I have lived with the Oris 150's for about 2 months. Although I do not have the extended audio vocabulary or experience with listening to all types of speakers, I will give you my impressions. They lived in my basement for 6 weeks while they were tested and tweaked. They were mated with the Onken subs which were driven by an old rebuilt Carver amp (100 w/) with good damping with the signal processed through a Marchant xover network. The horns (with PM4As) were driven by Baby 2A3 Ongakus (ala Sound Practices)and a solid state preamp during the week, and then on weekends, I would bring the Wright 2A3s home with the Wright Preamp ( a vast improvement in power and, to good extent, quality of sound).

First a brief history. In 1996 I got bitten by the Lowther bug and bought a pair of PM6As and built a pair of Mauhorns around them. If put in the right place in the room they sounded great with all the usual audio accolades. But , because my wife didn't like the looks (too big), they were then transferred to my dental office as an anti-white knuckle device. As it turns out, that is where I spend most of my time listening to music. Then last year the Hedlunds appeared (a DIY version of Carfrae) so I built a pair (DX3s) and fired them up with brand new Wrights. Physically, they were much less deep and fit into my operatory more easily. And they sounded entirely better--more crisp and with a more consistent and deeper base. But because of my hereditary affliction, I needed more.

Back to the basement. By the way each succeeding speaker project was more radically rejected by my wife--to the point were I was lucky to have her let me pass the Oris 150's through the mudroom on the way to the office. And thank goodness they ARE in the office because I found myself sitting in the sweet spot for hours on and listening over and over again to the same discs--thoroughly involved. I never got any work done at home. These speakers are VERY involving whether jazz, rock, dainty classical or power classics. There are no limitations. It handles them all well--particularly the discs that are well recorded.

Back to the office. The unique feature, which may be bad in some instances, is that the sweet spot is small. Carefully my staff and I set up the speakers so that they were aimed directly at a patient's ear. And it did not matter where in the room they were set so long as they were equidistant and aimed directly at the ears. In the other operatories we could all still hear the music at low levels--and with bass that was still very satisfying even at low levels. The patient on the other hand, heard volumes that were about double of what the rest of us heard and it seemed to block out all other noises or at least reduce them greatly--almost like wearing a set of earphones. They have been in the office for a short week an already I have seen a remarkable change in patient behavior, almost as if they were in a trance. Even in my position, as the operator, I do not hear the same thing as the patient: the sweet spot is THAT small. But it still sounds outstandingly. Downside? I want to sit in my own chair! In fact I will not leave the office until I have heard at least two cuts sitting in my own chair.

The window for listening may be narrow laterally, but it is rather deep. So You could sit behind your wife and hear virtually the same thing, in fact listeners could be three deep and do well for listening. You could even face each other on the sweet spot line if you needed to be social while listening.

Overall impressions? A little intimidating to look at. The bass is still a little muddy compared to the horns, but having been in many High-End salons and heard some great systems, there is nothing I have heard that is this good and this cheap!--actually at any price.

Is the search over? Of course not. There are live performances to seek...