Mod4 - Design, Build Quality and Setup

I like big speakers. In fact, I often make fun of people who prefer smaller speakers due to the reluctance of their significant others or just a reluctance to have anything actually stand out in their otherwise pristine home. Drives me crazy. After all, this is home audio, a domain where you should try as much as possible to recreate a live music performance or the effect of going to a nice movie theater. With most small speakers it's difficult to achieve that realistically. Often you're simply left with a nice looking system that, if it's lucky, impresses the neophytes and delivers a big "ho-hum" to those who know better. When Orb Audio announced its new Mod4 speaker system I felt compelled to finally listen to these spherical trinkets and satisfy my own curiosity. After all, our resident critic, Tom Andry gave the Mod2 system 4 stars back in 2005.

Ask around (online at least) and you'll likely find a whole group of people dedicated to the art of the spherical speaker design. While only a few commercial entities manufacture this type of enclosure, the design is widely accepted as a sound method (pun intended of course) of reducing troublesome acoustic diffraction issues that are common in enclosures with corners. The science is certainly up for debate but I, for one, am glad there is more than one way to make a loudspeaker. If not, the world would be full of identical boxes.

Build Quality & Setup

We anxiously unpacked the boxes which contained the Orb Audio speakers. Each was carefully secured in form-fitting foam which ensured safe passage across the country. Each speaker came in a beautiful Bronze finish that really looked awesome - and unlike anything I'd ever seen in a home theater room. If it's a choice between black or white plastic cubes or a metallic sphere (available in Black, White, Steel, Copper, Bronze...) I know which one I'd pick every time. Orb Audio was kind enough to send us a loaner kit which included one of each of the colors available in the line (our system was in Bronze and so we didn't photograph that here).

Our review system was comprised of a set of Mod4s for the front and center channels and Mod2s for the surrounds. The Mod1 speakers (a Mod 2 system is essentially two Mod1, and a Mod 4 system is just 4 of the little spheres - you catching on?) are quite weighty. They actually have some serious heft to them, coming in at around 2 pounds each. While that doesn't sound like much, go ahead and pick up those little golf ball-sized speakers they sell in big box stores sometime and compare. Two pounds will feel like a hundred next to a $5 driver surrounded by a teaspoon of plastic. I continued my inspection and noted the push-pin style binding posts which can accept up to 14 gauge wire. I'm not a big fan of these connectors, but I understand Orb Audio's use of them considering their series/parallel methodology for adding more speakers into a system. These are certainly better than the spring-clip style of connectors found on most home theater in-a-box systems, and it makes connecting cables to these drivers quite easy.

Our 5.1 system was capped off with the aptly-named Uber Ten 10-inch front-firing, bottom-ported subwoofer. This sub was small enough to be positioned just about anywhere, but certainly wasn't a toy. You could feel that it was a serious product when you picked it up and I found it to be extremely easy to work with. It features a fully variable crossover and speaker level inputs and outputs, so you can use the sub to crossover satellite speakers (fixed at 80Hz) when your receiver doesn't have variable or adequate bass management (think integrated amplifiers or legacy systems). I liked the Auto sensing switch on the back as I prefer those to systems which are always On or Off. In a comical moment I realized that the Uber Ten sub's volume actually goes to 11. Well it's one louder then, isn't it? The sub sells for $699 on its own but only $538 when packaged - a bit more reasonable given the competition and features. When ordering a system, Orb Audio additionally gives you an option to upgrade from a Super Eight sub to the Uber Ten sub for $299 (which is the difference between the selling price of the two subs) when ordering a full (2.1 or 5.1) system.

The Uber Ten is ready for just about anything.

Rounding out the unit is a fully variable phase control which goes from 0-180 and a removable power cord (2-prong thank goodness, so it almost instantly eliminates the most common ground loop issues). The sub has a single line level input, not stereo, which means you'll have to pick a side or use a Y-cable when integrating it into the preamp outs of an integrated amplifier. It's a textured black enclosure that has a stand-off round speaker grill. While the sub looks fine, it looks completely out of place with the rest of the system. How Orb Audio can make such a great looking set of speakers and settle for a Plain Jane sub is beyond me.

Because we opted to use the HOSS (short for "hunk of solid steel") floor stands to mount both the Mod4 fronts and the Mod2 surrounds, we had to do some MODifications... OK, one more pun and I'm throwing myself off this review. This involved reconfiguring the speakers so that they attached directly to the HOSS stands instead of being ready for wall-mounting. It sounds simple, but you actually had to unseat each Mod4 speaker from the center pole it was pre-attached to and then re-attach the speaker to the HOSS stands via a bracket that spanned both posts. It took us a while, but eventually we had everything ready to go. One thing that would have been nice was some instructions. Orb Audio forgot to include those in the packaging so we fumbled around for a while before we broke down and pulled up the website.

As for the HOSS stands, those were easy to assemble using a flat head screwdriver (seriously, who uses those anymore?) We also found out that our standard 12/2 speaker cables weren't exactly the best choice for this rig. If you're using larger cables, you'll likely need to split them and run one wire up each hollow tube. If you follow Orb Audio's lead, you'll stick to thinner 16 gauge cables and try to locate them in black to help them conceal when they pop out the top and bend back down towards the binding posts. All-in-all it could be easier, but it's not a stopping point or anything that would dissuade me from buying them.