So the vast majority of the Orcas out there are of the surface mounted type.
Hope this information helps!
Cheers!
-Clark
