Spheres are cool. Just look at the Death Star--I mean, who wouldn't want five of those in your home theater room? Well, the people at Orb Audio must be huge Star Wars fans (or have some other fascination with spheres) because their Mod1 system is made up entirely of spherical speakers, except the subwoofer.

Orb Audio isn't the only company making round speakers, but their philosophy for the little balls blends an aversion to samey home theater-in-a-box systems with an affinity for small speaker packages that sound bigger than they are. Each satellite speaker contains a full-range 3-inch driver housed in a 4-3/16 inch steel sphere. They're rated to handle 110 watts of power and have gold-plated spring-style binding posts that will work with bare wire (but only up to 14 gauge). Internally, the system uses neodymium magnets and is wired with oxygen free cable. More than that, the way Orb Audio manufactures their speakers insures the systems can be "upgraded" by adding more drivers. You simply add on another Orb to each speaker position and you suddenly have a Mod2 system (Get it? It goes up to Mod4.) The larger the room, the more drivers you'll need to fill it with adequate sound.

We fired up our home theater system and were instantly amazed at how low these little spheres played. They tout a frequency response that goes down to 80 Hz. At times we had to walk around to see whether the sound was coming from the round speakers or the 200 watt Super Eight 8-inch subwoofer. Most of the time it was the satellites providing the low end we were hearing, while the sub supplemented with subsonic bass. It was amazing to actually configure the crossover on a system this small to 80Hz. (100Hz is also fine, depending upon your room.)

From our medium-sized room, the Mod system did remarkably well--though once we really cranked up the volume, we quickly realized a Mod 2 system would have been better suited to the task. Still, the speakers produced well-defined, clean, articulate sound. In listening to stereo music each instrument was clearly defined and the soundstage was pristine--we could easily pick out the position of each instrument. When cranking up the movies, the Mod1 system didn't budge, and we found ourselves experiencing a system that blew away the traditional home theater-in-a-box concept. Experiencing a system like this will absolutely ruin your ability to go into a big box store and walk out with an all-in-one speaker system for under $1000.

After spending a lot of time with the Orb Audio system, we really felt that this relatively inexpensive system is something everyone should consider. From music to movies, it really performed well and provided an experience 10x bigger than the little spheres which make up the system.

Pros: Excellent imaging; available in black, white, steel, copper, or bronze; big sound from small size
Cons: Proprietary mounting method, unconventional wiring posts

Warranty
5 years, all other parts; 1 year, subwoofer