Jason Dunn
04-28-2008, 03:00 PM
<img border="0" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208120036.usr1.jpg" /><br /><strong>Product Category:</strong> Home Theatre Speaker System<br /><strong>Manufacturer:</strong> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.orbaudio.com">Orb Audio</a><br /><strong>Where to Buy:</strong> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.orbaudio.com">Orb Audio</a><br /><strong>Price:</strong> starts at $549 USD for <a target="_blank" href="http://www.orbaudio.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=16">two-channel system</a> with sub-woofer (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.orbaudio.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=3">the Mod2 configuration</a> reviewed here, without stands, is $1289 USD)<br /><strong>System Requirements:</strong> An amp to power the speakers, and hopefully a nice big TV to go with them.<br /><strong>Specifications:</strong> See the Orb Audio <a target="_blank" href="http://www.orbaudio.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=25">specifications page</a>.<br /><br /><strong>Pros:</strong><br /><ul> <li>The great-looking satellite speakers sound incredible, with crisp, punchy audio;<br /> </li> <li>Both the 8" and 10" sub-woofers are extremely powerful, yet deliver smooth, distortion-free bass; </li> <li>Reasonable price for the quality of the speakers when compared to retail prices;<br /> </li> <li>Many options for custom order configuration and speaker finish.<br /> </li></ul><strong>Cons:</strong><br /><ul> <li>Mail-order means you probably can't hear them before you buy them; </li> <li>If you need them for your setup, the beautiful hand-crafted HOSS speaker stands put a big bite into your budget at $299 per pair. </li></ul><p><strong>Summary:</strong><br />You've probably never heard of Orb Audio before, or their speakers, but if you're looking for small, powerful home-theatre speakers that are surprisingly affordable for the quality you get, this is one company you should pay attention to. <MORE /></p><p><br /></p><pagebreak></pagebreak><font size="4"><strong>Orb Audio: Not Found in Big-Box Retail Stores</strong></font><br />If you're anything like me, when it's time to go shopping for a home theatre sound system, you typically go down to your local electronics retail store and look at the brand names you've heard of for years: Bose, Harman Kardon, Klipsch, or maybe some names from car audio you've heard of such as Polk. Or maybe it's a "house brand" of speaker. Regardless of the name, these speaker systems all tend to look pretty similar, and a decent one will likely cost you north of $1000 USD once you include the sub-woofer, speaker wire, etc. I found myself needing a new system after my Harman Kardon system started having trouble - specifically, the sub-woofer would cut out, or not power on at all until 20 minutes into the movie, and it was getting frustrating. I'd already had to have one of the satellites replaced, so I was pretty fed up with the lack of quality I was seeing. It was time for something new, and I figured I'd might as well review whatever product I decided to try out!<br /><br /><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208121125.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 1: This is what I started with in my entertainment room; a set of silver Harman Kardon speakers I've had for about three years. They were "OK" sounding, but I was never particularly impressed with them. Worse though is that the sub-woofer had started to cut out at random intervals. That's my 72" Toshiba DLP TV.</em><br /><br /><font size="4"><strong>A Very Helpful Company Indeed</strong></font><br />I'd seen some ads for Orb Audio speakers over on my buddy Ian's site (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.digitaltrends.com">Digital Trends</a>), and when I asked him if they were good speakers he gave me a highly emphatic yes. With that, I contacted the company and they were extremely helpful in getting me set up with their gear. Thanks to the people at Canada Customs and their accursed yellow tape, it took a couple of months before I had everything I needed; I have the unfortunate luck of having shipments seized and opened by Canada Customs on a regular basis. Orb Audio went above and beyond, sending me not only the Mod2 system, but also both their Super Eight sub-woofer (a eight inch, 200 watt sub) and their Uber Ten (you guessed it, a ten inch, 300 watt sub). They also sent me four of their HOSS stands, the carpet mounting plates, and samples of the finishes available on their speakers. I was able to get a solid overview of their product offerings, and what geek doesn't love getting flooded with stuff to play with? But would they measure up to the hype? I started getting the first products in December, and received the final pieces in February. During this time I left everything boxed up because I wanted to set up the whole thing from scratch and document the whole process for this review - it was hard to let those speakers sit in their boxes, let me tell you!<br /><br /><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208121131.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 2: I ended up with quite a few boxes from the people at Orb Audio.