How is the ORION different from the PHOENIX?
A4 – The PHOENIX is an earlier open baffle design. It consist of a main panel with two 8″ midrange drivers in an MTM arrangement and two 12″ woofer drivers in separate cabinets for each channel. The ORION was designed to obtain the same sound level capability from a physically smaller and visually more appealing cabinet. This had become possible because I had confirmed that a 24 dB/oct crossover could be used, instead of a 12 dB/oct crossover, between woofer and midrange without any audible effect due to increased group delay. By shifting the crossover frequency from 100 Hz to 120 Hz and using the steeper crossover filters I now needed only a single 8″ driver to maintain the same output capability over the midrange. The woofer drivers had to go higher in frequency, but since they are in fixed proximity to the midrange driver there is no placement issue and I could correct electrically for the remaining acoustic offset.
