I took the 30 day audition challenge on the ORB Mod 2's and Super eight sub and I decided to keep them. Let me say that I am new to the sat/sub system and being a former Klipshorn owner it is hard to put into perspective this smaller system. I did get to briefly audition the Paradigm/sub, M&K/sub, and the B&W without sub. I also did a quick listen to some polks and was going to listen to the energy's at the same store where the M&K's were but the dealer told me they couldn't hold a candle to the M&k's so I passed on them. Also auditioned a couple of years ago the similar Gallo Acoustic Micros, NHT, and PSB.

I may have muddied the auditioning waters somewhat by shopping for a new DVD player at the same time to serve as my audio source. This made it a little more difficult to sort out what the speakers sounded like compared to the DVD. Luckily I was able to compare 5 different DVD players on the ORB's.

Of course I allowed some time for break-in. I'm not sure whether the speakers needed all that much break-in but I am a believer that most components need some breaking in. It's pretty hard for me to buy into the placebo effect when my head is throbbing on day one and a week later I'm not uptight. I do use a Sheffield labs breakin CD on new components.

Now, in my humble opinion comparing the ORBS to the other sat/sub systems that I auditioned I have concluded that the ORB's are in a class of their own. I really liked the B&W's but they had no sub setup to audition. This audition may have been skewed a little because the speakers were driven by Rotel equipment in a very nice sound room of a high end audio store.

I'm sorry to say that I was not that impressed with the Paradigm/sub system. The sats were played with both a 10 and 12" sub. I believe the source used was a Denon DVD 2900 and a 100 watt + yamaha receiver. Without writing a whole review let me say that they were easy to listen to but just not involving to me. They seemed to lack what ever it is that makes music exciting.

I really liked the M&K's initially but when driven a little bit they fell apart. Again they seemed to have decent components which I believe consisted of Rotel and NAD.

Conclusion, the ORBS are small metal spheres in a nice white finish. To say that the bass from this little 12"x12" 230 watt 8" sub is impressive is an understatement. I say this knowing what 2 15" Klischorn woofers can do. This system can play very loud without distortion. The detail is superb, the highs extended and sweet, and the midrange is smooth, large, and round. I would describe them as neutral sounding. Symbals sound metallic with excellent reverberation, drums are tight, bass is well defined and surprisingly deep, and they are dynamic for their size. If this speaker system is this impressive using a DVD player as my source, I must conclude that a real nice stand alone CD player and a refined amp would have blown me away.

Admittedly I haven't listened to every sat/sub system out there, but I'm pretty confident that for $629.00, the ORB system owns the market.

Bottomline, is they will never compete with some larger speaker systems in soundstage size, dynamics, etc., but they do compete with every bookshelf speaker I have listened to, and many highly touted tower speakers that I have heard.

My Equipment
Cambridge 500 Amp/Pre amp

Denon 2200 DVD (this is the player I decided on as the best overall player. Other players auditoned were Sony 685?, Denon 1600, Pioneer 45A, and another Sony and Panasonic player that I forget the model number)

Transparent interconnects and Transparent speaker cable.

ORB Mod 2 satellites and 1 Super Eight powered Sub