Danny Richie "fixes" the Linkwitz Arion loudspeaker


For some time now I have been directing those interested in loudspeaker design to Danny Richie’s GR Research Tech Talk Tuesday videos on YouTube. Here is his latest: an examination of the Linkwitz Arion loudspeaker. You may be asking yourself: if Siegfried Linkwitz is the genius he is touted to be, how is it Danny found the Orion to be lacking, and was able to find solutions for it’s failings? I’ll leave that to you to answer. In the meantime, after watching and listening to this video, you may want to watch all the Tech Talk Tuesday videos. They may just make you a more informed loudspeaker consumer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCA-eSPUkJA.









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@clio09  
@russbutton 
Count me as another that finds fully active speakers to be the way to go. I have fully active Legacy Calibre with crossover duties handled by the Wavelet processor. 6 channels of amplification and lots of ability to adjust and tweak the sound. To me, they are way more versatile than any of the passive models I have used and sound better too.
+1 russbutton. I agree whole heartedly. I bought Orion 3.3’s and built LX521 baffles, LXmini’s and LXsubs. I use both active analog and digital crossovers, all ATI amplification, tube hybrid preamp, Yggdrasil and Berkeley Audio Alpha DAC’s, Synergistic Research interconnects, PS Audio power equipment, and DIY HFT’s (Ozzinators). It’s all configured in a way that I can mix and match components and speakers easily depending on what works best for the music I’m playing. I feel I am done with the equipment part of the problem (for my budget) and my limiting factors are now: #1 the recording engineer, and #2 the fixed dimensions of my room.


Life is too short to sit around and worry about what someone might say with regard to design problems or equipment measurements. Harvest and apply the knowledge as well as possible but then leave it behind and enjoy the music.


Rather than make a lengthy post on this topic, I finally got my act together and posted my system https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8930. In the notes you will find plenty of detail about the equipment and why I made the choices I did. Questions and comments welcome.

I was fortunate enough to hear the Orion's in the Linkwitz’s rental cabin in Sea Ranch and later the LX521.4 and LXmini in Linkwitz’s home in Corte Madera. Many people have tried to “improve” the Orion which is fine. Many submitted their design modifications to Linkwitz and he welcomed that; however, there was always a caveat. To paraphrase, ‘Do what you want but don’t call it an Orion unless you follow the plans exactly.’ In fact, if he saw my system (where I have the option of playing only the Orion or bringing in the other drivers, he would probably say ‘sometimes you have an Orion and sometimes you don’t’ or words to that effect. The meaning is clear. Don’t try to make the Orion into something that it isn’t. The sound (with all of its’ beauty and flaws) is baked in.

Orion and LX521.4 owners are sophisticated enough to have knowledge of all the following, but for others:

There are a few well known benefits to be had by using an outboard active line-level crossover in place of a passive speaker-level one. A main one is keeping the bass frequencies out of the amp that is driving the midrange and tweeter drivers. That is why bi-amping without inserting a line-level x/o before the two power amps doesn’t provide the same degree of improvement as does sending a filtered signal to each amp. Keeping the bass frequencies out of the amp reproducing the mids and highs allows the m/t amp to produce less distortion, and leaves much more available power for the midrange and tweeter drivers.

My Magneplanar Tympani T-IVa loudspeakers came with a pair of outboard passive speaker-level crossover boxes, each box placed inline between one channel of a single stereo (or dual mono) power amp(s) and it’s designated speaker. So even though the bass, midrange, and tweeter drivers are seeing filtered signals, the power amps are not. A single stereo amp driving all three drivers---woofers, midrange, and tweeter---reproduces all frequencies.

The Tympani crossover creates a 3rd-order (18dB/octave) high-pass filtered signal at 250Hz for the midrange/tweeter panel (the mid-tweeter x/o is located at 3kHz, the two drivers not worth separating), and a 2nd-order (12dB/octave) low-pass at 400Hz for the woofer panel. Those are referred to as textbook crossover filters: they create their assigned slopes only. To actively bi-amp a Tympani, the stock speaker-level crossover is simply replaced by a line-level x/o that can provide the same textbook filtering. Doing that allows the Tympani to achieve a higher level of sound quality, and Magnepan recommends it in the speaker owners manual. I purchased a First Watt B4 to use with my pair of Tympani T-IVa, the B4 being perfect for the job. Excellent design and build, and reasonably price ($1500 retail).

Linkwitz obviously believed in loudspeakers having an active line-level crossover. But his loudspeakers incorporate crossover filters far different from textbook filters. The filters he designed for the two above models do more than just create simple high-pass and low-pass slopes; they also include parts that provide tailoring of the response of the drivers within their respective bandpasses. Line-level textbook filters cannot provide that tailoring, and Linkwitz resorted to using digital processing to do his filtering on the two models being discussed.

His friend and neighbor Nelson Pass (designer/maker of the First Watt B4, of course)---knowing that digital filtering was not going to be well received in Asia---asked Linkwitz if he wanted him to create an analog x/o for the LX541. Like the Asian’s, I do not want all my source material to go through digital processing.

Danny Richie is also against digital filtering, and that is one reason he eliminated the Orion’s complex stock digital x/o and created his own speaker-level one. The filtering required by the individual drivers could not be done at line-level in the analog domain, so Danny created speaker-level filters that not only replicated the stock digital filters, but also "corrected" what he considered to be imperfections in the speaker’s performance. Whether one prefers the stock performance of the Orion, or Danny Richie’s Modified one, is a matter of personal opinion.

I long ago realized planars are my preferred loudspeaker design, but at least the Linkwitz are open baffle dipoles ;-) . I much prefer large sheets of mylar over dynamic cones for my loudspeaker drivers. Danny uses cones, domes, and magnetic-planar drivers in his loudspeakers, and imo is a master designer. Don't let his good ol' boy demeanor fool you: he is very sophisticated and knowledgeable.

His friend and neighbor Nelson Pass (designer/maker of the First Watt B4, of course)---knowing that digital filtering was not going to be well received in Asia---asked Linkwitz if he wanted him to create an analog x/o for the LX541.

As Nelson Pass told the story at a Burning Amp a couple years back in which they were honoring Siegfried Linkwitz who just passed away, it was Siegfried who pestered Nelson about building the ASP (they often spent time together in Sea Ranch talking audio and eating cookies as Nelson tells it). Nelson had to think it through a bit but came up with a design and in line with his generous nature and contributions to the DIY community had 100 stuffed boards he distributed at the event. I was lucky to get one and they are now available in a complete build kit including a very nice chassis at the DIY Audio store for a very reasonable price.