</em><br /><br /><PAGE /><br /><br /><font size="4"><strong>Getting It All Set Up: Easier Than I Expected</strong></font><br />When I review any sort of product, whether it's hardware or software, I always look at not only the final performance of the product, but also what it takes to get there. For Joe and Jane Average, setting up anything new can be an intimidating experience - there's a reason why the majority of people continue to use consumer electronics products until they stop working. As I unpacked each of the boxes, I photographed and took notes of the setup experience, and tried to put myself in the place of an average consumer - which isn't too far from the truth because I don't set up home theatre sound systems very often. The series of photos below explain the setup process and my experience doing so. I should point out right off the bat that my speaker set didn't come with any setup instructions, which I found rather odd. I emailed the guys at Orb Audio and they assured me that a normal customer order would get the full setup manual - and they pointed me to to their <a target="_blank" href="http://www.orbaudio.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=9">online PDFs</a> that had the instructions I needed. I'm not normally much of an instructions guy, but I didn't want to wreck anything by assembling it incorrectly, so I followed along step by step.<br /><br /><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208121139.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 3: On the left, my Harman Kardon sub-woofer; in the middle, the Orb Audio Uber Ten; on the right, the Orb Audio Super Eight. Size means nothing here - the Super Eight blew away the huge Harman Kardon sub-woofer in every way. It was downright embarrassing. More on that below.</em><br /><br /><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208121144.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 4: A fist full of Orbs.<br /><br /></em><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208143364.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 5: Setting up the HOSS speaker stands was quite straight-forward. All I needed was a flat-head screwdriver.</em><br /><br /><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208143371.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 6: The HOSS speaker stands look utterly fantastic. They've got a simple design, but they just scream quality. In comparison, most home theatre stands scream "Made in China by the lowest bidder."</em><br /><br />I figured I couldn't explain the HOSS stands better than Orb Audio could, so I'm going to let them explain their own product:<br /><br /><em>"HOSS (Hunk Of Solid Steel) floor stands are the ultimate complement to our Mod1 and Mod2 satellites. Seductively stylish, they are sure to look great in any room. HOSS stands are a stunning combination of stainless and carbon steel sourced from American mills. The base is a four inch diameter, three inch tall section of solid steel, while the satellite support poles and all of the bracket parts are pure hand polished stainless. The base is much smaller than stands with cheap, flat bases and can be placed in corners and other hard to reach spots. Each pair of stands contains nearly twenty-five pounds of steel, all of which is cut, polished and assembled by hand in the USA. The HOSS stand is a combined effort by numerous industrial metalworkers and a local artisan, and will surely make you ask how that small stainless steel lamp in your house cost nearly as much as these heavy, finely-made custom stands. Price is for a pair of stands. Shown above with Mod2 satellites in optional Polished Steel finish. Stands are designed to allow speaker wire to run up through the poles for the neatest possible appearance. HOSS stands are made in very small batches but are currently in stock and shipping."</em><br /><br />My personal assessment? The Orb Audio description is spot-on: these speaker bases are extremely heavy, but extremely high quality and I love the industrial look of them. They're small enough to fit nicely in a corner, especially helpful if you've got a smaller room but want to maximize the stereo effect (which requires a certain amount of space between the left and right channels to get a proper "sweet spot" for the audio"). The down-side? The HOSS stands are $299 USD per pair, so for a setup like mine with four stands, you're looking at $600 just for the stands. That's rather expensive when you consider the whole speaker system is in the $1200 range. Still, you can't deny the quality of craftsmanship here - they look like piece of modern art more than speaker stands. It's important to mention here that Orb Audio has a lot of <a target="_blank" href="http://www.orbaudio.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=10">home-grown pride in their work</a> - their Mod1 and Mod2 satellites are made in California. It really shows in the products.<br /><br /><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208143378.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 7: Orb Audio speakers are a bit different than the typical home theatre speakers - most home theatre systems have one type of speaker for the centre channel (typically a more powerful speaker) and small/weaker right/left/rear channels. Orb treats all channels equally, and that makes a noticeable difference in the audio quality - especially from the rear channels.</em><br /><br /><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208143581.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 8: Running the speaker cable on the inside of the HOSS speaker stands makes for a clean setup with minimal visible wires..</em><br /><br /><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208143586.