Floorstanding loudspeakers — Audes Llc. Reference Orpheus

Audes, the Estonian manufacturer in Johvi, places the three-way Orpheus floorstander in its Reference series. The Reference line currently lists the Orpheus, the Orpheus CS and the compact System7, and Audes presents the Orpheus as the model that gathers its accumulated knowledge of loudspeaker design. Its most visible feature is a cabinet shaped as a truncated pyramid with decorative side panels.

Key specs that matter

The side of the cabinet carries a 10 inch Audes woofer with a paper cone, produced in-house. A 6.5 inch paper cone mid-woofer, also an in-house Audes unit and fitted with a phase correction system, works up to a 1 inch fabric dome tweeter, a SEAS Millennium. The crossover points are 150 Hz and 1,800 Hz. The woofer section uses a first-order filter, the mid-woofer first and third-order slopes, and the tweeter a third-order slope. Frequency range is 41 Hz to 20,000 Hz within plus or minus 2 dB, with the 6 dB point at 34 Hz. Sensitivity is 87 dB for 2.83 V at 1 m, nominal impedance is 6 ohm, and Audes recommends between 50 W and 260 W of amplifier power. The speaker is 1,140 mm high, 374 mm wide and 570 mm deep and weighs 65 kg.

Engineering and use context

Because the pyramid has no parallel walls, Audes says pronounced internal resonances are avoided. The MDF-based enclosure has 25 mm walls and a complex system of internal braces, and the side panels, finished in rare wood veneer, add stiffness to the structure. The woofer was moved to the side so that the front baffle could stay narrow. The tweeter sits in its own separate vibration-absorbing housing, and the mid-high crossover is enclosed in an isolated chamber that is reached through the back panel, with point-to-point soldering between all of its parts. The bass driver has a handmade cone, a strong magnet and a rigid die-cast aluminium basket. Plugs for the twin ports allow several tuning options, including a fully sealed mode intended for valve amplifiers with a low output impedance of about 2 ohm. In that sealed setting the range becomes 44 Hz to 20,000 Hz and the 6 dB point moves to 38 Hz. The crossover uses Mundorf M-Cap Supreme capacitors, and the binding posts are by Cardas. Adjustable floor spikes are supplied, and finishes are made to special order, with burl wood options such as ash black, brown shade and deep orange-red.

Pairing

The wide recommended power window and the moderate nominal impedance let the Orpheus work with both transistor amplifiers and valve designs, and the sealed port option exists specifically for the latter.

Alternatives

The Audes Grand Blues is a five-driver floorstander from the Credo line, standing 1,565 mm tall and weighing 60 kg with two 8 inch woofers.