Very often in this modern hectic world we don’t really listen to music. We may have it on but is background whilst we busy ourselves doing something else. It is high testament to the British designed Orbitsound T12v3 Soundbar that it made me stop and truly listen.
It wasn’t always like that however. When I first unpacked the box, took out the 2ft long shiny speaker-bar, the accompanying tall and shiny passive subwoofer and then plugged them in, the sound was anything other than enthralling. Very thin with overpowering bass it was like the soundstage was non-existent. Knowing audio equipment sometimes like to warm up I left it for a while which turned into a couple of days and then suddenly magic happened. It was a revelation the sound just opened up with a clarity and definition I just would not expect from a sub £300 system. Now I may have been unlucky with my system that it took this long, Orbitsound says any warming up should be very short, but it was certainly worth the wait.
This is not your ordinary speaker-bar. Most speaker bars are designed for movie playback and either use clever projection technology to bounce sound off walls to produce a surround sound field or use some form of psycho-acoustics to fool the listener into thinking there is surround. The Orbitsound does not try to offer 5.1 sound instead just looking to produce fantastic stereo. Indeed the Orbitsound does not even provide any form of on-board Dolby or DTS decoding. Send encoded output to it and all you will get is hiss. You can send a PCM signal over SP/DIF Toslink but it does not have HDMI.
What it does have is a solution to a problem that bugs many home audio systems – the limited sweet-spot. Most traditional stereo systems only sound perfect in one sitting position. Move away form that position and you have to adjust the balance to avoid being blasted by one speaker or the other. Most sound-bars also suffer from this issue as well. The Orbitsound is very different and provides what might be called an unlimited sweet-spot.
Unlike conventional speaker arrays which have distinct left and right speakers, all of the speakers on the front of the Orbitsound are effectively mono. There are two speaker ports on each end of the bar which produce the magic that convinces you that the sound from the front speakers is effectively stereo and does so, amazingly, wherever you are in the room. Cover these panels up and, well, the magic is gone.
What is also noticeable is that the volume level is pretty consistent no matter where you are in the room with little drop-off.
In many ways this makes the Orbitsound brilliant as a replacement for a conventional TV speaker especially in a family watching situation. No matter where anyone is seated they will hear the same clear and well formed stereo image. The clarity and precision of the audio also makes hearing dialogue very easy.
I was pleasantly surprised how the Orbitsound handled movies. Despite not having any form of surround being reproduced, the soundtracks were very engaging . Explosions resonated whilst quiet dialogue was noticeably clear.
With music the Orbitsound proved excellent. Treble – although the frequency response did top out at around 16K – and midrange response were excellent and precise . The lack of a specific sweet-spot meaning it was perfect for party type situations. I wasn’t totally happy at first with the subwoofer which was at times a little overpowering but taking it a notch or two back from the almost credit card sized remote sorted this. This brings me to my main area of complaint. There is incredibly little user feedback on the Orbitsound – only an on/off light which flashes when an infrared signal is received – and it is very difficult to work out what setting you have the bass, treble or volume at. This is made way worse by the fact that the Orbitsound loses its settings when turned off at the mains. This meant I tended to leave it in standby mode.
The controls are also not very precise with each press on the controller bringing quite large jumps. I would like to see this improved.
Having said that the audio quality makes up for this. Whilst it may not compete with expensive high-end audio systems, and it certainly isn’t intended to play HD audio, it is better than anything I have tested at this price range. It definitely gives every other iPod dock I have tried a pasting – yes, the Orbitsound is also an iPod and iPhone, although not iPad, dock. The dock works well with the remote control being able to access the iPod menus and select tracks, play, skip and pause. It can also send iPod video out through composite video.
Playing compressed music was interesting with poor bitrates definitely being shown up. I think this was emphasised by the Orbitsound spatial stereo technology which seems to really not like low-bitrate audio. Although it might be that the clarity of the speaker-bar was just really showing them up.
Whilst I am on bitrates I should note that the Optical input doesn’t handle high sampling rates and whilst Redbook CD and DVD playback is going to be fine anything over 48Khz isn’t going to play.
