Assessing the sound quality of any system—let alone an individual component—at a hi-fi show is nearly impossible. With unfamiliar rooms, components, and music selections, it’s difficult to determine much about any specific element. The only thing you can know for certain is whether the system sounds good at that moment. Nonetheless, we still attempt to compare systems, even in unfamiliar surroundings, by playing some of our favorite tracks as we move from room to room.
For the past year, Jason Thorpe has asked exhibitors to play the Tragically Hip’s “Fight” from Road Apples. He believes he can discern a great deal from this one track. Recently, I’ve gravitated toward Emmylou Harris’s “Orphan Girl” from Wrecking Ball, an album produced by Daniel Lanois. I favor this track because I’ve learned that different systems reproduce the high-frequency jangly sounds at the beginning, as well as the sound of Larry Mullen Jr.’s hand drum—prominent throughout—in markedly different ways. In fact, the disparities are often so pronounced that it’s hard to believe the track originates from the same mastering.
Although “Orphan Girl” sounded decent through some of the systems I heard at the Florida International Audio Expo 2025, most failed to impress me with their reproduction of this track. They simply didn’t match the performance of the Arendal 1528 Tower 8 and Treble Clef Audio TCA-M loudspeakers I use at home.
Then toward the end of the second day, I ventured into room 416—home to Orchard Audio and Soundfield Audio—where I encountered two surprising systems that rendered “Orphan Girl” better than most of the systems I had heard up to that point.
Based in Succasunna, New Jersey, Orchard Audio primarily manufactures electronics, but has recently ventured into cable production. Soundfield Audio, based in Tampa, Florida, was exhibiting on its home turf. The room featured two systems that could be switched quickly.
The larger of the two systems was built around a pair of Soundfield Audio 1212OB floorstanding loudspeakers, priced at $7500 per pair (all prices in USD). This four-way design features a planar tweeter positioned above a 12″ coaxial driver with a concentrically mounted ring-radiator tweeter. The “OB” in the model name stands for “open baffle,” meaning that the rearward waves from these drivers radiate behind the speakers and out into the room, as there is no cabinet enclosure. Below these drivers are two 12″ woofers housed in a sealed cabinet and powered by a 500W Hypex FusionAmp FA501 module. The upper section of the speakers was connected to two Orchard Audio Starkrimson Mono Ultra Premium amplifiers ($4999.90 per pair) via Orchard-made speaker cables ($305 per pair). Though rated to output 500W into 8 ohms, the Starkrimson amps are very small—they were placed atop the two speakers.
The smaller, more affordable system was based on a pair of Soundfield Audio Mini Monitor standmount speakers, priced at $1200 per pair. These speakers appear to be so new that I couldn’t find any information about them on the company’s website. However, I noted that they are compact, fully passive speakers featuring a ribbon tweeter above what looked like a 5.5″ midrange-woofer on the front baffle. The rear baffle houses two passive radiators, also appearing to be 5.5″ in diameter. These speakers were connected to a pair of Starkrimson Mono Premium amplifiers, rated at 150W into 8 ohms and priced at $2499.90 for the pair, with the same kind of speaker cables as the larger system. Both systems were fronted by an Orchard Audio PecanPi+ Streamer Premium ($1499.95).
The larger system was playing when we entered the room, and its performance was stunning—so impressive that I immediately requested “Orphan Girl.” The track was reproduced exceptionally well. The bass was deep, full, and impactful, as I believe it should be, while the highs were extended, easy to hear, and airy, much like they sound in my home. Emmylou Harris’s vocals sounded remarkably natural, which surprised me given that they were primarily reproduced by the large coaxial driver.
We then switched to the smaller system—and were stunned. As expected, the low bass was absent due to the speakers being so much smaller, considerably reducing the heft of Mullen Jr.’s drum. However, the highs were still clean, clear, and airy, and Harris’s vocals remained remarkably natural. Jason Thorpe, who was listening with me, suddenly turned and asked, “How much are these speakers?” When I told him the price, he blurted out (too loudly, but that’s Jason for you), “No fucking way!” He then quickly apologized to the others in the room.
Jason was so impressed that he requested Astor Piazzolla’s “Milonga del Ángel,” another of his favorite test tracks. He was blown away. I thought the system sounded excellent, albeit with limited low bass (because the speakers are so small), but still impressive. However, my primary focus was the ribbon tweeters, as ribbons are notorious for distorting when tasked with producing frequencies much below 3000Hz. These speakers sounded clean, leading me to believe that the Mini Monitor’s crossover frequency from the midrange-woofer to the tweeter is set fairly high.
After Jason’s track concluded, I wanted to return to the larger system and requested another staple from my test-track catalog: St. Vincent’s all-acoustic version of “Los Ageless” from MassEducation (the electronic version appears on her earlier album Masseduction). Once again, I was impressed with the system’s very natural, very full-range reproduction, though Jason found the sound a bit shouty at high volume levels.
Ultimately, we left the with differing opinions—I preferred the larger system for its natural sound, but still liked the smaller one, while Jason preferred the smaller system for its overachieving sound, but still liked the larger one. Regardless, we both walked away deeply impressed with these two systems by Orchard Audio and Soundfield Audio, even if we didn’t quite agree on which was better. Such is the way with hi-fi.
Doug Schneider
Founder, SoundStage!
