OVERVIEW
Our claim that the Orion is the finest phono preamp ever built is less audacious than it may seem. Its circuitry was designed by John Curl, widely considered the world's best phono preamp engineer. Its construction and parts quality far exceed those of any competing product. Of course, our claim can truly be verified only by the listener-but we are confident that all who hear the Orion will be moved by its depth, detail, and musicality.
Curl's past achievements include phono preamps for CTC, Mark Levinson, Parasound, SOTA, and Vendetta Research. In the Orion, he draws from our exclusive stock of the world's quietest FETs to achieve a noise level of just 0.4 nanovolts per square Hertz, approximately equal to the noise level of a single 10-ohm resistor. Completing Curl's fully balanced dual-mono circuit are metal-film Vishay resistors, custom-made polypropylene and Teflon capacitors, and internal cabling made from custom-extruded PCOCC wire drawn from a single copper crystal.
Because signal levels inside a phono preamp are so low, the circuits tend to be microphonic-they pick up external vibrations and emit them as audio signals, which causes distortion. To eliminate this effect, we have mechanically isolated the circuit boards to an unprecedented degree. The circuit boards are built on a “raft” composed of a pliable polymer layer sandwiched between thick sheets of stainless steel. The raft is attached to an elastomeric suspension designed to damp vibration. The surrounding chassis is milled from a solid billet of aluminum, with a wall thickness of 8.2mm to block all electromagnetic interference.To prevent the power supply's energy from disturbing the audio circuits, we enclose it in a separate chassis. Separate R-core power transformers for the left channel, the right channel, and the control circuitry are provided for complete intra-circuit isolation.
The included Pyxis touchscreen system controller accesses the Orion's adjustments, including source impedance and load capacitance. Each of the three inputs has its own settings memory.However, technical discussion cannot prepare you for the emotional experience of hearing
John Curl's engineering genius taken to such extraordinary levels of quality. Hearing the Orion
may well be the most profound musical experience of your life.