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 9: Screwing the speaker stands into the HOSS base was a fast process. Hmm - looks like I need to get those walls re-painted, doesn't it?</em><br /><br /><PAGE /><br /><br /><font size="4"><strong>Getting It All Set Up (...Continued)</strong></font><br /><br /><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208143602.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 10: Once the speaker wire is in position, it's time to attach the speakers to the HOSS stands. This bolt-plate widget is what keeps the speakers snug with the HOSS stands.</em><br /><br /><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208143637.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 11: This part is tricky on your own - it's much easier to attach the speakers to the stands with some help.</em><br /><br /><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208143642.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 12: The speakers are attached, now the wires need to be connected.</em><br /><br /><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208143648.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 13: The bottom speaker connects to the top speaker via a small speaker cable, and the speaker cable from the amp connects to the top of the first speaker. In this photo, I haven't pulled the cables from the bottom, so there's some slack up top that's easily corrected.</em><br /><br /><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208143655.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 14: The front of the centre channel speakers - just like the rest of the speakers, only in a horizontal rather than vertical configuration.</em><br /><br /><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208143966.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 15: The back of the centre channel speakers are slightly different than the HOSS stands, but the basic principal is the same. The rod that both speakers are attached to can be adjusted easily, allowing you to change the vertical angle at which the speakers are pointed.<br /><br /></em><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208143985.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 16: The mighty sub-woofer - this is the Super Eight model. The Uber Ten has the same features, just bigger and louder.<br /><br /></em><strong><font size="4">Sub-Woofers: The Super Eight and Uber Ten</font></strong><br />Let's talk about that Super Eight sub-woofer for a minute: as you can tell from Figure 3, the Super Eight is downright tiny compared to the giant Harman Kardon sub-woofer I had previously (in fact the cabinet is 12" x 12"). Does size matter? Nope. The Super Eight uses a BASH (Bridged Amplifier Switching Hybrid) digital amplifier, capable of 200 watts continuous and 400 watts peak. I have no clue what the BASH is, but it sure sounds good. The Super Eight is less than half the overall cubic size of the Harman Kardon, and it outperformed the bigger sub-woofer by such a great margin it makes me wish I'd swapped it out years ago. Prior to testing the Super Eight sub-woofer, I always thought that the bigger the speaker, the better the sound - not so with the Orb Audio products. The Super Eight is only $399 USD from Orb, which is quite affordable given for the quality you get - in a big-box retail store you might find some low-end sub-woofers for around the $399 mark, but you won't find any that match the quality of the Super Eight. Features on the Super Eight include a phase switch (0/180), adjustable crossover (40-160hz), temperature protect circuitry, Auto/On/Off power, RCA gold-plated stereo line level inputs, high level gold-plated inputs and outputs, 12dB/Octave hi-pass circuit, and frequency response from 28 to 160 hz frequency response. Is that mostly gibberish to you? The bottom line: the Super Eight sounds superb.<br /><br />The Super Eight's bigger brother, the Uber Ten, is virtually identical to the Super Eight, it's just bigger and badder. It's encased in a 13.5" by 13.5" cabinet, has a slightly wider frequency response of 24 to 160 hz, and kicks out 300 watts continuous with over 500 watts peak. The back of the unit, and all the features, are the same as the Super Eight. It's a fair chunk of change more expensive though, coming in at $699 USD - although at the time of this writing if you buy the Uber Ten is a $299 upgrade when purchased with any sound system package, so that $699 price would only be if you were buying only the sub-woofer. Do you need the Uber Ten? It really depends on the size of your room - I tested both out in my TV room and while I could tell the difference between the two, either one delivers the bass in a big way. My TV room is about 12 feet wide and 18 feet long - after swapping between the Super Eight and the Uber Ten several times, I settled on the Uber Ten because it seemed a better match for the room. The Super Eight is more than enough for an average sized TV room, but if you've got a bigger room where you're sitting fairly far away from the TV like I do, the Uber Ten may be a better fit.<br /><br /><PAGE /><br /><em><br /></em><font size="4"><strong>Where The Rubber Meets The Road: Sound Quality</strong></font><br /><br /><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208144010.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 17: I started my audio testing out with something loud and proud: Nickelback, a band that hails not far from where I live.