One other nice thing with this technology is that the speaker bar doesn’t have to be placed directly under the TV as again you do not have to worry about the sweet-spot. Having said I did find in blind testing I could always locate where the speaker was placed but as long as it was not too far from where I perceived the source should be it was not noticeable in a real-world environment. I tried the same trick with a Denon sound-bar and found it totally disturbing placed even a few inches away.
For the fashion conscious the speaker grill can also be replaced by a variety of other coloured options.
So is the Orbitsound any good? Much like the music it plays the answer is resounding: yes. There are a few foibles I would like resolved and I was certainly concerned by the initial results before the warm in but as I said in the introduction it actually made me want to listen to music and that has to be a good thing. The best thing you can say about any review unit is that you will be sad to send it back and I most certainly will.
Controls, rotary digital volume control (on rear of soundbar), sequential input selection by pressing volume control. All functions available on remote control plus full control of iPod/iPhone.
Frequency range +/- 3dB [Hz] 40 – 16K
Maximum SPL [dB] 96dBA
Amp. power [Watts at 0.1% dist.] 80 + 50 + 50 Watts
Total power output [RMS] 180W
Crossover frequencies [Hz] 160/5,000
Loudspeaker Drivers:
Soundbar (main) – 2 x 1” m/c, 4 x 2.5 “
Soundbar (spatial array) – 2 x 2” full-range
Subwoofer – Tuned reflex with 1 x 6.5” woofer
Connection input(s)
Stereo line level -10dBu on 2xRCA Phono
Stereo line level -10dBu on 3.5mm jack
Digital stere0 optical (TOSLINK).
iPod / iPhone dock
Connection outputs 2 X RCA composite video
Dimensions (H x W x D) [mm]
Soundbar – 100 x 605 x 110 mm
Subwoofer – 460 x 230 x 230 mm
Power consumption
Standby, 2.3 watts.
Idle, 5.6 watts
Weight [kg/lb] 8/18
Package contents: Soundbar, Subwoofer, inline AC power supply, 1 metre fibre-optic connecting cable, phono (RCA) and 3.5mm connection cables, subwoofer connection cable, iPod adaptors, remote control, handbook.
{"id":null,"mode":"button","open_style":"in_place","currency_code":"GBP","currency_symbol":"\u00a3","currency_type":"decimal","blank_flag_url":"https:\/\/thedigitallifestyle.com\/w\/wp-content\/plugins\/tip-jar-wp\/\/assets\/images\/flags\/blank.gif","flag_sprite_url":"https:\/\/thedigitallifestyle.com\/w\/wp-content\/plugins\/tip-jar-wp\/\/assets\/images\/flags\/flags.png","default_amount":500,"top_media_type":"none","featured_image_url":false,"featured_embed":"","header_media":null,"file_download_attachment_data":null,"recurring_options_enabled":true,"recurring_options":{"never":{"selected":true,"after_output":"One time only"},"weekly":{"selected":false,"after_output":"Every week"},"monthly":{"selected":false,"after_output":"Every month"},"yearly":{"selected":false,"after_output":"Every year"}},"strings":{"current_user_email":"","current_user_name":"","link_text":"Leave a tip","complete_payment_button_error_text":"Check info and try again","payment_verb":"Pay","payment_request_label":"TheDigitalLifestyle.com","form_has_an_error":"Please check and fix the errors above","general_server_error":"Something isn't working right at the moment. Please try again.","form_title":"TheDigitalLifestyle.com","form_subtitle":null,"currency_search_text":"Country or Currency here","other_payment_option":"Other payment option","manage_payments_button_text":"Manage your payments","thank_you_message":"Thank you for being a supporter!","payment_confirmation_title":"TheDigitalLifestyle.com","receipt_title":"Your Receipt","print_receipt":"Print Receipt","email_receipt":"Email Receipt","email_receipt_sending":"Sending receipt...","email_receipt_success":"Email receipt successfully sent","email_receipt_failed":"Email receipt failed to send. Please try again.","receipt_payee":"Paid to","receipt_statement_descriptor":"This will show up on your statement as","receipt_date":"Date","receipt_transaction_id":"Transaction ID","receipt_transaction_amount":"Amount","refund_payer":"Refund from","login":"Log in to manage your payments","manage_payments":"Manage Payments","transactions_title":"Your Transactions","transaction_title":"Transaction Receipt","transaction_period":"Plan Period","arrangements_title":"Your Plans","arrangement_title":"Manage Plan","arrangement_details":"Plan Details","arrangement_id_title":"Plan ID","arrangement_payment_method_title":"Payment Method","arrangement_amount_title":"Plan Amount","arrangement_renewal_title":"Next renewal date","arrangement_action_cancel":"Cancel Plan","arrangement_action_cant_cancel":"Cancelling is currently not available.","arrangement_action_cancel_double":"Are you sure you'd like to cancel?","arrangement_cancelling":"Cancelling Plan...","arrangement_cancelled":"Plan Cancelled","arrangement_failed_to_cancel":"Failed to cancel plan","back_to_plans":"\u2190 Back to Plans","update_payment_method_verb":"Update","sca_auth_description":"Your have a pending renewal payment which requires authorization.","sca_auth_verb":"Authorize renewal payment","sca_authing_verb":"Authorizing payment","sca_authed_verb":"Payment successfully authorized!","sca_auth_failed":"Unable to authorize! Please try again.","login_button_text":"Log in","login_form_has_an_error":"Please check and fix the errors above","uppercase_search":"Search","lowercase_search":"search","uppercase_page":"Page","lowercase_page":"page","uppercase_items":"Items","lowercase_items":"items","uppercase_per":"Per","lowercase_per":"per","uppercase_of":"Of","lowercase_of":"of","back":"Back to plans","zip_code_placeholder":"Zip\/Postal Code","download_file_button_text":"Download File","input_field_instructions":{"tip_amount":{"placeholder_text":"How much would you like to tip?","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"How much would you like to tip? Choose any currency."