A buddy of mine emailed me this morning saying he was thinking about these speakers

[Link: orbaudio.com]

for his condo. His current primary use is for music, with Video coming later (maybe up to a year tbd). Has anyone run into these, listened to them or head a demo before? The seem like an anthony gallo knock off with bose paper cones imported from china, but I have no idea. I told him at least a pair of decent bookshelfs with 5 1/4 drivers to start, but figured this would be a great way to elict feedback, or to find no feed back at all.

Thanks.

I believe that they are another one of those "internet direct" type of companies who sell crappy speakers sourced from China.

If ht likes that aesthetic standpoint, the Gallos have been around for quite a while, and the new Cabasse EOLE series, and their bigger brothers the iO2 series, are DEFINITELY at the top of the class among the sphere speakers.

The Cabasse have a cool mount which has a neodymium magnet that holds the stainless spheres in place... You need them tilted in. or down, or up... Just pull it off turn it, and stick it back to the mount... The magnet grabs just as tight on any angle (remember they are spheres!) and they speakers don't move or shift or sag.
[Link: cabasse-usa.com]

Yep, those are Anthony Gallo Wannabes from our Chinese pals... (Might have high levels of lead paint!)... ;>D

Bryan... You should suggest the Energy Take 6's or Act 6's ... great sub sat set-up for tight-wads.

Can you guys read their site? They are made in the USA. I think Gallo is actually the ones made in China these days. Check out the reviews before you bash them, as they are very positive. I've owned these for a couple of years and they are awesome. In fact, awesome enough to get me to register to post instead of just lurk. People usually check facts/think a little more around here before talking.

Not Me!

I have only listened to 2 brands of vendor direct (only) speakers, HSU, and SBS (Ithink), both were some of the worst speakers I have listened to and their build quality for the money was sub par. I was looking for a review, and or a way demo the speakers before my friend wastes his money. The fact that they are assembled in the US is not a huge deal, but rather the quality of the drivers being used in the speakers. The fact that they don't give specs, or any real reviews was a bit concerning, but for what its worth, I am glad you like yours and appreciate the input.

What did you compare them to as your reference set of speakers/what other speakers were you looking at that you got to listen too or what were you replacing? I am very hesitant to recommend a speaker brand I've never heard of to some one who can't listen to them before buying. You can at least listen to a blose demo and decide if it passes for your own level of listening.

I had a client about a year ago who was looking at these. She didn't get them, so I can't say if they suck or not. I'd hazard to guess they are better than bose though.

Anyhow, the point to my posting is that they do offer an in-home trial or something like that. Check the 'satisfaction guarantee' link. If he really wants to try them and doesn't like them, all loses is your labor costs for the install/breakdown.

They actually replaced the A'diva Ti for me for my surround system. My big speakers are Revels (Performa) but they are just in a stereo set up in the basement.

The Orb sound quality is very good and there are some serious reviews of the Orbs out there. If they aren't on their site, they are probably on google somewhere. I remember seeing something in Stereophile or Home Theater and also a web review where they took the stuff apart, etc. w/ photos.

Things I like:
Modular (you can do 1, 2 or 4 spheres per speaker, which leaves some flexibility for growth or customization from the start).
GREAT customer service. I mean really great...20 minute replies to emails and you talk to the people that own the company and build the speakers if you call in.
Beautiful metal finishes. The steel and copper are beautiful. So are the stainless mounts and stands.
Great price range
Great sub

Things I don't like
Small binding posts don't accept banana plugs

The #1 thing I would say about them is that people have the tendency to talk more about the Orbs than anything else I install, primarly b/c the cost/performance ratio is so good. Everyone expects $10,000+ speakers to sound amazing, but when you put in these small spheres as the second system somewhere they tend to steal the show. WAF is way off the charts, obviously, too. But I like these b/c people feel like they got a deal, and they did. They are great for customer relations and referrals. Even though they are lower cost than some other options, I use the money in the budget to get the customer a better receiver, TV, remote, etc.

I drove out to Ventura County to demo these speakers in in a dumpy little strip mall where they're "manufactured" and was ready with my Mobil Audio 18K gold plated,remastered Pink Floyd The Wall...ready to put the little balls to the test....
I was very disapointed with the demo....they used a crappy entry level Pioneer receiver, a crap dvd player, and kept making excuses why the bass was non existant..."standing waves" was mentinoned several times as the Orb team scuttled about tring to find a sweet spot for the sub....the avr has to be crossed over at 120 plus because the little balls cant dig down very deep... I walked out discusted because a drive to the valley down the 405 should have had a better payoff that that!!! Thin sounding little balls!!! Thin little balls!!!

LOL!!! So, how may did you end up buying? ;>)

Yes, I can read their site. They are assembled in the United States.

That's lawyerese for "we won't reveal where the parts are made, but we get to say 'United States' because that's where we put the parts together."

Let's say they WERE totally made in China, and some decent speaker manufacturer had them made to their specs. Wouldn't the low cost of parts and labor in China make it possible that these speakers could be much better than equally priced speakers made entirely of parts and labor in the United States? That idea is the whole basis of other components made entirely overseas, and totally American made products have not been able to be as good.

RTI remotes are made in China. All went well until the Chinese went off on their own and put in a different IR window material. It looked the same to them so they didn't even ask if they could do it, and RTI got a bunch of remotes with extremely restricted range. "Made in China" isn't necessarily a curse. "Made in China" without good oversight is the potential curse.

I had a customer last summer that had these speakers in his previous house and wanted us to hook them up in his new house. We pre wired the house for cubes as requested and when it came time for install he was missing 2 of his speakers. He asked us if we had any of these and was very reluctant to change because he loved them. When we informed him that we do not carry his speakers and he will have to get his replacements wherever he bought the last ones he then decided that maybe he would upgrade to Blose. After a long conversation I talked him into keeping his existing Harman Kardon AVR 335 and installed some inexpensive Tru Satellite speakers.
I never got to hear the Orbs but according to the reluctant customer the Tru Satellites were amazing in comparison. This may have had something do with new cables and using the digital inputs that were not in use on the first install but I suspect it’s a little of both.

I wonder. The comparisons I've read of different cables always are done moments apart. I'll bet that you can't reliably compare cables when also actually moving from one house to another, with different acoustics and what must have been weeks between listenings.

And digital connections don't necessarily give you better fidelity than analog connections, just for sure way better separation. it may be that today's average digital recording and connections sound better than yesterday's average analog recordings and connections, but there's no guarantee that digital will sound better. You don't believe it, okay by me!

I'll bet the Tru Satellites were just plain massively better and the cabling had little to do with it.

Very True. I ran A/B tests of analog audio, and digital comparing a sony dvd player and a cambridge soundworks cd player for a customer run through a yamaha receiver acting as a preamp to a Parasound AMP. In the Sony's case, the digital connection sounded way better then its analog counterpart, imaging everything was better in a 2 channel setup. we then compared digital out of the sony versus digital out of the cambridge, and the Sony was only slightly better. Last we compared the Cambridges Digital versus analog outputs, and were blown away by how much better the analog outputs sounded versus its digital output.

how funny is it that the add below these posts is for Orb Audio