</em><br /><br />So we've established that the Orb Audio speakers look great, assemble easily, and are great value for the dollar compared to other products you'd find in a retail store. But how do they sound? In a word, excellent. You need more than that? OK, keep reading...<br /><br />The very first DVD I put in was <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.ca/Nickelback-Live-Home-Nigel-Dick/dp/B00006LJ98/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1208145568&sr=8-2">Nickelback: Live At Home</a>. It's a live concert DVD with great-sounding audio, a vibrant live audience, and a very raw sound that isn't overly processed like many modern live pop concerts. <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickelback">Nickelback</a> isn't everyone's cup of tea, but the concert DVD did a great job of testing the speakers, especially the sub-woofer. I tested both the Super Eight and the Uber Ten, and both delivered thundering bass from the first note that Mike Kroeger hit. Music? Check. Movies? Next.<br /><br />A few months back, my wife and I watched all three Lord of the Rings movies, the extended versions, in a single weekend. Since I knew I was going to be reviewing the Orb Audio speakers, I paid special attention to scenes with dynamic sound for testing later. In LOTR: Fellowship of the Rings, the Council of Elrond meeting has dialogue with little to no background sound, and it was all dialogue was crisp and clear. There's a moment where there's a brief bass sweep, and it was thumping but not overpowering. In LOTR: Fellowship of the Rings, the scenes in the Mines of Moria had fantastic audio. As they explore Moria, the individual footfalls of characters could be heard clearly through the music - something I don't recall hearing from my previous set of speakers. I think that has a lot to do with the surround channels being just as strong as the centre and left/right channels. The entrance of the cave troll was accompanied by thunderous footsteps that sounded booming yet did not cause any rattling of the sub-woofer - the bass remained tight. In the scene where the intrepid heroes are surrounded by goblins scaling down the columns of stone, I could clearly hear sounds that were previously muffled; individual scrapes and clanks could be distinguished easily from the background noise and music. In the scene where the Balrog begins chasing the heroes, the male vocal chanting had great surround displacement, wrapping me in the audio. The emergence of the Balrog was accompanied by thunderous footsteps that were rendered beautifully by the 10 inch sub-woofer - watching the same scene over again with the 8 inch sub-woofer, it performed nearly identically to its bigger 10 inch counterpart.<br /><br />Next I popped in a classic: Top Gun, which features a Dolby Surround soundtrack and audio that's more than two decades old. In the aerial scene at the beginning of the movie, when Maverick's F-16 peeled away from Cougar's, the wake was extremely crisp and clear. In the scene where Maverick arrives at Miramar on his motorcycle, the 10 inch subwoofer provided a noticeable boost in bottom end for the rocking '80s Kenny Loggins tune. Even the off pitch warbling of Tom Cruise singing You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling was somehow clearer through the Orb Audio speakers - though that may not be a good thing. I also checked out Dream Girls on HD-DVD to hear how the Orb Audio speakers handled not only modern, high bit-rate audio, but also how well they worked with my Xbox 360 - and the Motown licks that make up much of the music in Dream Girls. As you can probably guess by now, the Orb Audio speakers handled this movie without a problem.<br /><br />Throughout the audio testing, I was struck by one thing: the Orb Audio speakers are louder than our previous speakers. We would typically listen to movies with amp set between 25 and 28; equivalent volume with Orb Audio speakers was more around 35 on the amp (the lower the number, the quieter the amp volume level).<br /><br /><PAGE /><br /><br /><font size="4"><strong>Fit And Finish Options</strong></font><br />Orb Audio not only has great-sounding speakers, they look great - I tested out the glossy black speakers, but Orb Audio also sent me samples of their other finishes to check out. The black gloss and white gloss speakers are the default choices, and in the case of the Mod2 kit, the hand-polished steel finish is an extra $200, and either the hand-antiqued copper or bronze will run you $300 over the base price. The hand-antiquing process involves 12 steps of plating, antiquing and polishing - hence the $100 up-charge over the polished steel finish. The hand-polished steel finish looks fantastic, and while the bronze and copper each look great, the copper speaker I was sent doesn't quite match up to the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.orbaudio.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=62">lush richness shown on their product page</a>. There are variations created on each speaker during the antiquing process, but I can't help but think that both the copper and bronze finishes would look even better if they were darker - something that would nicely accent a dark wood cabinet for instance. Myself, I'm more of a black/silver modern kind of guy, but it's great that Orb Audio offers this type of flexibility in their products. They even have some bundles that allow you to combine finishes, having black/copper/steel/bronze front speakers, and white rear channel speakers. Photos of the various finishes are below.<em><br /><br /></em><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208144017.