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"How much would you like to tip? Choose any currency."},"invalid_curency":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Please choose a valid currency."}},"recurring":{"placeholder_text":"Recurring","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"How often would you like to give this?"},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"How often would you like to give this?"},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"How often would you like to give this?"}},"name":{"placeholder_text":"Name on Credit Card","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter the name on your card."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Enter the name on your card."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Please enter the name on your card."}},"privacy_policy":{"terms_title":"Terms and conditions","terms_body":null,"terms_show_text":"View Terms","terms_hide_text":"Hide Terms","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"I agree to the terms."},"unchecked":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Please agree to the terms."},"checked":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"I agree to the terms."}},"email":{"placeholder_text":"Your email address","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your email address"},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Enter your email address"},"blank":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your email address"},"not_an_email_address":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Make sure you have entered a valid email address"}},"note_with_tip":{"placeholder_text":"Your note here...","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Attach a note to your tip (optional)"},"empty":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Attach a note to your tip (optional)"},"not_empty_initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Attach a note to your tip (optional)"},"saving":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Saving note..."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Note successfully saved!"},"error":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Unable to save note note at this time. Please try again."}},"email_for_login_code":{"placeholder_text":"Your email address","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."},"blank":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."}},"login_code":{"initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."},"blank":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."}},"stripe_all_in_one":{"initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your credit card details here."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your credit card details here."},"success":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your credit card details here."},"invalid_number":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card number is not a valid credit card number."},"invalid_expiry_month":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration month is invalid."},"invalid_expiry_year":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration year is invalid."},"invalid_cvc":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's security code is invalid."},"incorrect_number":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card number is incorrect."},"incomplete_number":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card number is incomplete."},"incomplete_cvc":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's security code is incomplete."},"incomplete_expiry":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration date is incomplete."},"incomplete_zip":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's zip code is incomplete."},"expired_card":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card has expired."},"incorrect_cvc":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's security code is incorrect."},"incorrect_zip":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's zip code failed validation."},"invalid_expiry_year_past":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration year is in the past"},"card_declined":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card was declined."},"missing":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"There is no card on a customer that is being charged."},"processing_error":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"An error occurred while processing the card."},"invalid_request_error":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Unable to process this payment, please try again or use alternative method."},"invalid_sofort_country":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The billing country is not accepted by SOFORT. Please try another country."}}}},"fetched_oembed_html":false}