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In the Forum: Horn-Loaded Speakers
In the Thread: BD-Design’s Orelino

Post Subject: Orelo LF performancePosted by manisandher on: 6/24/2014

Paul, one of the reasons I went for the Orelo was because it's as close to "plug 'n' play" as I can imagine a speaker system being. So I'm not very knowledgeable about its detailed workings. What I do know is this though...
There are 3x 15" bass drivers per channel. Each apparently has a sensitivity of 100dB/W or so. What this equates to in terms of overall sensitivity for the "loaded OB", I have no idea. But certainly, it's going to be way down on the mid/high horn sensitivity of 118dB/W. The speakers are fully active, with 3 amps built into the phase plug. I believe these are SS amps, but I don't know much else about them. The bass amp (actually 2 amps bridged) obviously must have a much higher gain than the mid and high amps. But I think there is also some DSP processing applied to the LF section. Not sure about the x-over points or orders. The designer quotes a THD figure of <3% at 19Hz for a 88dB output. The lower -3dB point is 17Hz I believe.
Right now, I've got a bit of a dip between 40Hz-80Hz, but apparently this might even out as the bass drivers loosen up. Otherwise the sound is pretty seamless top to bottom. And there is no hint of horn honk that I (or anyone else who has been over to take a listen) can detect. Beyond this, I'm not sure what else I can add. Oh perhaps only that you can fill the wings with sand. I've gone ahead and done this - each wing took about 55Kg of totally dry sand - and it was a worthwhile exercise, tightening up the mid-bass considerably.
A couple of interesting features though:
1. You can by-pass internal amps and use the speakers as a 'semi-passive' design. I say semi-passive because I suspect the bass amps will remain in this configuration to equalize the bass output with the mid/high.
2. You can by-pass the internal x-over and feed the speakers with 3x input signal.
2. There are a series of 'Fletcher-Munson' curves built into the speakers, which I'm finding very interesting and worthwhile playing around with.
Mani.

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