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 18: The Hand-Polished Steel finish.</em><br /><br /><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208144024.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 19: The Hand-Antiqued Bronze finish.<br /><br /></em><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208144029.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 20: The Hand-Antiqued Copper finish.<br /><br /></em><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208144035.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 21: The Pearl-White Gloss finish.</em><br /><br /><PAGE /><br /><br /><font size="4"><strong>Getting The Orb Audio Speakers Into Place</strong></font><br />There are several options for getting the Orb Audio speakers into place. Actually, "several" is a gross understatement - the gang at Orb Audio have come up with pretty much every type of speaker mount you could ever need. I've already gone over the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.orbaudio.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=5">HOSS floor stands</a>, but they also have <a target="_blank" href="http://www.orbaudio.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=31">BOSS Stainless Steel Mod1/Mod2/Mod4 Desk Stands</a> (for one, two, and four speakers respectively), <a target="_blank" href="http://www.orbaudio.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=53">BOSS Wall Mounts (Mod2 & Mod4/Vertical & Horizontal)</a>, the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.orbaudio.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=20">Stud Zero Wall Mounts</a>, the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.orbaudio.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=22">Stud Thirty Wall Mounts</a>, the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.orbaudio.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=24">MultiMount Adjustable Wall/Ceiling/Side/Rear Mount</a>, and the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.orbaudio.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=40">MultiPlate Adjustable Wall/Ceiling/Side/Rear Mounts</a>. No matter how or where you want to put your Orb Audio speakers, there are mounts available for your particular goal.<em><br /><br /></em><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208144100.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 22: A BOSS Stainless Steel Mod2 Desk Stand.</em><br /><em><br /></em><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208144042.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 23: I actually couldn't figure out what these were - there's no listing for them on the Orb Audio product pages. Given the fact that they have those Orb Audio stickers on them, I suspect they're showroom demo stands of some type.</em><br /><br /><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208144109.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 24: This is a HOSS Carpet Adaptor - sold for only $19 per pair, these heavy steel plates come with a user-applied rubber pad that the HOSS stand sits atop.</em><br /><br /><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208144118.usr1.jpg" /><br /><em>Figure 25: The HOSS Carpet Adaptor was the final piece on my Orb Audio setup - it added the stability that the HOSS Stands lacked on my carpet previously.<br /></em><br /><font size="4"><strong>What It All Comes Down To</strong></font><br />The modularity of the Orb Audio system is impressive - they link together so easily that you can go all the way up to their Mod4 system, which is a <a target="_blank" href="http://www.orbaudio.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=63">$2000+ package that has four Orb speakers</a> at each of the five channel points. The two-speaker channels have a great deal of volume; I can't imagine how much punch a four-channel system would have.<br /><br />When it's all said and done, the bottom line is that the Orb Audio speakers impressed me so much that I'm going to purchase my own set of these speakers. There's no higher recommendation I can give than to say that this is the product I personally want to use. The Orb Audio speakers are not only smaller than the Harman Kardon speakers I had before, they sound better, look better, and made me never want to set up the old system again. While the overall package can get a bit pricey if you need two pairs of their HOSS stands, if you're looking for a quality system - or an upgrade from that horrendously bad <a target="_blank" href="http://www.orbaudio.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=16">Home Theatre In-A-Box system</a> you might have - Orb Audio has a range of solutions at every price point that will allow you to enjoy movies, music, games in ways you never have before. And because their system is so modular, you can start with a minimal <a target="_blank" href="http://www.orbaudio.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2">Mod1 system</a> and as long as you get the right kind of stands or mounts, you can add more speakers to your system over time. That's a powerful advantage that I haven't seen in any retail speaker solution, and is the cherry on top of what is already a luscious mix of tasty audio.<br /><br /><em>Jason Dunn owns and operates <a target="_blank" href="http://www.thoughtsmedia.com">Thoughts Media Inc.</a>, a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys mobile devices, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. He wishes the Dell XPS M1330 he typed up this review on didn't get so damn hot.</em>